“We know that a lot of Bahamians are getting vehicles direct from Japan, but The United States is still dominating the market in terms of both new and used vehicles,” said Assistant Director of Statistics, Nerissa Gibson.
According to the department, the value of imported automobiles showed an increase of 9.5% from $140 million in 2004 to $153 million in 2005.
However, former president of the Bahamas Motor Dealers Association Fred Albury explained that vehicles and parts that are imported from the U.S. into The Bahamas are actually from other countries.
“The majority of the vehicles, in the associationﾒs opinion, are coming from Japan,” he said. “There are also a lot of companies going global. Cars are also coming from Korea and Toyota [cars] are being built in Brazil and Thailand.”
The foreign trade figures are derived from customs forms filled out at airports and shipping companies.
“It all depends on how these vehicles are entered into the customs department,” Mr. Albury explained.
Mr. Albury, who is also the president and proprietor of Executive Motors, said that since Toyota automobiles are Japanese made, very little of them are imported from the U.S.
“They do have a production base in the United States and we do import some units from the U.S, but very few,” he said. “Ninety-five percent of what we import is coming from Japan, Thailand and Brazil.”
Tommy Kemp, sales manager at Bahamas Bus and Truck shared Mr. Alburyﾒs sentiments. He said that his company has seen the market trend of used vehicles rapidly moving from American to Japanese choices.
“In the new cars I would say that the American cars are definitely dominating,” he said. “But because of the prices of used [Japanese] cars, people are definitely swinging to that market.”
He also explained local consumers appear to prefer such models.
“Fuel efficiency is the main reason,” he said. “American cars usually use more fuel than Japanese ones.”
Sidney Fox of Sanpin Motors predicted that the market for American cars in The Bahamas would not last very long in the coming years.
“There are not enough people running to the states to dominate or to hurt car sales,” he said. “The Japanese right-hand drive cars are what people are into.”
By: Kendea Jones, The Bahama Journal
