It came out of nowhere

At the end of every year, automotive dealers typically begin massive liquidation campaigns to get rid of their older stock and make way for newer models. The 2014 campaigns are set to be more drastic than usual, as distributors face tremendous challenges that are curtailing their sales and piling up the amount of inventory sitting in their stockyards. Despite the ongoing civil strife in Syria and its spillover into Lebanon, as well as the presidential impasse — now in its sixth month — Lebanon’s shaky economy has still managed to grow slightly. Meanwhile, the automotive industry posted an 8 percent growth in sales in the first nine months of 2014 relative to the same period in 2013. This growth is partly attributed to the resurgence of Japanese manufacturers, who have introduced competitively priced new models into the Lebanese market, supported by a 40 percent depreciation of the yen in the