JEDDAH: Rumors have circulated in Saudi Arabia for a long time about an imminent drop in car prices but nothing has happened so far.

On the contrary, many people have been financially hurt because of these rumors.

“We have not seen a drop in car prices except people chatting about this on the Internet forums,” said Khaled Dhaifullah, a Saudi university student, who waited four months for prices to come down.

“I am now looking to buy a car through installments,” said Dhaifullah, speaking at south Jeddah’s car market.

Saleh bin Abdullah Al-Omari, a car rental company owner, said he has suffered losses due to the rumors.

“Instead of buying a number of cars at the beginning of the year, as it is my habit to benefit from special offers announced by car dealers, I decided to wait for the drop in prices ... I have waited for a long time and ended up having to buy at a 10 percent increase,” he said.

“I think the rental prices should increase hand in hand with the increase in car prices,” he added.

The owners of a number of second-hand car showrooms in Al-Jawhara market said the Customs Department’s decision to stop the import of cars more than five years old has led to a 15 percent increase in the price of second-hand vehicles.

However, the group most hurt by the rumor about the drop in car prices has been people, both citizens and expatriates, who bought cars through bank loans and sold them for cash.

“At present, we are reselling at a loss of about 10 percent. This is all because of the rumor of an imminent large drop in car prices,” said one person.

Meanwhile, the Committee of Car Agents at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry confirmed that there has been no drop in car prices. It said in a statement that prices, on the contrary, are likely to go up.

Faisal Osman Abu Shousha, chairman of the National Committee for Car Agents, asserts that for a number of reasons, car prices will not go down in the near or distant future.

“Car manufacturing companies around the world have started cutting production and retrenching employees. Like any other commodity, this will affect prices, which might go up or at best remain static,” he said.

A number of car dealers however declined to comment on the possible reduction in prices.