Until the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February, Lebanon’s 33 new car dealers had been enjoying something of a sweet ride, despite their persistent complaints of high taxes and fees that in some cases can more than double the cost of buying a new car. Indeed, according to data from the Association of Car Importers in Lebanon, sales of commercial and passenger vehicles in January 2005 alone saw a 26 percent jump over the same period in 2004 (1,522 new passenger vehicles and 123 commercial vehicles were sold in January of this year while 1,225 passenger and 79 commercial vehicles were sold in January last year). In fact, though the president of the association, Samir Homsi, noted that Lebanon had seen better years, new car sales for all of 2004 jumped almost 30 percent compared to 2003 (from 15,921 vehicles in 2003 to 20,455 vehicles in 2004).
