With one week until the Lunar New Year Festival (Tet), which falls on February 1 this year, it is the 'hottest' time of the year for the domestic auto market.

Clients are rushing to buy used and new cars, leading to a shortage in the market, according to car dealerships in Hanoi.

"These days it is hard to buy a used car at a reasonable price because of high demand as Tet comes near," said Nguyen Thach Thang, a car dealer on Le Van Luong street.

According to car dealers in Hanoi, it is quite different from a few months ago. The price of a used car could be a few million to 10 million VND higher than usual.

Expensive cars with prices ranging from 500 million VND (21,000 USD) to a few billion are still available, but cars with prices below 500 million VND have become rare.

Nguyen Thanh Vinh, a car dealer on Nguyen Van Cu street, said that this demand for used cars was very high, especially those with prices ranging between 200-300 million VND.

The most sought-after used cars are mainly Japanese and Korean, such as the Toyota Vios, Yaris, Corolla Altis; Kia Forte, Kia Morning, Hyundai Grand i10, Getz, Honda City or Daewoo Lacetti CDX.

Duong Ngoc Duy, a customer seeking a used car for about 300 million VND, said he had visited many used car dealerships and e-commerce sites to find a reasonable one but he had not had any luck.

Duy has just received a Tet bonus.

“I would like to purchase an automatic sedan car like Kia K3 or Mazda 3 but it is hard to find a suitable one. Some showrooms have them but they offer them at a high price," he said.

Dinh Thanh Binh ordered a new car one month ago but has to wait for delivery until after Tet. The only way to get guaranteed delivery before Tet is to buy from someone who registered earlier.

Thach Thang, a car dealer said a car dealership could only get around 15-20 units per month but demand was two or three times that currently.

Car dealerships attribute the rising demand for used and new cars to long vacations during the Tet holiday. In addition, the development of the pandemic remains complicated resulting in limit ed public transport and taxis, so demand for private cars to travel during Tet is higher than usual.

However, car experts have warned that buyers should be careful when buying used cars to avoid purchasing smuggled ones. Users are also recommended to find qualified car dealerships or ask those who can tell if a vehicle is in good condition or not.

The price of the most sought-after new cars has suddenly increased by 5 million VND to 20 million VND per unit. This has been attributed to the difficulties in importing accessories for domestic car assembly as a result of the pandemic./.