Agreed.

Not only that, they have also maintained the lack of knowledge of the people. The less people know the better for them. Like we have seen, the used car imports really got the local companies to up their game because the people saw the very stark difference between the local stripped out crap and the imported cars. Now that they have got the imports pretty such stopped, we are back to what ever these guys sell.

And our news media is not doing the bad situation any favors. The question you pointed to should have been asked. Alas, with the power these local companies have, that was/is only a pipe dream. Case in point the certain local auto media/s that I gave an example of. This news broke a few days ago. Till date, not a single word from them on how Honda handled this situation or simply to question whether this was the right way for Honda to handle this situation given the restrictions. Not a word! They are all quite like good little boys. 🤦‍♂️😡 They won’t bite the hand that feeds them.

There is rarely any actual images of the car taken on the road or on display. What they have is the basic product display images of the car photo manipulated terribly onto a stock image of a road, or a background. The perspectives are so off, the image of the HR-V and the guy with sunglasses walking off from it looks so damn terrible and wrong, it’s as if it was made by a child with Photoshop installed off from a 30Rs CD. Screw that, I bet even a child with a 20 year old computer could make a better image than whatever the hell this is.

Looking at those images is just making me angry, lol. Hard to believe these are legit and official 🙄🤦‍♂️

I just wish that for once, news like this actually gets shown at news channels, even the simplistic question “If Atlas Honda is closing their factories because of lack of inventory of parts, how are they going to even make and deliver their newly launched product to their customers?” gets asked.

People’s minds should be opened to the malpractices of these companies. For too long they have shielded themselves with the ignorance of general public. I bet most people are not even aware of the fact that our Teen Dabbas Bolan/Ravi are manufactured in China and then assembled here for 40 years instead of being actually manufactured here in house.

Exactly my point. CSPK is the only one who highlighted the hard facts at the time. CSPK actually did the only true reporting on the ground realities as far as I know. 👍

The ifs & buts were already highlighted: https://carspiritpk.com/the-ifs-buts-regarding-honda-hr-v-launch-in-pakistan/

Its not important at this stage for anyone to argue whether Honda will launch the HR-V or not. The question is, even if the crossover is formally launched, will the company be in a position to timely deliver the booked units in wake of supply chain issues as well as import restrictions?

Unfortunately, it seems a lot of people did fall for this, if the official company rhetoric of “all booking slots filled” is to be believed.

I would also have to give a shout out to certain local auto media/s who have the viewership who gave this “launch” legitimacy by doing their paid promos and not even brining the obvious fact of “no parts available so how could the company deliver”, to the attention of their readers/viewers.
Any true journalistic site/media/blog/etc. would ask the difficult questions (and I’m looking at you CSPK!) and highlight the hard truths. Not just toe the line in order to get their pay day.

And the alibi of “we only give the current news and don’t speculate” does not fly here. Journalism must be proactive and not reactive. If this true fact of not enough parts for assembly were at least highlighted to their readers/viewers, a lot of people would have been spared getting stuck in this. Instead these particular outlets just covered the “launch”, giving this whole thing the legitimacy that Honda wanted and did have a big hand in getting people stuck in this bookings trap. Some people AKA the die hard fans with too much money and the scalpers will not mind. However some normal people would mind and would’ve rather avoided this had they known all the facts.

And you are right. No one will do anything. Often times it is the ones sharing such concerns and facts who are the ones getting the cease and desist. Because, guess who has the power?

And as long as the government does not have dedicated auto ministries or people who are strictly versed in the field and don’t have proper written laws. I guess we are all destined to keep going on this current wrong course.

Excellent catch. Why did they do that? Did they think the real thing looked so bad that they had to do this fakery?

All brochures for various cars and SUVs use photoshopped/manipulated pics. However there are some real world pics given to show the look of the vehicle in the real world. But this takes the cake. Not a single one in there!
The only other one I have seen at the level of the HR-V brochure is, unfortunately, the one for the Glory 580 Pro. But that is supposed to be “the unknown cheap brand” from China. This is the “Premium” Brand. Why did they do such a cheap thing?

You are right the fanboys wouldn’t read and wouldn’t care. For them its the new Honda to have/Showoff in. Now that the deliveries have been curbed, just wait and see the stupendous own demands on the small numbers of local assembled HR-Vs that do make it into the market. 🤦‍♂️🤯

I’m just laughing at the God awful photoshop mockups they have made. A company that makes millions of rupees at least per month and they can’t even pay a legit artist to manipulate these images for them.

Maybe they knew that the fanboys buying it won’t likely even read it so they didn’t care. 🙆‍♂️

This is completely stupid. Why would anyone fall for this when they know that these companies are in no position to assemble the vehicles they are promising, simply because they choose to wait for the imports to open again instead of manufacturing locally, even closing their plants in the process?

IMHO, nobody should really fall for this when they know that imports are closed and these companies are also shutting down their plants due to no assembly. This is very simply, a scam happening in broad daylight by a legit company and like always, there is literally nobody in Pakistan to question it.