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Monday, 25 January 2010
Maruti Suzuki has a reason to smile.
The car maker announced that there is an over three-fold increase in its quarterly net profit. The net profit is at Rs.687.53 Crore in the third quarter of the current fiscal ending December 31, 2009, against the same quarter of previous fiscal year, while its net sales went up by over 62 per cent to Rs.7,334 Crore.
This profit can be said to have been fuelled by easy and affordable car loans and a reviving domestic economy.
Maruti Suzuki's chief financial officer Ajay Seth remarked, "This has been a good quarter," as he announced the company would expand capacity to defend its market leadership position from global rivals and meet increasing domestic demand.
Many car makers such as General Motors, Renault, Toyota and many more have disclosed their plans for new car launches in India to have a bigger piece of the fast-growing market share to counter sluggish demand in the developed countries because of the global recession.
India has now emerged as the third largest car market in Asia, China being the first followed by Japan. Moreover, India is one of the few countries where automobile sales are rapidly increasing. In India, car sales jumped 19 per cent last year to 1.43 million units.
Maruti Suzuki sells about one in two cars in the country and its sales jumped 62.5 percent to 73.34 billion rupees.
Ajay Seth also said Maruti Suzuki planned to invest 17 billion rupees to make 250,000 more cars each year from April 2012, thereby increasing the total capacity from one million units to two and a half times. This expansion would take place at the car company's facility at Manesar. He added that the car maker could further ramp up capacity "if there is a need later."
The car manufacturer attributed the profit increase partly to government stimulus measures aimed at helping the industry ride out the global economic slump. These measures have put more money into the hands of India’s growing middle class.
The company said that favourable conditions in the domestic market supported by the government’s stimulus package and ease of automobile finance helped achieve good sales. Nearly four-fifths of cars in India are bought using car loans.
Maruti Suzuki’s domestic sales in the quarter jumped by 38 per cent to 218,910 units while exports soared by 167 per cent to 39,116 vehicles, spurred by European government incentives to scrap gas guzzlers.
The company is now "cautiously optimistic" about sales volumes in the fourth quarter but added rising commodity prices would put pressure on profit margins. Labels: Car-Sales, India-Car-Exports, Indian-car-market, Maruti-Suzuki, Maruti-Suzuki-Cars, Maruti-Suzuki-Cars-India, New-Car-Launch-In-India, New-Cars-India
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
Car sales were robust across most segments in November, thanks to a lower statistical base (November 2008 sales were badly down in the aftermath of the global economic collapse in October), easier financing and improving economic situation. In passenger cars, sales growth was the maximum in November over the last five years. Car sales surged about 61per cent to 133,687 units from 83,121 units during last November. The biggest increase since February 2004. Each and every category of cars reported growth, with compact car sales touching almost the one lakh unit mark. But while most brands reported robust sales on improving economic environment and generous discounts, there was negligible manufacturing for some prominent car brands. Not a single unit was produced for Honda Jazz, Ford Fusion and Skoda Fabia even when sales were 546 units, 15 units and 598 units, respectively. For the Mahindra Renault Logan, production this November was significantly lower at just 71 units (610 units) when sales were 279 units (300 units). This indicates excess inventory in the system for select models, despite the overall sentiment being robust. Industry watchers are certain that with continued economic growth, sales by the end of this fiscal could come back to last year's levels. According to industry forecasts, car sales are expected to grow at least 10% this fiscal; in 2008-09, the 13 manufacturers in India sold 1.22 million cars. Labels: Car-Sales, Ford-Fusion, Honda-Jazz, Mahindra-Renault-Logan, Skoda-Fabia
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
Indian Car market leader, Maruti Suzuki India Limited sold a total of 87, 807 vehicles in November 2009. This also includes 11,448 units of exports. The company had sold 47,704 vehicles in the domestic market in November 2008. The company stated in a release that, November 2008 was exceptionally low sales month, due to impact of economic slowdown. The 60.1 percent domestic sales growth in November 2009 is calculated on a low base of November 2008 when the industry was in the midst of worst ever slowdown. Compared to November 2007 (65,216 units) Maruti Suzuki’s domestic sales have grown 17.1percent. Similarly, for the period April-November 2009 (v/s April-November 2007, 4,66,232 units) the domestic sales growth is 18.9 percent. Labels: Car-Sales, Maruti-Suzuki-India-Limited
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
The Indian car industry sold maximum numbers of cars during Dhanteras. On the occasion of Dhanteras, an auspicious day on the Hindu calendar two days ahead of Diwali, people make investments and bring new gadgets to the house. The Indian car industry registered a record selling of 25,000 cars in a day across India. It was the highest ever booking of cars in a day. This proves that the Indian car market remain unaltered by the global recession. Maruti Suzuki recorded highest number of sale with over 8,000 cars on the Dhanteras day. It was the highest sell in a day by the country's leading small car manufacturer. Demand for cars was so high that dealers could not make deliveries to many customers on the same day. Moreover, small cars are an opportunity for middle class to display wealth in the festival season. The unexpected delivery of cars has also shown impact on BSE and its sensitive index were reportedly trading in green zone. Of late, car sales have boomed in India as a result of the festive season. Many car makers have introduced new models and revamped existing models to the market. Labels: Car-Sales, Indian-Car-Buyer, Maruti-Suzuki
Friday, 15 May 2009
Urban car markets seem to be stagnant for most car manufacturers. It is imperative that car manufacturers should look beyond these markets to fetch better sales. Maruti is now stressing on the rural market with its plans to double the number of its outlets. Presently, the company has over 668 dealerships in the country of which only 231 are located in semi-urban or rural areas. It further plans to increase the number of dealership in a span of two years. That means the company wants to penetrate deeper into the rural areas, where Maruti's products are the first choice. It reveals that Maruti is all set to capture the rural centres and it is also foreseen that majority of the sales will come from rural areas. Maruti Suzuki is pitched as an entry level car manufacturer and hence its products are the first stop for car buyers in India. Its profile is dotted with eight small cars and two sedans only. If urban car buyers are not being pampered with better choices, the company’s profit is likely to dwindle. So it is important for Maruti to expand its network across the country specifically in the rural areas to maintain decent sales. But it is yet to see if Maruti’s expectation is met in these hinterlands where incomes are low and need for mobility is also very low. Labels: Car-Dealership, Car-Sales, Maruti-Suzuki
Thursday, 14 May 2009
Internet has become a powerful media weapon that has brought the entire world in a desktop. Be it blogging, social networking, staying connected with workplace, or getting any sort of information, internet plays a vital role in every facet in the present era of globalization. Unlike earlier, people are now more tech saavy. Realizing this, car manufacturers are intelligently using the platform for advertising their products. It is convenient for the companies to reach their customers through internet more easily. As in earlier days, they used to make huge investment on marketing and sales people to do the same job. But now car manufacturers are reporting good sales through internet networking. Recently, Maruti Suzuki has achieved over a lakh units of sales through digital marketing. Similarly, Tata Motors witnessed 4,000 bookings for Nano through the Tata Nano website itself. It received 30 million hits since the launch of the website. Eyeing the impressive result, other car manufacturers are following the suit. Honda has already begun an exercise to track down sales originating through the internet. In a research, it is revealed that almost 5 percent or more of the total sales are contributed by digital media. Volkswagen has also increased its investment on digital media to promote sales of its luxury cars like the Passat and the Jetta. The internet is silently entering the lives of most urban households. People depend on it heavily for information which they could never access by regular means. Car manufacturers cannot ignore this growing segment and will have to do more than simple advertising to reach the potential customers. Labels: Car-Manufacturers, Car-Sales, Maruti-Suzuki
Thursday, 7 May 2009
Due to recurring labour unrest, the production at the Hyundai Motors' Sriperumbudur factory has been hit badly. The plant manufactures around 1000 units daily that has been crippled due to the stir. Seeing the impact of the labour strike, the company is thinking to shift the production unit of i20 to a European country. It is also facing troubles like infrastructure problems, currency fluctuations, and low export incentives. All these hurdles are affecting the timely delivery of the i20 which may further upset the car sales. It has been speculated that if the problem persists then the company will definitely look for an alternative that is for now is expected to be in Europe. Sadly, this step will take away i20’s India exclusivity tag. With the strike reaching new heights as more than 800 workers getting arrested, the deadlock seems unbreakable. A cloud of uncertainty hangs over the launch of Hyundai i20 diesel which is set to hit the roads by the end of this year. Hopefully, everything gets settle down and i20 retains its tag of being the Indian made car. Labels: Car-Sales, Hyundai-cars, Hyundai-i20
