General Motor Buana may raise Opel car prices

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian arm of American automotive giant General Motors has bowed to economic pressure and decided to raise its car prices.

President Director of PT General Motors Buana Indonesia (GMBI), William Botwick, told The Jakarta Post yesterday that current prices could only be guaranteed until the end of the week.

GMBI currently sells three Opel models, the Blazer sport- utility vehicle, the small Optima sedan and the larger Vectra.

Botwick said: "If I were an Indonesian consumer thinking of buying a Blazer, I would buy it now as they will get more expensive."

But he declined to say when, or by how much, prices would rise.

"Until now, we have been able to hold our prices but we have faced extreme pressure and competition, and I don't know how much longer we can hold them.

"It depends on what happens in the next weeks and months (as to how much and how often they increase)."

All automotive companies, particularly those that import the majority of their components, have been hit hard by the rupiah's depreciation in the last six weeks.

Other companies, including Astra and Indomobil, have already announced price rises of as much as 7 percent for some models.

GMBI's marketing director, Terry Johnson, said that while the company's vehicle prices were generally market driven, the Blazer was slightly different.

"We end up driving the sport-utility prices because we've created a unique market, somewhere in between the luxury jeep and the traditional Asian utility vehicle.

"It's one of the fastest growing segments in Indonesia and from that standpoint we've set the pace."

Blazers currently range in price from Rp 65 million (US$25,000) for the SLi model to Rp 82 million for the LT.

Botwick said about 45 percent of the Blazer, GMBI's flagship vehicle, was made from local components and if the economic turmoil continued he would aim to increase that significantly.

"We do not have any specific target level for localization of components. But assumptions have changed and so (by the end of next year) the local content level will probably be higher than if you had asked me three months ago," he said. (jea)