Poll: 92% of Iranians want high-quality foreign cars, even at cost of binning 3mn jobs at home

The opinion poll, conducted on Monday in a live television program named Plus One, broadcast by the state-run IRIIB, touched on the thorny issue that has touched many raw nerves inside the country over the low-quality automobiles produced by mainly the two giant manufactures, Iran Khodro and Saipa.

This edition of the program put a magnifying glass on the cars produced in Iran and asked the audience if they choose “imports of high quality foreign cars” or “employment of three million people in the automobile industry and the related industries.”

The result of the survey showed that more than 92 percent of people’s priority is to import quality cars.

Currently, Iranians have very few options when it comes to buying a car. They have to choose between domestically-produced cars, notoriously known as ‘chariots of death’, which ironically come at high prices or buy used foreign cars, exports of which were banned in 2018, at least three times higher than the international price tags.

Chinese automobiles, which are viewed skeptically in the Iranian market over their lower quality compared to European, Japanese and South Korean cars, are also assembled in Iran but cost the users an arm and a leg.