Despite a competitive market and a negative slope in the car sales, car manufacturers are not kicking off their old car models while launching new cars.
Car manufacturers think that old cars along with new or revamped models help to add strength to the existing car volumes. This also gives an opportunity to the consumers to have wider choices at different prices. Let’s take the example of the recently launched Tata Indica Vista, a revamped version of old Indica. After the launch, the company has only phased out few variants of the old and the rest are still there is the market but with a reduced price tag. Skoda’s Octavia and Laura also share the same story where no brakes have been applied to the selling of old model after the launch of new one.
Not only Tata and Skoda, other car manufacturers like the Ford India, General Motors and Mitsubishi are also following the same trend. According to the industry sources, after the launch of Chevrolet Cruze, Chevrolet Optra will be retained at a lower price. Even a new version of Ford Ikon is to be rolled out but the older version will stay back.
This is one of the best ways to boost volumes and is also considered to be a common trend in developed markets where both old and new cars are sold at different price segments for incremental sales.
But in this era of falling sales, will this common trend succeed? Will car manufacturers win success by selling both old and new together?
If new and old are blended together in the Indian car market then the number of car models will dramaticaly increase. Eventually, a day will come when there'll be no space to walk and finaly aday when there'll ne no space for another car on the Indian platform.
I think car manufacturers should stop the production of old cars when replacing them with refurbished versions. This will help them to control the population of cars and lay emphasis of selected numbers.
An Amalgam of Old and New, with new models hitting the roads, it was thought like the old models will be forgotten and buried deep. But it is not so, the car manufacturers strategy to sell both the old and new is really appreciable. It gives customers a wide variety of options and its too good.