The government wants the motor vehicle industry to act on the price and availability of new cars and spare parts for ordinary Fijians.

Trade Minister Faiyaz Koya says they’ve introduced incentives to make cars more affordable – but often times, people are disappointed with back-up services.

“The car industry also needs to be competitive as far as pricing and availability. Consumers are too often priced out of the market and a new vehicle is out of reach of ordinary Fijians. Not only that, after sales service and availability of spare parts also important. A customer may be able to acquire a car but subsequently may be forced to but non-genuine or inferior parts due to the unavailability or cost of genuine parts.”

At one stage, the Commerce Commission had to step in and regulate the prices of some basic motor vehicle parts.

This was done after the Commission found that there was no competition in the market.

Koya was speaking at the launch the 2015 Toyota Hilux – the 8th generation 4×4 since the truck was first introduced in 1968.