Sri Lanka’s pioneer in automotive sales and services, Associated Motorways (Pvt.) Ltd (AMW), recently announced that the AMW Certified Vehicles initiative for pre-owned vehicles has taken the lead since its launch in April 2020, coinciding with the recent ban of motor vehicle imports. 

AMW Certified has been the established market leader in the pre-owned vehicle market, with over 10,000 customers islandwide.

The company claimed that its entry into the unregulated pre-owned vehicle market, which was dominated by brokers, has propelled certain positive changes such as greater transparency with customers naturally gravitating towards established players such as AMW for a premium quality product with an assurance of safety.

AMW Certified facilitates a swift and streamlined experience for buying and selling of pre-owned vehicles of all brands in addition to their core brands Nissan, Suzuki, Datsun and Renault, with which the company has years of experience and expertise with. 

AMW can purchase a customer’s vehicle immediately with a payment guarantee within just four hours.  All vehicles are backed by an AMW Technical Certification, a warranty of one to three years and mileage up to 100,000 kilometres – another first for pre-owned vehicles in Sri Lanka.

Commenting on the initiative, AMW General Manager Suzuki, Automall and Certified Vehicles Virann De Zoysa opined, “We have identified a niche and delivered a groundbreaking product to satisfy the customers’ appetite in these trying times. After we ventured into dealing with pre-owned vehicles, it is encouraging to note that many other agents/distributors have also entered this segment to provide superior value for customers in the pre-owned vehicle arena.

According to De Zoysa, in keeping with AMW’s commitment to countering fraudulence in the pre-owned vehicle market, the Consumer Affairs Authority would be immediately alerted about the incidents of mileage tampering and other unscrupulous activities detected during the inspection and quality certification of pre-owned vehicles. 

De Zoysa noted that the automobile industry has shown commendable agility and resilience through back-to-back calamities such as the Easter attack of April 2019, followed by the global pandemic compelling economies to slow down.

“A challenge facing the industry at present, more so than the import ban itself, is the barrage of misinformation sellers and buyers have to navigate; rumours give buyers false hope and furthers uncertainty in the market.”

Apart from odometer manipulation, Zoysa also warned prospective buyers of other fraudulent activities pertaining to the pre-owned vehicles market such as selling stolen, rented vehicles after processing forged documents. In order to navigate such issues and save money and time, he advised customers to always seek the services of a reputed and authorised agent, as such are subjected to monitoring and regulation by relevant authorities for quality of services rendered.