Friday 27 / December / 2024
Muscat: A leading automotive dealer in Oman has confirmed that they have not received any instructions from the Royal Oman Police (ROP) on the sale criteria of 4WD to expatriates.
The automotive dealer’s representative, representing one of the leading brands, was responding to a Times of Oman query after many expats called up the newspaper to confirm the news that expats without family visas would be denied the sale of a 4WD.
“We have received no instructions whatsoever from the ROP or any other government organisation to deny a sale to an expatriate if he doesn’t have his family with him in Oman. In fact, we finalised sale of two 4WDs today morning [Wednesday] with expatriates without family but their employer providing them the funds/allowances to purchase the new 4WD vehicles,” said the senior official of the leading car dealer, dealing with top Korean brands.
Another senior sales executive of a leading Japanese automaker said: “We have been selling 4WD to expatriates who don’t have family but one of the high-end seven-seater car sales to an expat without a family was declined by the ROP recently. Our bosses are in touch with the ROP officials in this regard.”
He added: “Car dealers have brought in a lot of stocks of 4WDs and a lot of our clients are individuals and people who don’t have their family in Oman. It would be a big disaster for us if the said reports doing the rounds in Oman since morning are true. There are a large number of expats who prefer to stay here without their family for various reasons, one of the main being education of their children. If expats without family visas will be denied to purchase 4WDs it may be a big blow to all the car dealers in the Sultanate of Oman.”
The sales executive completed a sale of a top-end Japanese car to an expat on Wednesday morning. The expat, a long-time resident of the Sultanate, got his car registration card (mulkiya) around 12.15pm on Wednesday, with Times of Oman having access to the car mulkiya of the expat.