Wednesday, 6 May 2009
It’s a celebration time for Mahindra and Mahindra as three of its models are doing extremely great in the domestic market. Its flagship model the Scorpio, Bolero, and the recently launched Xylo are riding on the success lane after defeating its rivals. The company experienced momentous car sales in April and even during the period of October-December 2008. This clearly reveals the growing demand for Mahindra models in India.The below mentioned sales figure will take you to the actual picture of Mahindra’s sales. In the month of April more than 6000 Boleros were sold, Xylo saw sales of 3,509 units whereas Scorpio reported sales of 3,100 units. This figure will not make a good image unless they are compared with their competitors. Comparatively, Toyota Innova sold only 2,834 units, while Tata Sumo sold 1642 units, and Tata Safari saw demand of only 774 units. The launch of the Xylo significantly elevated the company’s market share capturing a good number of price conscious Indian car buyers. With this, Mahindra is slowing taking over its competitors in the Indian car market. Currently, the success ball is in Mahindra’s court. Let see for how long it is going to be there. Labels: Car-Sales, Mahindra-and-Mahindra, Xylo
Thursday, 30 April 2009
Since most of the companies are experiencing a slowdown due to the financial crisis, they have withdrawn most of the facilities including cab services. Cabs are used to ferry employees of IT, IT enabled services, and for tourism sectors. But now cab services are increasingly seeing a decline. Well, the overall situation has also affected the car manufacturers. It is observed that sales of popular cab models like the Chevrolet Tavera, Tata Indica and the Toyota Innova have fallen drastically. Obviously, this has resulted in loss on sales slump for the car manufacturers. Toyota has admitted that at least 20 percent of Innova sales are contributed by cab services. But it is now declined to 10 percent. The demand from the taxi segment has fallen and so is the demand for financing the vehicles. The cascading effect of the slowdown has also touched the banks. They have found that many taxi operators have started defaulting on their loans due to lower income. Currently, the banks do not have any rules to confiscate the vehicles and release their loans. The effect of slowdown is clearly visible everywhere which has tremendously impacted all the sectors including car industry. Labels: Car-Sales, Car-Services, SUV
Monday, 20 April 2009
After making a foothold in the urban and semi-urban areas, Hyundai Motors now desires to grasp India's rural markets which are untapped by small car manufacturers so far. To start with the plan, the company has recently organized a programme called Hyundai Utsav to push sales in rural areas of Andhra Pradesh and Punjab.
Hyundai has intelligently chosen the 'mandi', a local wholesale marketplace, where thousands of people congregate on a daily basis. It wants to reach to the prosperous farmers, money lenders, local business communities, private companies, government employees, doctors, lawyers and others.
The programme kicked off on April 18 in over 50 venues in Andhra Pradesh and Punjab will last for 42 days. Under the Hyundai Utsav scheme, well-trained teams will be sent to non-dealership towns. They will be stationed across all the intended locations and will be responsible for activities like-taking care of visitors, offer test drives, and create awareness about loan schemes. At the end of the programme, the team will collate local consumer data which will help the company to execute future plans.
The scheme can work wonders for the company which has been trying for years to gain the No.1 position in India. But the challenges for providing after sales services, maintenance and spares will be a huge task. However, the company will have an advantage to penetrate a largely untapped market for passenger cars.
Labels: Car-Manufacturers, Car-Sales, Hyundai-cars
Monday, 13 April 2009
With the moving wheel of time the economic scenario is changing and the car industry is gradually climbing up. There are speculations that after months of falling sales the domestic car market will now drive on a positive track with an expected growth of 3 to 5%. We all have a misconception that the year 2008 was the worst year for the car industry. But if we estimate and compare the figures revealed by the SIAM then we’ll come to know the actual truth of passenger car sales in 2008. Though the growth rate was slow infact the slowest in the past five years the overall passenger car sales experienced a rise of 1.3% in 2008 as compared to the previous fiscal. Despite of all the challenges and hurdles on its way the domestic car market ended with a positive note in the year 2008. Now when new cars are continually launching in India with more and more numbers of small compact cars the growth rate is expected to rise further by the end of this year. It is also believed that the key factor that may bring the car industry on a positive track would be the compact cars that are receiving demands from small towns and cities of the country. A wide range of small cars are now not driven within any restricted boundaries but are driving to small towns and are really doing wonders there. Labels: Car-Sales, Indian-car-industry
Thursday, 26 March 2009
General Motors India’s Chevrolet brand is doing good business in the Indian car market. With its models like the Optra SRV, Optra Magna, Tavera, Aveo, Aveo U-VA, Spark and the Captiva, the company is basking under the warmth of success. Among its models, the Spark from the small car segment is leading the troop. Spark has hit the chart not only in India but also in other car markets bagging three million sales globally. Seeing the growing potential of the Indian car market, General Motors has planned to increase its sales target by 10 percent. Very soon the Indian car market would get to see 3 more of Chevrolet’s new car models and also the limited edition of its existing cars. It seems the plan is already executed with the introduction of the limited music edition of the Spark. The new Spark comes with various new features like the two-DIN music player system, body coloured exterior rear mirrors, mounted turn indicators, body coloured door holds, and special edition logo. Currently, the car manufacturer proudly carries over 30 Lakh customers for its little car, the Spark. The limited edition of the Captiva is also on the cards. But how much changes the new Captiva will get is still under cover. Hope the new car models and editions add more glory to the Chevrolet brand in India. Labels: Car-Sales, Chevrolet-Spark, General-Motors
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Honda seems to have good time in terms of sales even in the time of recession. Apart from its success in India, the company has witnessed whooping sales in Philippines. The car manufacturer dominated the Philippines passenger car segment with 39% market share. The credit goes to the all-new Honda City that grabbed nearly 60% of the passenger car sales. The third generation City spread the magic with its cutting-edge design and best-in-class features. Other models too chipped in with their share in sales. The sporty looking Civic sales grew by 4% whereas the Honda Jazz and the Accord too posted a good sales growth. If we take a look at the Indian scene, the company is also successful in tantalising the Indian buyers reporting a surge of over 47 % growth in sales in February and 9 % increase in sale in December. Hence, Honda is stepping towards success zone worldwide proving its credentials and efficiency. Labels: Car-Manufacturer, Car-Sales, Honda-Cars
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
After being in the reverse gear for so many months, the car sales are now appear to be in the front gear as big car companies have reported positive car sales in January. Surprisingly, car manufacturers have witnessed a lift in car sales despite the withdrawal of discounts and schemes. Though manufacturers faced slight trouble in gearing up in the stressed market, they were able to overcome it with the prop of new car launches and car exports. The very beginning of this year saw new car lunches like the Fiat Linea and the BMW 7 Series. The industry is delightfully driving back to recovery with positive developments like reduction in fuel prices, dip in inflation, softening of retail interest rates, and growing availability of finance in the market. Experiencing a favourable environment, leading car manufacturers including Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai have seen a progressive growth on a sequential basis as now waning car buyers are stepping into the showrooms with positive attitude. Many car manufacturers like Maruti Suzuki and General Motors have also signed an understanding with banks to provide easy and hassle-free finance solutions to all the buyers which is further catalysing to bring back the sales figure to positive scale. Recently Hyundai also tied up with Syndicate Bank to accelerate car loan disbursals and to provide alluring loan schemes to its prospective car buyers. Though the encouraging market situations have proved to be a blessing in disguise for car manufacturers, they still have a long way to reach the destination of success. Labels: Car-Manufacturers, Car-Sales, Maruti-Suzuki
Monday, 2 February 2009
