Attention car buyers: Final days for discounts

The General Safety Regulation, which the European Union has made mandatory for new cars, will also come into effect in Turkey as of August 31. Dealers looking to sell off their remaining stock of vehicles that do not comply with the new regulation are launching campaign after campaign.

With the new regulation, many features such as rearview cameras, parking sensors, and cruise control are now mandatory in new vehicles. This change only covers vehicles produced with "national type" approval.

According to ATV, Mustafa Kayatuzu, who defines the national type as "the features and conditions required for a vehicle to be sold as new in Turkey, regardless of whether it is produced in Turkey or not," stated that features such as driver fatigue detection systems, emergency braking systems, accident prevention collision sensors, and blind spot warning systems will become mandatory.

Stating that these features, which will be mandatory in vehicles, will increase both safety and price, Kayatuzu said, "The zero-kilometer price of an average European premium vehicle starts around 2 million TL." Noting that vehicles without these features must be sold off by August 31, Kayatuzu stated that dealers are therefore forced to get rid of these vehicles in some way, through campaigns, price and installment support.

With less than a week remaining before the new regulation takes effect, companies have entered a race against one another. Discounts of up to 20 percent off the list price are even being offered. Experts, who state that there will be an increase in the prices of new vehicles that now come with mandatory features, note that this price hike will also be reflected in the second-hand market.