Iran's SAIPA Car Company Still Has Pride!

Iran’s second largest auto manufacturer and its subsidiaries say they produced 457,967 vehicles during the first ten months of the current fiscal year that ends in March.

The automotive group -- which includes SAIPA, Pars Khodro, Zamyad and SAIPA Diesel -- sold 440,757 units during the ten-month period, the local auto website Asre Khodro reported on January 29.

The report said during the period the four companies earned 120 trillion rials ($3.1 billion) in overall revenue. SAIPA had the biggest share of this income with 67% followed by Pars Khodro with 26%, Zamyad 4% and SAIPA Diesel 3%.

SAIPA’s X100 platform better known as the Pride and whose quality is long under a question mark, continued to lead in overall production with 233,867 units produced and 232,225 units sold during the ten months.

Meanwhile the company's range of non-SAIPA originated vehicles increased over the past few months with the Chinese-derived Brilliance model coming in second in terms of output. Over the ten months SAIPA assembled 8,427 vehicles and sold just under that number with 8,138 orders from its official dealerships. 

>Pride Replacements Available, Not Coming Soon

Prior to the latest production numbers, SAIPA chief Mehdi Jamali hinted his company was willing to retire the infamous low-cost Pride model – with caveats. 

According to reports from the Isfahan Motor Show last week, he said the company had designed new models which would potentially replace the ageing Pride. 

But, like previous statements, he added that it is unlikely that the entire replacements would be made anytime soon.  

Jamali noted that cars made on the X200 platform, such as Tiba and Saina, are potential replacements for the Pride. 

The automatic version of Saina will be released in the market by the end of the current fiscal year, ISNA quoted him as saying.

There are no specific production numbers for the Saina as it is the same platform of Tiba that was released earlier.   

"The price of these cars is about 20% higher than the Pride as they have more diverse options," he said. 

Though SAIPA has manufactured the replacement models it is still in the process of making improvements on the Pride. Jamali did not elaborate on what possible changes SAIPA could make to the Pride whose performance and after-sales service has attracted immense criticism from buyers. 

One alteration to 20-year-old model was the pick-up variant developed in 2014.  

"Demand for Pride has increased by 8% compared to last year and this shows that this car is still popular." 

What the CEO should have been reminded of is that fact that the lower and middle class households -- the main customers of Pride – have not other alternative in the same price range. At a little over $4000 a piece, the car is the cheapest that is available in the local market.