SHAS­TRI BOODAN

There is grow­ing con­cerns that come 2021, many per­sons may not be able to af­ford a for­eign used car far less a new one, be­cause of the re­moval of al­lowances on ve­hi­cles an­nounced in the 2020-2021 Bud­get.

Cou­pled with pos­si­ble in­creas­es in gas prices in the new year, many are in a quandary as to how much it would cost them to get to and from to work, in or­der to get monies to pay tax­es, rent, mort­gages and oth­er ex­pens­es.

There may a small flick­er of light at the end of the tun­nel. Mo­tor­cy­cles un­der 300cc were spared ad­di­tion­al tax­es and should re­main af­ford­able.

Guardian Me­dia spoke with Damien Richards, who works with Hero Mo­tor­cy­cles, a Port of Spain deal­er in new mo­tor­cy­cles, as well as Rafeez Mo­hammed of RAF Mo­tor­sports of Cou­va, who deals in for­eign used mo­tor­cy­cles.

Rafeez Mo­hammed said the main down­fall in im­port­ing bikes is the short­age of for­eign ex­change.

“The price of fu­el is al­ways es­ca­lat­ing and con­sumers had a break when it came to Hy­brids and Elec­tric ve­hi­cles,” he points out. “But these ve­hi­cles are now over $100,000 and in an un­sta­ble eco­nom­ic cli­mate, to dish out that amount of cash or take a loan would be un­wise.”

Mo­hammed be­lieves there may be an uptick in those who may con­sid­er pur­chas­ing a mo­tor­cy­cle.

“The cheap­est for­eign used mo­tor­cy­cle can start in the up­per $20,000 range and go high­er, de­pend­ing on what the con­sumer wants,” he ex­plains. “I deal in Japan­ese mo­tor­cy­cles since these are the best and parts are easy to source. A 250cc mo­tor­cy­cle would use con­sid­er­ably less gas than a car. The down­side is the rain and bad roads.”

He adds: “I do see many peo­ple who live with­in a few kilo­me­tres of their place of work turn­ing to mo­tor­cy­cles and mo­tor-scoot­ers. While these bikes have a lim­it­ed pas­sen­ger car­ry­ing ca­pac­i­ty, they are easy to park and easy to re­pair. And bikes made in Japan and In­dia are more durable.”

Damien Richards told Guardian Me­dia that Hero Mo­tor­cy­cles came on the mar­ket in 2018 in T&T and af­ter ini­tial­ly slow sales, busi­ness picked up last year.

“Hero scoot­ers start at around $12,000 and the com­pa­ny of­fers a lay away plan,” Richards said. “I think we may sell more bikes in 2021 as times get hard­er.”

Richards said the mo­tor cy­cle is one of the ma­jor forms of trans­port in de­vel­op­ing coun­tries where peo­ple have adapt­ed to it as the ma­jor form of trans­port, es­pe­cial­ly in Asia.

Both Mo­hammed and Richards not­ed that the Po­lice Ser­vice was giv­ing free rid­ing lessons at VM­COTT in Port of Spain on Sat­ur­days, through its Law En­force­ment Bik­ers Rid­ing School.

“In ad­di­tion, we at Hero have part­nered with the Po­lice Ser­vice to en­sure rid­ers stay safe,” Richards added.

How­ev­er, Visham Bab­wah, the head of the T&T Au­to­mo­tive Deal­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTA­DA) said he does not ex­pect any large sales of mo­tor­cy­cles in the short term.

“T&T has a car cul­ture,” he said. “Peo­ple want cars. Un­less the price of gas be­comes so ex­or­bi­tant, then mo­torists would seek out mo­tor­bikes.”

He added: “There is so much to con­sid­er when pur­chas­ing a mo­tor­bike—the roads are in a poor state, and there are a num­ber of reck­less dri­vers who speed and op­er­ate with­out due care and at­ten­tion and fail to look out for mo­tor­bike rid­ers.”

Bab­wah said TTA­DA was await­ing word from the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance to dis­cuss the im­por­ta­tion of elec­tric and hy­brid cars through to De­cem­ber 2020.