Many car manufacturers are focussing on rural areas with a thought that small towns will bring better sales. In the time when liquidity crunch has crippled the urban centres, small towns seems to be more promising due all-cash economy and low penetration levels. Shockingly, leading Indian car manufacturer like Maruti Suzuki and General Motors have experienced a jump in sales figure in the rural markets compared to urban market. Job layoffs and unpredictable corporate scenario have shattered the buying sentiments of consumers. Car buyers being insecure about their jobs are deferring their buying plans. And this situation is worst in the major metro cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, and Hyderabad which is under the cyclone of recession. Even the various government initiatives to infuse liquidity into the financial system did not relieve the pain of car manufactures. They feel that the voluminous market in metros is now saturating and it’s time to attack the small towns. All car companies struggling in metros have the same story to share thus they are gradually moving towards markets outside big metros to revive their businesses. Labels: Car-manufacturers-in-India, Car-Sales, General-Motors
Friday, 30 January 2009
The BMW X3 rides high on a wave of style and luxury with its elegant design, superior agility, and exemplary efficiency. The car is doing very well in the German market which is clearly reflected by its achievements in the country. The BMW X3 has been declared as the most reliable vehicle on German roads for the second consecutive year based on German breakdown statistics on over 2 million cases, and customer satisfaction study on the assessment conducted on 43,000 participants. The car has been also crowned by German Automobile Association in “Quality” category. Not only this, the car has even experienced a sales jump of up to 9 per cent in 2008. Though the car have impressive features like ornamental twin-kidney grille, sophisticated bumper, sleek headlights, and a high-end roomy interior, it fails to lure Indian buyers. The BMW X3 is not able to win over other cars in its segment perhaps due to absence of diesel version and may be also because of the high cost. The reason may be anything but the fact remains that Indian roads are don't witness such huge numbers of X3 like the German terrain. Labels: BMW-X3, Car-Sales
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Despite the existing recessionary affect in the car industry, Audi India being optimistic has decided to assemble 1,000 units of the A4 and the A6 in 2009. These cars would be assembled at the Aurangabad plant of Audi. Though the car industry is mourning over the pain of drowning car sales caused by economic slowdown, it is said that the luxury car segment was least hit compared to the other segments. Inspiringly, car manufacturers did not lose their spirit and continue to go ahead with their proposed plans. Audi remains stiff with its expansion plans for India and still aims high to spread its network in the country. The energy to drive out 1000 units of A4 and A6 in the uncertain market condition is fuelled by Audi’s excellent threefold growth in car sales in 2008. This is an appreciated result as Audi succeeded in achieving a decent sales volume amid downturn compared to other car brands. Looks like it is the time for Merc and BMW to tighten up their strategies! Labels: Audi-Cars, Car-Sales, Indian-car-industry
Wednesday, 31 December 2008
Despite the present economic downturn, luxury cars are giving challenge to small cars in India. Yes its true! and this is mainly attributed to the low interest packages offered with the luxury cars. When the small car buyers are paying nearly14 percent interest rates, the luxury cars charge only 6 percent. Previously, the loan for luxury cars had a interest rates of up to 15%, whereas the loan for small cars and mid-size were available with a interest rates of 12-15%, making a difference of around Rs 8,000 in monthly payouts on a Rs 18 Lakh loan. As a move to elevate their car sales, the luxury car manufacturers are offering various schemes and offers with their cars. Mercedes-Benz has intelligently announced an rebate of Rs 8 Lakh with its E-Class sedan in order to clear the stocks as the company is planning to launch a new E-class model very soon. Following Mercedes-Benz, BMW has applied similar strategy through its preferred financier ICICI Bank These smart steps taken by both the companies will surely bring back the fading customers to their showrooms. The low EMI will definitely allure car buyers till the economy bounce back to its normal position further increasing the luxury car sales. Labels: Car-Sales, Luxury-Car, Mercedes-Benz-Cars
Friday, 26 December 2008
After experiencing a dull market for a long time, car manufacturers are now rejoicing their Christmas gift. This merriment is brought by the government who has played the role of Santa by gifting them the lowered excise duty. Yes, the 4% reduction in the central value-added tax has tremendously raised car sales. Excitingly, the market that was down from the past few months, have witnessed a number of customers walking into the car showrooms. With this, the December car sales have rose to about 20-25%. Even the piled inventories with the manufacturers are getting cleared. The discounts offered by car manufacturers in response to the lower excise duty had not shown any kind of excitement at an early stage. But gradually, leading car players realized that the rebates have helped improved car sales, especially in the past five days. Cars that have experienced maximum sales are the small cars that account for about three-fourth of the total car sales in December. Car companies like the Hyundai and the Maruti Suzuki have gained maximum revenues from their pleasing small cars like the Alto and Santro. Talking about the sedans, the New Honda City has seen good demand among the consumers. All these car manufacturers has received the gift they wanted. But, luxury car manufacturers like the Mercedes-Benz and the BMW are still in dark because of the high car finance rates. However, with the end of this calendar year, luxury car manufacturers are still hunting for better ways to boost their sales. Labels: Car-Manufacturers, Car-Sales, Luxury-Car
Tuesday, 23 December 2008
The global recession has disturbed the domestic car sales in the recent months. Its true that every black cloud have a silver lining. The silver lining is brought by the export sales amid the gloomy cloud canopying the car industry. Ironically, even during this time of downturn, the overall export sales went up with an impressive percentage of 61.8 in November this year. November experienced a export of 146,337 units compared to 90,398 units in same month last year. Passenger cars played a primary role in whooping the export figure which recorded a sale of 34,607 units in contrast of 15,464 units last year in the same period. The Korean car major Hyundai Motors witnessed a sale growth of 28,500 units from 9,898 units. Also, the Indian car leader Maruti Suzuki's sales raised from 4,382 units to 4,920 units. Whereas, the domestic sales has been affected in a big way forcing many car manufacturers to cut down their production capacity. Most of the car manufacturers have announced discounts and schemes with their car models with a hope to boost the car sales. Though these strategies have helped them to some limit but then they are still not able to revive the sales figure. Now, they are banking on the coming New Year to bring some fortune along with a fresh new dawn. Labels: Car-Industry, Car-Manufacturers, Car-Sales
Thursday, 18 December 2008
In this time of credit crisis, falling car sales, and slow economy, car manufacturers have no other option than to cut down their productions. It’s depressing to know that the leading car manufacturers across the country are now switching over to lower production capacities in response to the declining consumers demand. Car manufacturers like the Toyota, Honda, and the Tata Motors have been forced to revise their sales target due to falling car sales. These manufacturers already have a piled car stock with them. And to ease the impact of recession, they are trying various offers and schemes on car consumers to bring them back to the showrooms. But all attempts are going in vain. The unstable and unpredictable Indian car market has placed a big question mark on the consumers as well as the manufacturers. The Toyota has cut its production by about 30% after posting a fall of 48.55% car sales in November. In continuation, the Tata Motors has also announced a cut in their production to go well with the squeezing car demand in the market. Honda is also under the influence of major slump and defers its expansion plan while cutting down production at its Greater Noida plant situated near Delhi. With such an imbalance in the car market, it’s difficult to judge what the future holds. Car manufacturers are also waiting for the New Year dawn with high hopes that the market situation may improve. If the efforts to ease the impact of recession be successful, these manufacturers would again increase the production capacities in line with the increasing demands. Labels: Car-Manufacturers, Car-prices, Car-Sales
Friday, 12 December 2008
Though the car prices have been recently reduced by car manufactures in response to the excise cut, the prices may likely to hike up again with the increase in local state taxes of few Indian states. After a long time of falling car sales and dropping economy, Indian car manufacturers are rejoicing the reduction in excise duty announced by the government. But, the industry’s fortune may again start dwindling.  States like Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Rajasthan are expected to increase their local-level taxes which would definitely bring down the benefits of the lower excise rates. These states are following the trend started by Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashra, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. The latter have already increased their state taxes and the former are in the process to levy new local taxes. This would unfortunately increase the car prices.
Car consumers who were celebrating the cut in car prices just a few days back are now feeling the pinch. The pinch is even harder and painful because the state taxes are to be levied on the ex-showroom price of the car models. If it was on the ex-factory prices, these customers may have still enjoyed the benefits of excise cut.
