Car sellers have turned 'Santa', offering goodies in Dec

To entice customers in a free-for-all marketing bout, car companies, with their dealers, are offering cash discounts, free insurance, exchange bonus, zero interest, etc.

The main reason why car buyers are pampered is that normally they shy away in the month of December from buying new cars because within a month, the model becomes one year old. The inertia comes from a traditional mindset that in the resale market, cars lose value with the additional period of every year. So, people prefer to buy a new car in January, rather than in December.

To overcome this seasonal drop, car makers in the last few years have been offering lots of sops in December. Most of the manufacturers also increase their vehicle prices in the month of January which increases retail of vehicles.

Another reason for offering goodies is that the industry will probably grow only between 2-4 per cent in 2011-12 against 30 per cent growth last year.

To lure buyers, car makers and dealers together are making their best offers. Picture this, Maruti Suzuki is offering ‘savings’ ranging from Rs 30,000 (Alto Std/Lx, A-Star), Rs 25,000 (Wagon-R), Rs 35,000 (Estilo) on purchase of a new car in December. In all, it is offering varied discounts in nine of its models. As a part of the deal, the company is also offering exchange bonus of up to Rs 25,000. Not to be outdone, Hyundai India is offering many freebies like free insurance, cash discount, zero per cent interest rate loan, exchange bonus etc. It is interesting to note that its recently launched model ‘EON’ comes with free insurance and Rs 10,000 exchange bonus.

General Motors Chevrolet Spark has Rs 55,000 cash discount, Beat comes with free insurance plus Rs 10,000 worth of accessories, whereas Nissan Micra (Petrol) has Rs 50,000 cash discount.

Tata Motors too is offering discounts, exchanges bonus, and special down-payment schemes across all passenger cars and utility vehicles. The cash discount ranges from Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 and the special down-payment schemes start from Rs 25,000 onwards. Tata Safari is available at a special price of Rs 7.95 lakh, with a cash discount of Rs 30,000. In addition, there is an exchange bonus offer of Rs 40,000 across all cars and UVs.

“We consider December to be the best month for car sales as we can expect more buyers attracted by alluring offers,” says Trident Hyundai Director Sameer Kumar.

Similarly, Ford India is offering free insurance and Rs 10,000 worth of accessories on Ford Figo. Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) Etios’ petrol model has began annual anniversary celebrations beginning this month wherein customers can cash in on good deals and offers available on all petrol models in terms of special retail rates and insurance schemes at one rupee.

TKM Deputy Managing Director (Sales and Marketing) Sandeep Singh said, “High rate of interest has definitely lowered sales, forcing people to hold purchase decisions. There has been a gradual slowdown in enquiry levels which in turn has led to lower conversions of enquiries to sale. In our case, we have seen an average dip of 25 per cent in case of petrol vehicles and 10 per cent in case of diesel vehicles.”

Agreed Mandovi Motors

CGM (Sales) Yeshwant Rai: “Footfalls will increase in the second fortnight of the month. The conversion ratio of the enquiry in December is very high. From a normal conversion ratio of 18-20 per cent in all months, the conversion percentage will be above 40 per cent in December,” adding, “We expect exchange sales will be 30 per cent higher compared to other months.”

Buyers are encouraged to  buy new cars now because  car makers have announced price rise from January next. Surely,  December is turning out to be the best month to buy cars.