Nowruz Luxuries

The following article was written by an Iranian citizen journalist on the ground inside the country, who writes under a pseudonym to protect her identity.

Nowruz, the long Iranian new year holiday that starts on March 21, is a perfect time for many families to travel, taking the chance to visit familiar sights, but also to explore new ones. Public transport is usually overcrowded during the holidays, so many people opt to drive their own cars. And, if they do not have a car, or do not want to use their own cars for whatever reason, they rent one.

“Think you can’t afford a luxury car for travelling this Nowruz?”, an advertisement for a luxury car rental agency asks. The company is one of many that tempts would-be holiday-makers to travel in style and luxury.

The rates, however, are astronomical for most Iranians. For example, the daily rental fee for a 2012 Porsche Boxster is $720. It is $650 for a 2011 Porsche Cayenne, $1,150 for a Mercedes E350, $540 for a Mercedes C-Class, $500 for a BMW X6 and $570 for a BMW Z4.

Agencies claim that rental fees were between 30 and 40 percent lower before the holidays. Now the demand is high and, also, customers want to drive the cars outside the cities where they rent them.

In the past, renting expensive and luxury cars was something that was done only for weddings. In free-trade zones in southern Iran, especially on the Persian Gulf Island of Kish, renting a car for a day is common because there are no restrictions on imports, but there are many rules, regulations and restrictions for importing Western-made cars to other areas of the country. Nowadays, renting luxury cars has become more common, whether it is for cruising the streets, going to special parties or meetings, taking a vacation — or even for swindling and illegal activities. And now, new year holiday travels must be added to the list of occasions where rental cars are desirable. 

According to rental agencies, the rates for the new year are higher because clients take the cars on to the highways and country roads, and, as a result, the cars depreciate more quickly. “If you rent a car for a day to drive around Tehran, you are going to drive, at most, 100 kilometers on the streets and autobahns,” says one agent. “But if you want to take the car and drive to the Caspian Sea or elsewhere, you are going drive at least 800 or 1,000 miles. It is only logical that there should be a difference in prices.”

Beside the rental fee, what else is needed to rent these luxury cars? “A certified check for the price of the car, a deed for land, a house or a shop, or a business permit, and identification, such as the national ID card,” the agent says. “Sometimes we conduct a our own local investigations. Of course, it depends on the kind of car that they want to rent.”

Many people would like to rent the most expensive brands and models, but most cannot afford it. So there is a good market for renting more affordable cars. The majority of these cars are made in South Korea and Japan, including Kia, Honda, Hyundai and Toyota. The daily rate for a Hyundai Sonata is $108; it is $143 for a Hyundai Genesis, $100 for a Kia Sportage, and $143 for a Hyundai Santa Fe.

The most expensive cars to rent in this developing market are those manufactured by Mercedes, Porsche, Maserati and BMW. Iranian media and car agencies refer to these cars as “above-2500 CC luxury automobiles.”

It Started with Ahmadinejad

The large-scale imports of luxury cars started under former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Permits were given to various groups, for example to war veterans over 70 and to national sports champions. At the same time, certain private companies, such as Moin Motor, Porsche’s dealer in Iran, were given import permits as well.

According to Masoud Karbasian, director-general of the Customs Bureau under Ahmadinejad, during the former president’s tenure, Iran imported an average of about 600 million dollars’ worth of over-2500 CC luxury cars each year. The Iranian Labour News Agency reported that, in the Iranian year 1392 (March 21, 2013 to March 20, 2014) alone, Iran imported 151 new Porsches (2013 and 2014 models), worth a total of approximately $14 million. During the same period, the export of cars manufactured in Iran was worth only $70 million. And, according to the Iranian Students News Agency, in the Iranian year 1391, Iran imported 563 Porsche sedans worth $49.8 million.

The import of the Italian-made Maserati also took off between 2011 and 2013. In the first year, Iran imported 10 Maserati cars worth more than a million dollars. The Customs Bureau reported that, just in five months, between March and July 2012, at least 34 Maserati cars worth around $3.9 million were imported.

As the number of luxury cars has increased in the streets of Tehran and other big cities, so has the wish for sitting behind the wheels of these cars, even if only for a day. In response, more luxury car rental agencies have appeared and prospered. As one of the agents in central Tehran says, many people buy these expensive cars only to make money by renting them out.

by Roshanak Shahriari, Citizen Journalist, Tehran