Now, it has become difficult to say whether the car market will bloom this December or not. Potential consumers have also felt a harder pinch because the price cut announced in response to the excise cut was lower than the price increased due to the higher state taxes.
December may still prove to be a prosperous month for the car market because the increased taxes are still to be announced. Maybe, till then, potential car buyers can make up their minds to decide on their choice. Customers may take advantage of the reduced car prices now and make quick bookings. But that’s only for a short period. Labels: Car-Manufacturers, Car-prices, Car-Sales
Mahindra-Renault which managed to sell just 300 units of Logan last month is offering an attractive discount of Rs 60,000 on the car. The discount is a mix of direct cash discount from Mahindra-Renault and the benefit arising out of the CENVAT (Central Value Added Tax) rate cut. You can avail the discount on all the nine variants of the Logan which starts from 10th December and will be valid till 27th December. Nalin Mehta, Chief Executive Officer, Mahindra-Renault said, “We are offering a uniform discount of Rs 60,000 on the car from tomorrow, which is a mix of direct cash discount from us and the benefit arising out of the CENVAT rate cut.” The base variant of Logan petrol, Logan 1.4GL, now comes at Rs 4,12,000 against the Rs 4,72,000 earlier and the base variant of the Logan1.5 DLE diesel is available at Rs 5.15 Lakh compared to the previous price of Rs 5.75. Customers can also avail a bonus of Rs 10,000 under an exchange offer, which will be in addition to the Rs 60,000 cash discount. Submitted By: Rina Labels: Car-Discounts, Car-Sales, Logan, Mahindra-Renault
Thursday, 11 December 2008
The past couple of months have proved to be a curse for the global car market. The global recession had hit the industry so badly that it has affecting the economy. In November, the U.S car market experienced a decline of about 37% which is shockingly believed to be the steepest fall in the past 26 years. For about 26 years, U.S market has rejoiced a joyful ride. But now, even the big car manufacturers like General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler have reported over 40% decline in their car sales.
This situation in U.S has severely affected the Indian car market with domestic sales plunging to about 19.38% in November 2008. Like U.S, India also had lived a splendid time with a continuous boom in the domestic car sales in past 8 years. The glorious years are now over but the car manufacturers are still optimistic with hopes and aspiration. They are offering discounts and schemes as part of Christmas and New Year celebration with the expectation of growth in their car sales. Car manufacturers are looking forward with positive perceptions that the month of December will pour some blessings in the car market and put an end to the slowdown as well as this year. Almost all car manufacturers have cut down their car prices to bring back their waning customers to the showrooms. The consumer’s response after the announcement of heavy discount on Honda Civic Hybrid and Ford Fiesta are the live examples to showcase that car discounts may boost the car sales. Both the cars have experienced good sales in a small period of time. Further to that, the Indian Government has lowered the excise duty by 4%. This has given one more opportunity to the car industry for improving their sales numbers. Most of the car companies have reduced the prices of their entire fleet of cars to pass the benefit of lowed taxes to their customers. This means that the total discount in overall price of the car is double-digit with more expectations of car sales to zoom this December. Labels: Car-Manufacturers, Car-Sales, Indian-car-market
Tuesday, 9 December 2008
Mitsubishi feels happy to pass on the benefits of reduced excise duty to its customers. The company has combined the benefits of lower excise duty with the year-end schemes. All the five Mitsubishi cars running on Indian roads will now be available at cheaper price tags. The ex-showroom price of Montero and the recently launched appealing Outlander is slashed by 1 Lakh, they now carries the price tag of Rs 38.31 Lakh and Rs 20.35 Lakh, respectively. You can buy the Pajero at Rs 20.25 Lakh, Cedia at Rs 9.80 Lakh, and the Lancer at a price of Rs 7.74 Lakh. For the company this is the right time to boost car sales. And for consumers, this is probably the perfect time to buy a Mitsubishi car as this offer may not last for long. Labels: Car-prices, Car-Sales, Mitsubishi-Cars
Monday, 8 December 2008
As the New Year approaches, many car manufacturers are offering heavy discounts to scale up the dropping car sales and so is Hyundai. For Hyundai car lovers, the company has announced a jackpot. You would be glad and thrill to know that the company offers unbelievable and once in a lifetime offer on its compact car, the Hyundai Santro. You can now buy it at a 10 year old price of Rs 2.99 Lakh. Shocked or amazed, this is the fact and an opportunity that should not be missed. In addition, Hyundai also announces special schemes for its i10, Getz Prime, Verna, and Accent. On the purchase of Hyundai i10, you can enjoy a total savings of Rs 25,600 as you’ll get an exchange discount of Rs 7,500 along with free insurance and Hyundai original car accessories worth Rs 5,000. On buying the Getz Prime, you can get a benefit of Rs 27,500 with an exchange loyalty of Rs 10,000 coupled with a gift cheque of Rs 17,500. Purchase of Hyundai Verna can give you a total savings of Rs 44,270 available with a special scheme of free insurance and exchange loyalty of Rs 20,000. Also, on the purchase Hyundai Accent, you can make a total savings of Rs 27,500 with a gift cheque of Rs 17,500 and an exchange loyalty of Rs 10,000. Hurry friends, this is a limited period offer from 5th to 15th December. Labels: Car-Manufacturers, Car-Sales, Hyundai-cars
Friday, 28 November 2008
Hyundai has received a good response from the special offer the company had extended for the government employees. Eyeing the success of this promotional activity, the company now plans a similar scheme for PSU (Public Sector Undertaking) employees. The offer on government employees was announced in the month of October coinciding with their salary hike. Now, the same scheme has been extended to central government owned PSU employees like those working with ONGC and NTPC. Hyundai has excitingly sold about 3000 units under the scheme even during this time of downturn. The scheme is extended with a view to add efficacy to the existing scheme. Further pushing up the car sales, the company also has tie-ups with various banks including the State Bank of India, Axis Bank, and HDFC Bank to provide attractive car finance schemes to the prospective buyers. All the PSU employees can now get Hyundai cars with a discounted price. For these employees, the price of non-AC Santro is reduced by Rs 17,000, Santro GL/GLS by Rs 22,000, Getz by Rs 22,000, i10 by Rs 10,000, and Accent by Rs 12,000. Labels: Car-Sales, Hyundai-cars
Friday, 21 November 2008
The demand of radio taxis in India is gradually growing. Though this is increasing the market for car rental but car manufacturers are also rejoicing this growth. During this time when manufacturers are struggling to beat the recession, radio taxis are becoming a stable source of revenue for the car industry. This revenue is believed to persist for a minimum period of three to five years because of upcoming sports event in India. Fulfilling the needs of private car rental companies that offer radio taxis to tourists have become an alternative medium of car sales. A renowned cab service, Easy Cabs has placed an order for 700 Mahindra-Renault Logan. Alongwith the company has also placed an order for a fleet of 200 cars with Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors. Other popular car rental companies like Meru Cabs and Quick Cabs have also placed an order of 500 cars with different car manufacturers. Accepting this alternative source of car sales and revenue, car manufacturers are counteracting the decline in passenger car sales. Labels: Car-Sales, Maruti-Suzuki, Tata-Motors
Monday, 17 November 2008
The count 98 in one day is commendable! It’s incredible to believe that Honda has sold off 98 cars in just one day. This awesome sales figure was recorded after the company has slashed down the price of its Civic Hybrid by Rs 8 Lakh. This high sales number is obviously attributed to the sharpest and steepest decline in price tag of any car in the history of Indian car industry. A discount of nearly 40% in the price of the hybrid has lured many waning car customers. The demand has increased so much that Honda is struggling to keep the delivery in pace with the customer’s demand. It’s more exciting to know that the number sold in one day is much higher than that sold in the entire span of six months since the car was launched in June 2008. Honda still aims to sell 100 more cars and now let’s see how much hybrids ply on Indian roads. Labels: Car-Sales, Honda-Cars, Indian-car-industry
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
Though the Indian car market is on a slowdown, car manufacturers have recorded a surge in sales due to special offers extended to the government employees. Many car manufacturers like the Maruti, Hyundai, and General Motors, during the festive season had introduced special schemes and discounts for government employees in response to the pay revision. This special scheme has showed a substantial jump in the car sales across the sector. So, these manufacturers further plans to extend the schemes by another one month to cope up with the sluggish car market. Maruti, Hyundai, and General Motors are all happy and satisfied with the announcement of such schemes in the car market. This was a direct hit to the government employees who rarely feels the need to have a car. But now, the offers have knocked out their thoughts and they are approaching car dealers. The growing consumer interest has forced them to extend the scheme with high hopes to record a still higher sales figure. Labels: Car-Manufacturers, Car-Sales, Indian-car-market
Monday, 10 November 2008
The Indian car market is shaken due to the economic pressure and at this stage of unstable market the sales graph is tremendously falling down. In the spot of darkness, Maruti Suzuki saw a ray of light in term of sales. The leading car major has experienced a sales hike of 41% of its income during the period of Oct 2008 in the state of Orissa. The company recorded an income amount of 747 units across all its models in the last month of this year compared to the income of 616 units set down in May of this year. The models that bagged the credit for pushing the sales are cute and fuel-efficient Alto with sale of 252 units, which was followed by Wagon-R at 190 units and Swift at 111 units. Looks like the car sales are finally getting back to track! Labels: Car-Sales, Indian-car-market, Maruti-Suzuki-Cars
