If you had been planning to sell your bike and obtain a safer means of transportation, the perfect time has arrived. Maruti Suzuki dealers in Mumbai and surrounding regions like Thane, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan and some other areas have come up with an amazing exchange programme to beat the increasing competition. Yes, now you can barter your old bike and avail a discount of Rs 25,500 on the 800cc Maruti Alto.

The ads of the offer, which was published in leading dailies on 10 August, strikes at the core disadvantages of motorcycles and highlights how they are uncomfortable and unsafe compared to a car. Considering that the monsoon has set in the country including Mumbai, the offer could not have come at a better timing. “Skip the risky two-wheeler skid. Give your family more safety this monsoon. Drive India’s favourite family car,” it reads.

The idea is to expand the market for the Alto, said one of the dealers participating in the scheme. “Moreover with the launch of the Alto K-10 (with 1-litre engine), we needed to do something to keep buyer’s interest sustained in the Alto 800,” he said, requesting not to be named.

Shashank Srivastava, chief general manager at Maruti Suzuki, said the exchange offer, which is currently concentrated in the Mumbai region, would soon be initiated in the other parts of the country too. The average monthly sales of the model are 20,000 units.

Maruti launched the K-10 on 4 August. So the exchange offer seems more like a clearance sale. But we suspect that Maruti Suzuki would slowly bring down the production of the Alto, and eventually phase it out from the Indian market. Six years ago, Maruti had launched a similar programme for the 800 and Alto. But the results were not very significant. But times have changed and Indians have become ever so ambitious since then.

“It is a huge opportunity if we can get people to trade their two-wheelers for our cars,” Srivastava said.

For a long time, Maruti 800 had been the ideal choice for many a first car buyers. But since Tata Nano entered, things changed. And the M800 was phased out too. And even though competition has intensifies, Maruti is still going strong with the Alto.

Earlier this month, Maruti launched a new commercial for Alto cars. The key challenge, said Syed Ajmal Ali, executive vice- president of Lowe Lintas ad agency, was to differentiate between the existing Alto BSIV (800cc) and the K-10.

Since the company would not want one model to undercut the other’s market, the advertising strategy was to differentiate them in terms of attitude rather than features, he said. “Alto K-10 is aimed at appealing to those consumers who connect with a kind of lifestyle which is different from conventional living.” Maruti Alto is currently the largest selling car in the Indian market, and is priced at Rs 2.3 lakh ex-showroom Mumbai.