SAIPA's Pride compact sedan is the least-expensive domestically produced car in Iran, and thus affordable to most middle-class Iranians. It entered the Iranian market in 1993 under license from South Korea’s Kia Motors. Affordability is not the only thing the SAIPA Pride is known for. Described by drivers as "moving coffins," Prides are notorious for their low-quality standards and make up a significant number of road accidents in a country among the top on the global list of road fatalities.
Amid recent inflation in Iran because of the devaluation of the national currency — a crisis partly blamed on the reimposition of US sanctions — vehicle prices have risen at an unprecedented rate. But the increasing price of Prides has especially raised eyebrows. Since early August, prices on the open market have jumped by a skyrocketing 50%, hitting 430 million rials ($10,212). The official factory rate is still nearly fixed, standing at 240 million rials ($5,700), but that is an impossible purchase as buyers have to seek the product from middlemen and car dealers.
The jump in Pride prices is blamed on a variety of factors. According to Tasnim News Agency, amid the turbulent market, it is the online car dealers and not necessarily the automakers who are behind the sudden increase. "Those who want to sell their used cars set the bar high big time. Then the owners of the new ones also follow suit," reported Tasnim. Add to that reports that the government of President Hassan Rouhani is planning a mechanism to “freely” price vehicles, spreading fears that uncontrolled rates are in the making.
Hoarding by both the carmakers and the customers is another issue. To some, automakers share the blame by stocking up on their cars, looking the other way as the free market pushes up the value of their products. Rouhollah Talebi, a professor of mechanical engineering at the Iran University of Science and Industry, believes that the sharp prices on Pride models are "due to the fact that the factory [SAIPA] is not satisfied with the profit that automakers in other countries normally gain."
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