Monday, 3 November 2008
While we all were celebrating the lamps and chants of Diwali, the car manufacturers were also rejoicing festive season. Festive season for car manufacturers is not pertaining to Diwali but the season of good sales. Yes, the wait proved to be fruitful for them. Couple of months ago when the car sales was drastically going down, they has tied high hopes from the Diwali season. And their hopes actually reaped success for them. The day of Dhanteras, believed to be an auspicious day for buying metals, recorded the best sales figure. Amazingly, there are talks among the car dealers and manufacturers that about 15,000 vehicles or more have been sold across the country on that one single day. Though this Dhanteras was not able to beat the charm of last year, it was satisfactory, especially during this time of downturn. Giving a strong reason to smile, Dhanteras proved to be a big bonanza for car manufacturers. Labels: Car-Manufacturer, Car-Sales
Friday, 31 October 2008
The caption ‘buy a home to get a car’ sounds so simple. But is it that simple. Along with the car market, the entire economy is dwindling with high inflation and financial crisis. The middle class section of the society has headed towards a tough, challenging, and strange crossroads, a point where they have to cut down their basic necessity of life. Buying a home has become a challenge and even buying a car. Both are a necessity today. But, interestingly, today real estate owners are offering special schemes and discounts to lure customers. They are not able to reduce or cut down the actual cost because of increasing inflation but they are definitely offering incentives in terms of interiors and even cars. Yes, some of the real estate owners are offering cars to all their customers on booking a flat. This means, to buy a car of worth Rs 5 lakh or even Rs 10 lakh, you have to buy a house worth Rs 25 or 40 lakh. Car manufacturers are simply trying to club promotional activities to push car sales. But is this the right strategy for advertising or branding? Labels: Car-Manufacturers, Car-Market, Car-Sales
Friday, 24 October 2008
Like other car manufacturers, the Toyota is also eyeing the festive season to boost car sales. It also aims to catch customer’s sentiments by providing free service campaign. Exciting news is that the company has introduced the ‘Drive n Zoom’ free service campaign conducted at all Toyota car dealerships across India exclusively for Toyota customers. The key motive of introducing such kind of campaign is to spread the importance of periodic car maintenance essential for long and healthy life of cars. Good to know that the company offers 25-point free check up coupled with value-added packaged services. Underlining the campaign you’ll also get a chance to win assured gifts with the service and maintenance campaign. So, the month of October is for the Toyota car owners. Don’t waste your time and grab this excellent opportunity with open hands. Labels: Car-Manufacturers, Car-Sales, Toyota-Cars
Thursday, 23 October 2008
There’s good news for car buyers! For all those who were planning to buy cars and were pushed back by inflation and high car loan rates, have now got a perfect time to rejoice. You can now make up your mind to buy a new car. RBI has reduced the repo rate by 100 basis points and this must have given a sigh of relief to all those who were continuously stressed under spiraling car loan interest rates. This will definitely improve the status of liquidity crunch in the finance market and boost the sentiments and aspirations of Indian car consumers. With this, the car sales are expected to push up and the piled car stocks will be reduced. Expensive financing will not restrict the consumers from buying a new car anymore. So what do you say, will softening of the interest rate push car sales? Will people prefer buying new cars now? Labels: Car-Loans, Car-Sales, New-Car
Monday, 15 September 2008
Driven by the success of Maruti 800 sporty edition, Maruti Suzuki also planned to launch the limited edition of sporty Maruti Suzuki Zen Estilo. Though the original Zen Estilo is excellent in terms of performance and looks, it is beaten by some competitive cars that share the same display and graphics in the Indian car market. Maruti Suzuki’s own cars like Maruti Suzuki Swift and Maruti Suzuki WagonR have also overpowered the looks of Estilo. This gave a gloomy look to the Estilo’s sales chart. This gloomy look forced Maruti Suzuki to come out with a limited sporty edition of Zen Estilo. This limited edition in the start will come with the only difference of a sporty sticker on the rear door. Later on, the company will load it with exciting features but retain the same engine. It will come with attractive sporty graphics, roomy interiors, soft and appealing sporty fabric, designer dashboard, pulsating music player, and a combination of other exhilarating features. So, what do you say? Will the new limited version help to change the gloomy car sales of Estilo? Labels: Car-Sales, Indian-car-market, Maruti-Suzuki
Monday, 1 September 2008
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? Labels: Car-Manufacturers, Car-Sales, old-cars
 Maruti Suzuki has high plans to increase the car sales and meet the target of 1 million car sales by 2010-2011. Keeping in mind, the sales target, the company is planning to roll out cars that will solely suit the Indian conditions. It is trying to make India-specific modifications in its future cars. To make this act possible, Maruti Suzuki is working to make Maruti, a hub of small cars and Suzuki will play the engineering role to produce the India-specific models. This is still a long way to go. Meanwhile the company is hitting the market with a truly Indian car, Maruti Suzuki ‘A Star’ that incorporates traditional design and motif. It is also planning to increase the number of engineers and designers in its R&D centres so that more number of cars can be produced to meet the sales target. Labels: Car-Sales, Indian-Car, Maruti-Suzuki
Monday, 25 August 2008
My boss owns a Honda Accord and faced numerous problems since the purchase of this car. This car is having battery problem which was found old and when complaint was made the problem is not resolved and my boss has to replace the battery at his own expense. This car is having serious problem of engine’s heavy oil consumption. Till date not resolved. Last but most annoying that when there was a puncture on express highway, surprisingly the spare wheel found of another size then what it should have and still the right size wheel is not provided This entire complaint was made to HONDA MOTORS at Delhi and even JAPAN Head Office, they expressed only regrets but till date the problems are not resolved. I have only one question if same incident happened to some of the JAPANESE-AMERICAN-EUROPIAN Customer what will be action of HONDA MOTORS. I hope this will reach to you and think of any foreign company to be checked twice and not to rely just as they are from so called big company. They have worst after sales service I have found. I had very high regards for JAPANESE companies but in real sense they are as rude as any worst company of India.Thanks... Submitted By: Nitigna Trivedi Labels: Car-Sales, Car-Showroom, Hero-Honda
Monday, 4 August 2008
Maruti Suzuki reported a 7 % fall in the first quarter of the fiscal year. Maruti’s net profit dipped from Rs 499.6 crore in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year to Rs 465.9 crore in April-June 2008. Even though the sale in the first quarter of the fiscal year rose to about 18%, the net profit skids. What can be the reason of the low net profit? The answer is simple and straight. In the past few months, the company has witnessed depreciation of assets and spike in expenses which has eventually reduced the profit margin. High inflation and increasing material costs has forced the company to absorb some portion of the input or production costs. This action by Maruti resulted in higher number of car sales but unfortunately, the net profit of the company dipped. Another reason for the lower net profit was the extra Rs 62 crore that the company paid for the new depreciation policy. Apart from this, the company had made huge expenses in advertising and branding activities to lure waning customers during inflation. These activities helped the company register a good percentage of domestic sales but failed to earn profits. Is this the condition for all car manufacturers or only Maruti has suffered a loss? Labels: Car-prices, Car-Sales, Maruti Suzuki
Thursday, 10 July 2008
The headlines of the past few days in the car industry clearly stated that the car sale has dropped down as compared to the previous month. If you go and ask the car dealers, they have a mass of unsold cars stocked in their showrooms. What are they going to do with that? Some of them are dumping them in local markets, while others are selling cars with added discounts and some are even going for finance. It really sounds strange that car dealers are going for finance. Do you know the reason why? Whatever is the case, dealers have to pay the manufacturer for the car stock they bought. Many of them are going for additional finance to pay the manufacturers. Even they are afraid to go for finance with such high interest rates. If dealers are afraid of the interest rates then it’s obvious that consumers will stay away from car loan and finance. Labels: Car-Industry, Car-Sales
Tuesday, 24 June 2008
The increasing steel price has pinched all the car vendors. All of them are pushing the manufacturers to absorb a portion of the cost increase and relieve them. Realising the aftermath of about 50-60% increase in steel prices, Tata Motors has decided to absorb a major portion of the cost increase for its Nano vendors. The Nano was expected to be launched with a higher price tag due to the high input cost. But, with the vendors renegotiating the contract, the company has poured a few drops of relief. The Nano itself is a 1 lakh car, and amazingly the input cost is coming out to be very high. The auto component company supplying parts to the Nano is also battling against 40% increase in oil price. Labels: Car-Sales, Tata-cars
 Indian car industry had witnessed a major growth in the previous year. But this year car manufacturer Ford doubts the growth level because of the inflationary pressures.
