Dealers flog special editions to create new customer keys

Planning to buy a new car? How about special edition? With the number of car dealers are increasing in double digit numbers within a city, the dealers are wooing customers with special edition models. 

The car loaded with high sporty mag wheels, sun-roof, stickering, shark fin antenna, front, rear and side skirts, spoilers, body graphics, body dual colours for external look. Interiors look is also changed with leather seat covers, touch screen music systems, leather seats, coloured mats, navigation systems and so on.

Talking to Deccan Herald, Maruti Suzuki Dealer Bimal Auto Agency CEO Naveen Sarawgi said, “We have been doing ‘Bimal Edition’ since 2002. Many customers trusted our judgement and asked us to accessorize the car with a certain budget and they really liked and appreciated what we did for them. So, we decided to keep a few such cars ready in the showroom - and these sold like hot cakes. Now it is a key differentiation and many customers come to us from far flung areas only for ‘Bimal Edition’ cars.”

“Bimal Edition is uniquely modified based on specific requirements of the customer and makes a style statement. We never exactly repeat the same customisation,” Naveen Sarawgi added.  The cost of customisation on a Bimal Edition car starts from Rs 25,000 and can go as high as Rs 1,50,000 also.

Advaith Hyundai Director (Sales & Marketing) L N Ajay Singh said, “Bangalore customers go for the best models and they are gadget freaks and the age group of between 25 to 40 years would like to load their cars with lot of accessories. They want to upgrade to music system of touch screen system and with high end accessories. This is where we started Advaith Limited Edition cars.” For Advaith Hyundai, this concept started  in 2005 onwards, where cars were not fully loaded from the manufacturers.

When asked about why special edition cars, Ajay Singh said, “It gives a sporty look and stands out in the crowd.”

Echoing similar views, Nandi Toyota, Sales Manager, Deepak Nair said, “To sell more accessories and meet expectations of customers as far as looks, entertainment, comfort and convenience are concerned. We started selling ‘Nandi Special’ from 2007.

Customer needs

“Customers have the option of customising according to their needs and requirements in all aspects. Nandi Toyota gives a warranty of three years for all Toyota Genuine Accessories fitment,”Nair said.

Mandovi Motors Private Limited, Vice President (Marketing & Sales), Yeshwant Rai, said, “Special edition or customised car is a ready offering to customers who have fancy for car accessories . This concept has started almost 10 year ago when the supply of cars became more than demand. Dealers started customising cars and displaying in showrooms.

This attracts customers who wants unique look for their car with a different taste and wants to be identified differently on roads. Generally the customers in the age group of 25 to 35 years are the buyers of such cars.”

Rai further added that, “Customised car concept is similar to that of a mannequins in an apparel shop where one can have the exact idea as how it looks.”

Additional cost for such cars will be in the range from Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lakh and 10 per cent of our total sales contribution is from such customised cars specially in the premium hatchback segment, Rai added.

Moreover, special edition cars help dealers to sell more cars from 5 to 15 per cent. In fact, for accessories sales, the Bimal Auto Agency is  rated among the top dealers in India. “8-10 per cent of our total sales comes from these Edition cars. But we are highly passionate about creating these cars, proudly displaying and demonstrating them and we get immense satisfaction when each of these beauties find a equally passionate owner,” Naveen Sarawgi said.

Naveen Sarawgi recollects one of the incident “that the former MD of Maruti Udyog Limited Jagdish Khattar visited our showroom and really motivated us to do the Deziner Car Expo at the St Joseph’s Ground and we got fantastic footfalls as it was the first of its kind event in Bangalore. We booked 27 Bimal Edition cars at that event. We continue to keep participating and displaying such Edition cars at various car melas and expos - and across all our seven sales outlets.”

For Advaith Hyundai, 5 per cent of its total sales are special editions cars, and on an average of Rs 40,000 to Rs 60,000 and above accessories are sold per special edition. Advaith is third in South India in accessory sales.

Ajay Singh adds that “Customers acceptance has increased over a period of years, people with passion towards their cars don’t mind spending money on Edition cars.”

Big challenge

Speaking on challenges Deepak Nair, said “Finding a customer for particular colour will be a challenge and also certain accessories once fitted cannot be removed.”Few customers expressed their opinion, “We were looking around for a car and my son always wanted a car with a designer edge and we happen to drop-in to Maruti Showroom near our vicinity Bimal Auto Agency.

They had couple of customized cars displayed  at showroom which were tastefully done. All of us really got excited and were thrilled to see these cars customized like this which we had never seen before,” said Srinivas.

One more customer Ved Prakash said, “We are a family of auto enthusiasts and had moved to Bangalore recently and were looking to buy new Maruti Swift and jazz the same with some accessories. We were in for a pleasant surprise seeing the range of brand new Maruti cars fully decked up with lovely accessories. It was a very nice feeling as we got a lot more options and possibilities to jazz up our car.”