Take a drive along any of the main highways out of Beirut and it quickly becomes apparent that the Lebanese love, and have always loved, the muscle, sleek lines, reliability and prestige of Mercedes and BMWs.
Of course, along with that love affair is an fortunate dilemma, one that is perhaps emblematic of a wider social pathology: The Lebanese love their luxury brands but in many cases cannot afford them.
What this means is, according to informal estimates (statistics are not available for used car sales), the 461 new Mercedes and 609 new BMWs sold in Lebanon last year were more than outpaced by the number of used models sold to consumers eager to invest in and show off their “new” Mercedes and BMW.
The problem is that over the past four months alone, at least four people have died in accidents in which their luxury Mercedes rather unluxuriously split in half. While there have been past reports of similar incidents over the years, the true number of accidents related to used cars with welded chassis and bodies is also, unfortunately, unavailable; as is the overall number of so-called “half-cars” on the road today.
What is certain is that the death of Tyre MP Ali Khalil and his wife in early April, after the Mercedes they were driving split in half during a crash in wet weather on main road South, momentarily focused attention on the sometimes shadowy world of used cars – especially on the part of the market, an apparently large part of the market, that relies on the import of damaged vehicles and half-cars that are condemned as scrap in Europe and North America.
“The Scientific Research Foundation published a report recently that said these vehicles that are welded together are considered the most dangerous on our roads,” said Ziad Akl, President of YASA International.
“We do know at least that there were at least 120 accidents last year alone due to such cars – and while not all crashes led to death it is still a serious problem. These used cars that are coming here need to be inspected fully before they enter the country because right now this is absent.”
According to several car agents, all of whom requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the subject, under the status quo, a BMW involved in a serious traffic accident in France, for example, will essentially have its chassis serial number and license blacklisted for resell or repair. At this point, a Lebanese used car dealer would buy the car from the insurance company as scrap, cut it in half and ship it to Lebanon along with numerous other half cars and spare parts.
At customs, where rules and regulations are notoriously fluid, the half-car can mostly escape the sizable tariffs levied on new cars (used cars, including damaged cars, face the same tariff rate as new cars but have their value determined by the Blue Book listing). They can also escape the albeit limited safety testing that all cars must submit to. After all, it’s not really a car. In fact, the half-car is officially listed as a spare part.
Once in-country, with no legitimate service history required of used or damaged cars, the car is then welded together with another anonymous half car – not necessarily its natural half either…for better or worse, in sickness and in health – and is promptly put on the block at used car lots across the country.
Meanwhile, the prospective buyer has only the word of the dealer to go as to the prior condition of the vehicle (Lebanon has no “Lemon Law” that would provide used car buyers with full refunds should the car fail within a certain amount of time).
According to one new, luxury car dealer, whose shop services his brand’s used cars and whose own sales are naturally affected by the presence of lower cost used cars, horror stories abound in the industry.
“We have seen cars that are unimaginable,” the dealer said. “We checked one car that was apparently perfect, but with a simple AC problem. We took the dashboard off and noticed that the car had had a huge accident where the airbags had gone off.
“The airbags had not replaced,” he exclaimed, after a momentary pause to emphasize the point. “It was in perfect condition… but there were no airbags. The owner had no idea.”
“Look,” explained another new car dealer, outlining the critical problem in the used car sector as a whole. “You can bring just about anything into Lebanon. If you buy a car here and ship it to France, however, you have to pass a whole series of quality control tests most of which we do not have here. Also you can’t bring a car into France that is not already legally sold as a brand there.”
“I can bring in five, whole used cars and sell them at my dealership if I wanted,” noted one dealer who sells both new and used cars. “I would pay customs at the border or at the port and that is it – there is no tax on my profits, the VAT may or may not be registered and I don’t have after sales issues since if I sell him a scrap car it is his problem.”
While most used car dealers refused to comment on the issue, the four months that have passed since MP Khalil’s death have apparently lessened the sense of an imminent crackdown to the extent that at least one repair and assembling company dealer felt comfortable enough to joke about the matter.
“It’s a death trap,” laughed one dealer as he motioned vigorously to the two BMW half-cars that lay in plain view outside his Furn el Chaabeck shop. “No, seriously though. We do a good job and it is safe. But then again you may find half of you on one side of the road and half on the other!”
When pressed that, in fact, this had happened to several people recently – or at least they had died whole in a luxury car that itself had split in half – the dealer only shrugged and said gravely: “We Lebanese love our Mercedes; we are doing the best we can to give them what they want.”
After a pause, he added, incorrectly, that, “I think that it may even be legal to sell welded cars in Germany, but I am not sure.”
Although such crass behavior is probably not representative of the majority of used car dealers and garages in Lebanon, contrary to the published claims of used car dealers about a clear separation between dealerships that import both damaged and half-cars and those that don’t, several new car dealers interviewed by Executive claimed that the practice of refitting damaged and half-cars was widespread.
Indeed one used car dealer claimed that behind almost every used car lot there is a repair and assembling shop that churns out previously damaged or half-cars.
In the end, while a relative paucity of regulation is clearly to blame for much of the current situation (inspectors don’t check the frame of used cars coming into the country for example) the high tariffs levied on new cars and good condition used cars also play a significant role in creating the market for less expensive, but potentially dangerous vehicles.
When customs, VAT and registration fees end up raising the sticker price by 75 percent or more on a new luxury car, it is little wonder that some dealers will even go to potentially dangerous lengths to satiate the unyielding Lebanese demand for brand name purchases that seems to have diminished little. As one motoring journalist commented, “everyone knows its going on but they either don’t see it as a problem or they believe it’s always the other guy who is being conned.”