Ford, while launching the new variants of Ford Fiesta, was worried about the sale and growth of the car. Everyone associated with the manufacture, design and production of the cars are sure that an increase of almost 10% in the inflation is going to have a great influence on the industry's growth. Rising inflation has also pushed up the interest rates, delivering disappointment and doubts to car manufacturers. It has also deterred new and used car purchases. Now what? Will India beat the high growth figure of the last few years? Labels: Car-Manufacturers, Car-Sales, Ford
Wednesday, 11 June 2008
India’s lone electric car, the Maini REVAi, has won its manufacturer a coveted European award. The Reva Electric Car Company has bagged the prestigious ‘2008 Frost & Sullivan European Automotive Powertrain Company of the Year’ award after being recognized for excellence in customer satisfaction, superior penetration of the market and high sales volume. Costing just 9000 pounds in the UK, when most electric cars are priced 17,000 pounds and above, the REVA is rated the world’s cheapest electric car. While the tiny Reva has not been very popular with the Indian public, it sees impressive sales in the European market. The Reva sells one electric car every day in the UK. Labels: Car-Awards, Car-Sales, Electric Cars, Maini
Thursday, 5 June 2008
While car companies rejoiced in the months of March and April when car sales were high, the succeeding month of May left them in tears. After April, car sales started dipping. While the car industry posted a growth of 22 percent in the month of April, the record for May was a mere 13-15 percent.
Maruti continues to lead as always followed immediately by enthusiastic Hyundai. But General Motors which has being doing well over the last couple of years has witnessed a sudden slowdown.
With input costs for car manufacturers being ever on the rise and as the world crude oil will continue to price $120 plus per barrel, the Indian car industry needs to come up with a new strategy to arrest falling car sales.
Labels: Car-Sales, General Motors, Hyundai, Maruti
Friday, 16 May 2008
German car manufacturer Audi is presently focusing harder on India market. The company now targets to sell 1000 units in 2008. It has already sold over 300 units and reaching the new target seems to be a very conservative estimate. Audi had created a successful image since it entered India. This is evident in the fact that it has five models in its portfolio for India. The cars are hugely popular among the youth, who proudly flaunt the four rings.
As the country continues to drive the company performance upwards, the company now seems to be keen to contribute something back to it. It will launch a new A4 sedan in July this year. Labels: Audi-Cars, Car-Sales
Wednesday, 14 May 2008
It is commendable that Maruti Suzuki is leading the total car sales of India. It is the only company which keeps repeating its success year after year, while other big names continue with dismal performance. Maruti still comprises half of the cars sold in India. It has surpassed its April 2007 sales figure by 22.4 percent. However, the entry level sedan segment, upper mid-size segment and premium segment have all recorded a decline in sales. Its small cars Alto, Wagon R and the entry level sedan Swift Dzire have driven sales up for the car sector in India. Maruti continues to be the leader who leads from the front. It is due to the innovative vehicles, super networking and cheap cost that has increased car sale in India. If these options were not offered to the buyers, India would have been light years away from car consumerism that we witness today. Thanks to Maruti Suzuki, the country is now acknowledged as one of the biggest market in the world for cars. Labels: Car-Sales, Maruti Suzuki
Monday, 12 May 2008
The newly launched Skoda Fabia small car has been working wonders for the Czech car manufacturer. The Fabia sold out in high numbers since it was introduced to India in January this year. Skoda posted an 81% rise in sales during the month of April.
Here’s news that will surely bring a cheer to all Skoda fans. Skoda does not seem satisfied with its deeds yet and is already working on a new small car. The new car will first be launched in India and later taken to European markets. It’s not expected anytime soon though and is likely to debut in 2010. Labels: Car-Sales, new car launch, Skoda, small cars
Friday, 9 May 2008
Ahead of the likely price hike, car sales jumped 17.2 % in the month of April. In fact it was the highest sales recorded in the past seven months. The highest number of sales was recorded by Maruti Suzuki India, the car market leader in India. The Indian buyers have taken advantage of the excise cuts and fantastically lower prices. Coupled with this, some car dealers even offered freebies with the car to push sales up. Those who wanted to buy cars after 3-4 months, advanced their dates to take maximum advantage of the price reduction. The gamble has paid well for car manufacturers. They now have health numbers of sales to show for this fiscal year. This is an irony of car business, where prices tumbled by Rs 2,000 to Rs 18,000 in March and continued in April. However, May will witness a hike in prices between Rs 4,000 to Rs 16,000. The price hike may pose a hurdle to the car sales, but are the car manufacturers geared up to face it?
Labels: Car-Sales, hike in car's price
Friday, 25 April 2008
BMW has been riding high on its success in India since its entry about a year ago. After reaching a sales figure of nearly a thousand cars last year, it’s now aiming at twice the figure for 2008. They have already taken steps in this direction by increasing production capacity at their Chennai plant and are currently looking to source components locally. The BMW 3 Series and 5 Series models produced at the Chennai plant have been immensely popular with the Indian public.
BMW’s strong sales encouraged it to introduce more of its car models to the Indian market such as the popular M Series and the customizable and completely imported 7 Series. BMW has also been tempted into considering the launch of the famous premium hatchback MINI Cooper. The MINI Cooper, however, is not on the list of BMW’s priorities at the moment.
Before BMW’s arrival, German rival Mercedes-Benz took up nearly 50% of India’s fast growing luxury car market. Over the past 14 months, BMW has successfully stolen some of that market away. The top selling model for BMW in India has been the 3 Series which competes with the Mercedes-Benz C-Class. The popular Mercedes-Benz E-Class sees competition from BMW in the form of the 5 Series model.
Excellent aftersales service and great customer relationship have been selling points for BMW. The successful setup and operation of the Chennai plant for local production of the 3 Series and 5 Series cars has been critical to BMW’s success. Labels: BMW-Cars, Car-Sales, Mercedes-Benz
Thursday, 10 April 2008
The image of poverty ridden India seems to sink into the burgeoning flood of cars on the streets. The number of luxury cars rolling by portrays a unique picture.
Take a look at BMW’s sales report for the first quarter of 2008. The number of new BMW cars has increased by nearly a thousand cars in the period from January 2008 to March 2008 - a rise of around 800 percent compared to last year. India topped the list of countries that saw the highest percentage of increase in BMW's luxury car sales. BMW has truly become a new status symbol for the new age Indians.
Labels: BMW-Cars, Car-Sales, luxury cars
Friday, 4 April 2008
Renault made its debut by launching Logan in India through a joint venture with Mahindra a few years ago. After it’s entry into India, Logan has somehow managed to give good competition to its rivals in mid-size segment but it failed to impress and attract more customers as expected by Renault. Now, Logan is being revamped and presented with new style.
