Hanoi  (VNA) – Many expired cars and trucks have been found for sale onlineat cheap prices despite being banned earlier this month, prompting concernsover traffic safety and environmental pollution.

TheMinistry of Transport’s Vietnam Register announced a list of more than 24,400expired cars and trucks. Of those, roughly 2,640 were passenger buses and therest were trucks. All vehicles were produced between 1997 and 2000.

However,such cars have been marked for sale publicly both on many websites and forumsand in car shops. Most were imported, had between 12 and 29 seats and had beenused for between 18 and 21 years.

Noticeably,many were small vehicles used for transporting passengers or goods in ruralareas. The most popular brands were Hyundai, Toyota, Daewoo, Mercedes and FordTransit for passenger buses and Hyundai, Kamaz, Zin and Mitsubishi for trucks.All were sold at prices of between 20-100 million VND (800-4,400 USD) each.

Onthe website banxehoi.com, a Hyundai County passenger bus, produced in 1997, wasposted for sale at a price of 50 million VND (2,200 USD). A Toyota Hiaceproduced in 1999 and a Toyota 16-seat-bus were advertised for sale at the sameprice each.

Onwebsite chotot.com, a 16-seat-bus made by Toyota was posted for sale at a priceof 55 million VND (2,420 USD). Another Toyota Hiace bus was advertised for 42million VND (1,840 USD). This vehicle was produced in 1998.

Aseller named only as Trung said that most of these cars were still usable butin poor condition, and car owners would need to repair or upgrade them toextend their lifetimes. Usually, owners had to pay at least 20 million VND (880USD) to bring the car to a safe and roadworthy standard.

Trungsaid the number of old cars advertised for sale at less than 50 million VND (2,200USD) was high. The potential market for such cars was in rural areas where theaverage income of people remained low.

NgoHong He, head of the Vietnam Register’s motor vehicle inspection unit said thatthe agency has publicised the list of expired cars on its website.

Headded that expired cars would pose dangers to drivers and passengers, as wellas other road users.

Currently,under the traffic law, those who drive expired cars or trucks would face finesof between 4-6 million VND (176-264 USD), have their vehicle seized and theirdriving licence revoked for one to three months.

PhDNgo Tri Long, an economic expert told online newspaper Dan Tri that the seizureof expired vehicles was necessary. It would help curb the use of such dangerouscars on the country’s roads.

Inaddition, measures on stopping the sale of such cars to rural and remote areaswould also need to be carried out. This would prevent unexpected trafficdangers and protect the environment.

Manyexperts also said that it was necessary to regulate the expiry dates forfour-seater cars as they were still allowed to operate after 20 years of useunder the current law. It would help curbing emissions, safety risks andprevent the country from becoming a dumping ground for ancient vehicles.-VNA