Guangzhou Toyota allows dealers to set car prices

Shanghai, July 24 (Gasgoo.com) In compliance with the anti-monopoly law that will take effect on August 1, Guangzhou Toyota announced yesterday its decision to lift the ban on the prices of its vehicles in their dealerships, allowing the dealers to adjust the vehicle price according to the market, said auto.sina.com today.

Article 14 of the upcoming anti-monopoly law stipulates that it constitutes a monopolistic deal to fix the price, or fix the lowest price, of goods for resale, and this behavior will be fined. This stipulation will give dealers of goods the rights to decide by themselves the prices of their items for resale or retail. China is to enforce the anti-monopoly law as from August 1, 2008.

Previously, it was a common practice in the auto market for the carmaker to set the price range of its vehicles for resale by the dealer and if the dealer who resells the vehicle at a price above the upper limit or below the lower limit will have to pay financial penalties or stop the dealership for a period of time.

After lifting the price ban, Guangzhou Toyota will not interfere any more with its dealers in raising or reducing the prices of its vehicles. An industry expert said that this new measure will allow dealers to decide the vehicle prices according to the market demand and will speed up the sales of vehicles.

Some dealers of Guangzhou Toyota's vehicles have already begun to mark down the prices. In their sales promotion, the Camry models have been marked down by an average of about 16,000 yuan ($2,350) off the 197,800 yuan to 269,800 yuan price range previously set by the carmaker.