It’s not so impressive performance and heavy price tags have forced many customers to opt for other cars than Logan. When people are going crazy for small cars in countries like India, it will be really challenging task for car manufacturers to increase the sale of mid-size sedans like Logan. So, Renault has determined to revamp and add some more frills to Logan. It will launch revamped version of Logan in next few months to take on its competitors mainly Maruti Swift Dzire. Let’s hope Renault will achieve success this time. Labels: Auto market competition, Car-Sales, Logan, Mahindra, Maruti Dzire, midsize cars, Renault, small cars
Wednesday, 2 April 2008
Maruti DZire is already desired by thousands of buyers in India. It was launched on March 26, and the company has reported that it has already sold over 5,000 units in this financial year. Maruti’s impressive sales record seems to be going over the graph. After the lone rider SX4 helped the company top the mid-size cars category, DZire seems to be helping sales phenomenally. The small car segment has also posted an impressive growth. With such a popular line up of cars, it is time that Maruti enhanced it with some global cars. We already know that A-star is coming in October. But a dash of luxury will spice up the Maruti portfolio very much. Labels: Car-Sales, Maruti Dzire, Maruti SX4, midsize cars, new cars, small cars
Tuesday, 1 April 2008
It is good news that the excise duty has been reduced vastly on small cars. The government should have scrapped excise duty completely on electric car. Electric cars would have received a huge push in sales, if the prices dropped. The concept of electric car has been popular in India since Maini Revai was launched. The car is also credited to be the highest selling electric car in the world. Though people are interested in pollution control by opting it, most car buyers have shunned it and going for petrol and diesel cars since it is priced heavily. The another electric and environmentally-friendly car Bavina is set to launch this year and many other companies are in different stages of developing electric cars, a little reduction of price or abolition of excise duty on electric cars would surely encourage buyers to drive home electric cars. Labels: Car-Sales, Diesel cars, Electric Car, Environment friendly car, Excise duty, Maini Reva, Petrol cars
Monday, 31 March 2008
It has been a bad beginning for the Auto Industry in stock market this fiscal. First it was hike in interest rates, followed by stringent measures adopted by financial institutions and now increases in prices of raw materials. The downward performance this fiscal follows the impressive performance in 2006 - 2007. The higher interest rates, hard financial options have resulted in negative sales figures of automobile companies resulting in poor performance of the auto stocks. But, financial observers see downward trend in car sales figures only as a time phrase which could recover by the second quarter. The Indian auto Industry has been in the global news this week with the Tata Motors clinching the Jaguar and Land Rover deal from Ford Motor. But the stock markets have not been favorable for the Tata Motors yet. Soon after the announcement of the deal on Thursday Tata Motors shares plunged by 6.39 per cent at Rs 636 dragging the BSE Auto Index down 1.79 per cent. Tata Motors share had been on the downtrend ever since Ford announced that Tata Motors was the preferred bidder for its luxury brands in January. Tata Motors on Friday opened at Rs 654 and closed at 645.85 a loss of Rs 9.50. Similarly, Maruti Suzuki which is heavily affected by increase in raw materials opened at 834.75 and closed at 829.25 a loss of Rs 9.05. Labels: Auto market competition, auto share market in India, Car-Sales, JLR deal, Maruti, raw materials, scenario in India auto industry, Tata Motor
Friday, 28 March 2008
Many who are expecting reduction in the price of Maruti-800 after Tata Nano’ appearance at Auto expo, will be disappoint to know the fact Maruti will not reduce any price of maruti-800 in future to compete with one lakh car Tata nano as Maruti does not want to compete with nano and is not even thinking to manufacture any new small car on the lines of ultra cheap car, Tata nano. Before Tata nano’s appearance, Maruti-800 was considered as one of the cheapest small car available in the country for many middle class families. When Tata motors have confirmed its production of one lakh car, many had thought that maruti would cut the price of maruti-800 on par with one lakh car to compete with nano. But now that suspense is over as Maruti openly clarified its intention that it will not reduce or cut down the price of Maruti-800 to compete with nano. Such honesty statement by maruti will really create conducive atmosphere in auto market leaving no place for unhealthy competition. Labels: Auto market competition, Car-Sales, Expansion in business, Maruti 800, Nano, One Lakh Car, small cars
All those small car owners who thought that they could now get a DZire sedan by paying just Rs 75,000 more than Swift hatch back’s cost, take note of this. Maruti Suzuki has decided to increase the introductory price for DZire. Rise in input costs of aluminum and copper are forcing Maruti to increase the price of Dzire. The prices are likely to be revised in the next few weeks. So all those who want the new DZire will have to rush to Maruti outlets soon and book your cars, otherwise you will end up paying more than you thought. What with the cost of interest, rising cost of accessory and rising fuel costs. Anything more will certainly burn your pockets. Labels: Car-Sales, hike in car's price, Maruti, small cars, Swift Dzire
Thursday, 27 March 2008
It seems that B and C cities are emerging as profitable markets for car companies in the last year. The rising income and easy accessibility to loans have been largely responsible for driving car sales upwards in these cities. As metros have been are soon going to become a stagnant market, it makes sense that car manufacturers look for cities other than metros. Most of these car buyers in these cities are first time car owners and obviously go for entry level cars. It is believed that Hyundai accounts 40 per cent of its sales including small cars and luxury cars are in cities other than the metros and six big cities in India. And the most popular models have been Santro and i10. Labels: Car-competition, Car-Sales, Expansion in business, Hyundai, luxury cars, New i10 model, small cars
Maruti Suzuki is fast expanding its business to the rural areas than ever before. The car major is now looking at more income segments apart from the traditional businessman and urban salary groups. Last year the company has targeted government employees including teachers and also shop floor workers. The campaign received overwhelming responses and was a great success as maruti sold a whopping number of 23,000 cars including small cars and sedans under the scheme, last year. This year the company is targeting buyers in rural areas. The company has devised the panchayat scheme to increase the sale of small cars at grass root level. Under the scheme, Maruti's small cars will be available at discounted prices. Panchayat members, employers of regional rural banks, tahshildars and other government employees in rural areas are entitled to avail of this scheme. Let’s hope the other car manufacturers like Honda, Tata Motors, Hyundai may take cue from Maruti to help rural people to own cars. Labels: Auto market competition, Car-Sales, Maruti Suzuki, new schemes, samll cars
Wednesday, 26 March 2008
Tata Nano may further become cheaper when it hit the Indian roads in next few months. The appearance of Tata Nano, world’s cheapest car at auto expo has stirred up Indian auto industry and stunned many car manufacturers who thought manufacturing of 1 lakh car was just impossible. It’s all history now. Tata Motor is again waiting to give one more surprise by further reducing the price of Nano. If reports are to be believed, Tata has formed a team to find out ways to cut down the cost of its Rs 1 lakh car. If the price of nano come down further, buyers of this car will be doubled than present one as all most all families would own it by bidding good-bye to their two-wheeler. It’s time to cheer-up for small car buyers! Labels: Auto market competition, Car-Sales, One Lakh Car, Prices, Small Car, tata nano
Some car manufacturers make festivals more colourful than the rest. The Indian car giant Tata Motors is coming up with some interesting offers for this Ugadi. It has cut down the prices of its flagship models Indica and Indigo. The new Indica V2 Xeta will now cost you Rs 39,000 less and the price of Indigo CS has been brought down to Rs 3.60 lakh from the current Rs 4.5 lakh. It would mean a lot of savings for the buyers. So guys! Who are waiting for the new Indigo CS can do so now. Or it will be never. The tradition of offering discounts and special offers during festival season will really encourage people to buy new cars and make the festivals a memorable event in their lives. Labels: Car-Sales, Customer offer, festival discounts, Indigo CS, Tata, Tata Indica
Many car manufacturers are generously offering good discounts and freebies to encourage people to buy their cars. They also reduced price of small cars after excise duty cut in union budget. But it is not sure how long it will be continued as the rise in the price of steels and other raw materials is forcing car manufacturers to withdraw offers and increase the price of cars including luxury cars and small cars. The generosity and enthuse of car manufacturers would not last for a long time and it would always be a short lived. They can now withdraw all offers and increase the car’s price at any time depending on marketing conditions. People, who have kept their plans of buying new cars on hold in anticipation of further reduction in their prices, could loose more money if they wait for another few months. It’s right time to start buying their favorite car. Wait and watch may prove too costly as prices could be increased at any moment. Labels: Auto market competition, Car-Sales, Customer offer, discounts, Prices
Thursday, 20 March 2008
Hyundai’s women’s day with Santro scheme has worked magic. The company followed a soft approach towards the rising number of working women drivers and managed to successfully attract customers. It had offered a women’s day special scheme on the Santro Xing model starting March 1st.
A 50 % waiver on loan processing fee and loans at 0.75 % lower rate of interest than market rate were offered that brought the car loan percentage to 13.5 or 14 percent. After the success of this scheme, Hyundai has extended the scheme for the entire month of March. Labels: Car-Loans, Car-Sales, Hyundai
Wednesday, 19 March 2008
It’s great news for the hunchback car Maruti SX4. It has topped sales in the midsize car segment beating the likes of the elegant Honda City ZX and the very fuel-efficient Hyundai Verna (especially the diesel version). When the SX4 was launched, it was recognized easily because it looked ‘different’. As with all cars, some people liked the design and some didn’t. And now, with news of its successful sales, we know that ‘many’ liked it.
Suzuki is finally growing out of its small car image in India. An image created by the popular Maruti 800 and Alto. Labels: Car-competition, Car-Sales, Maruti, midsize cars
Friday, 14 March 2008
The month of March has so far been the most exciting for car buyers. Buying a car this month has been like going to a restaurant and finding out that someone else has ordered something better. There’s so much on the menu to choose from. The number of car models on sale is unbelievable. The price cut on small cars after the new union budget has unleashed a car shopping spree. Ever since Maruti, Hyundai, Chevrolet, Tata and Fiat cars have become cheaper, there has been a mad rush at car showrooms.
Now, Ford too has entered the race. Ford’s new March Masti programme is really interesting. Read this - you can get a loan at an interest rate of just 7.5 % and a whole lot of interesting accessories worth Rs 22,000 completely free with a new Ford car! Labels: car buying, Car-Discounts-India, Car-Sales, Ford, small cars
Tuesday, 11 March 2008
Grabbing the market and attracting customers has become a challenge for car manufacturers in India. Many car companies are coming up with new ideas to get a good hold on sales. General Motors is one among them and it has gone a step ahead of the others this time. Buying a Chevrolet Spark is now easier. You can drive one home without any down payment at all. Don't worry about saving up to buy a car and you don't need to have a fat bank balance. If you have a decent salary, you are eligible to buy it. A copy of your salary slip and a few other documents are all you need! Labels: Car-competition, Car-Sales, Chevrolet, Customer offer, Spark
Here's something that Ford has come up with to help car buys benefit from the excise duty cut in our latest union budget. It has reduced the price of Fusion's diesel variant by Rs. 22, 000. The very day the union budget was announced, Indian car manufacturers like Maruti and Hyundai reduced the prices of many of their small cars. Taking a cue from them, Ford too dived in and thus the Fusion diesel story. If the current trend continues, we could see even more car manufacturers reducing prices of small cars pretty soon.
Labels: Car-competition, Car-Sales, Ford India, Hyundai, Maruti, Reducing model price
Maruti is known for its commitment to provide cars at affordable prices and has proved it with the huge number of Maruti 800 cars it has sold over the past two decades. When most car companies are targeting urban customers by offering good discounts and free after sale services, Maruti is focussed on rural customers. Maruti will encourage rural masses to buy its cars by lending financial help to them. They have tied up with Shriram City Union Finance to help rural people get timely and hassle free financial assistance. Labels: Car-competition, Car-Sales, Finance, Maruti, Maruti 800, Maruti Alto
Saturday, 8 March 2008
If we go by news, the Tata Nano is launching in October this year. Some people have been speculating the launch date and others have been eagerly counting days till October. There’s some good news. Tata Motors is starting bookings for the Nano from June; across the country but in select cities only. Which cities exactly? We still don’t know. Also, the news of the booking though reliable, hasn’t been officially announced yet.
Whether the Nano will actually arrive in September-October isn't known yet. With so much demand for the car, why wait? Prepare to book a Nano for yourself! Labels: car bookings, Car-Launch, Car-Sales, tata nano
It’s a story of Tortoise beat the Hare in a “car race”. Last month, the Mahindra-Renault Logan suddenly sold out in large numbers to overtake Honda City, Hyundai Verna and Maruti Suzuki SX4. The Logan has always been appreciated for being a good mileage car. But for a long time, its price wasn’t helping sales. Promotional campaigns weren’t going its way either. The ‘most spacious sedan on Indian roads’ was unable to make much space for itself in our highly competitive car market. It was slowly drifting into oblivion.
A new price strategy from Mahindra-Renault has come to the Logan’s rescue. The family sedan now comes cheaper at Rs 4.5 lakh for petrol and Rs 5.75 lakh for diesel variant. Now, the car is most probably filling Mahindra Motors’ balance sheets alongside the Scorpio. We thought the new union budget might encourage Mahindra-Renault to come out with a smaller version of the Logan but that’s not what they have in mind. It will remain just the same. We hear there’s a new brand campaign in the works though. Labels: Car-Discounts-India, Car-Sales, Honda, Hyundai, Mahindra-Renault, Maruti Suzuki
Thursday, 6 March 2008
Indian car enthusiasts have always been passionate about luxury cars. They have an undying spirit and love for owning such cars. This obsession with luxury cars may be one of the strongest reasons for the success of Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, and the likes. Within a span of a few years, the Indian car industry has started to become swarmed with famous global car brands from renowned car manufacturers who have globally proved their mettle. These car companies have received a great response to their luxury cars. Most of their sedans, small cars and SUVs have become a grand success inspite of being highly priced. This trend is clearly seen in the successful sales numbers that each of the luxury car makers have achieved over the past few years. Last month saw 241 BMWs sold. BMW is so confident of the market that they have set themselves a sales target of 10,000 cars by 2010. Audi and Mercedes-Benz have similar success stories to tell. Labels: Audi, BMW-Cars, Car-Sales, luxury cars, Mercedes-Benz
People waiting to buy a small car at a very good price now have a reason to smile as a few big car manufacturers in India are reducing prices of their cars. The excise cut for small cars announced in our new union budget has tempted many people to now consider making a purchase.
Maruti, Tata and Hyundai have announced huge reductions in prices of their car models to encourage people to start buying and to bring the benefit of the excise duty cut to the common man’s doorsteps. Prices cuts range from Rs. 8,000 to Rs. 20,000. And it’s not just the old and established models like Maruti 800 and Tata Indica that come with this. Even the newly launched models like Tata Indigo CS are available with a huge discount. Truly a season of celebration for car lovers! Labels: Car-Sales, Low budget cars, Maruti, Small cars market in India
Wednesday, 5 March 2008
Car manufacturers are becoming increasingly clever at sales strategies to boost sales. It’s now a popular business strategy of many car manufacturers to offer special discounts during festivals and other special occasions to attract people to buy their cars.
Hyundai Motor India Ltd. is trying to make the International Women’s Day on March 8th more special for women. It’s offering a discount of Rs.14, 000 on the Santro Xing automatic transmission model to commemorate this special event. This special offer, which has started from March 1st itself, will surely tempt many women into driving home a Santro. Labels: Car-Sales, discounts, Hyundai, sales strategy, Santro Xing
Tuesday, 4 March 2008
The Chevy Spark sold over 2000 cars in February 2008, a majority of which are owned by women drivers. Spark has charmed its way into women’s hearts posting an 80% increase in sales and topping the list of highest-sold cars for the month of Feb. The other car that has women swooning is the cute Chevy Aveo U-VA.
The sudden rush to buy the Spark has increased GMs market share beating that of its US rival Ford. This may very well be the first step towards women turning into major car market swingers – something that was pre-dominantly considered to be “a guy thing”. Labels: Car-competition, Car-Sales, Chevrolet, Ford, Spark
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