As deadline looms on BS III vehicles, bike showrooms see rush

Buyers rushed to make best of the ban on sale of Bharat Stage III vehicles from April 1 as two-wheeler showrooms slashed prices and offered free insurance on some of the best selling bikes.

Chethan M, sales manager at Maxmotors, an authorised dealer for Hero Motocorp bikes and scooters said there were three people in the sales unit but couldn’t handle all the prospective buyers, some of whom had to wait for nearly an hour. “I have not seen this kind of rush any other time. We sold 60 bikes and had to handle more than 350 prospective customers,” he said.

Vanita M K, who had come from Vijayanagar, said she visited three show-rooms but could get hold of the Hero Motocorp’s Duet only at the Rajkumar Road facility. “I had to wait half an hour. But once the sales manager was free, I got the bike in minutes as I had got the full money and documents,” she said.

While the Passion Pro on-road price was slashed by Rs 9,000, Splendour saw a cut of Rs 7,500. “There was a good response for Glamour model which had Rs 14,000 discount,” Chethan said.

A Vasantnagar, the Suzuki showroom was open till 9.30 pm. Sales Manager Kabeer Ahmad said they found it difficult to shut the shop as people were still waiting for their chance to talk to the salesmen. “The stock of Access bike was sold out today. We had Rs 10,000 discount and Paytm offered an additional Rs 5,000. We sold about 50 bikes today and are confident of selling all BS III vehicles tomorrow,” he said.

Rajkumar Road houses five showrooms covering almost all the major players in the two-wheeler market. VST Bajaj showroom offered Rs 12,000 discount.

A sales assistant said three people have already paid advance amount and have agreed to the condition that whoever comes first with full money and documents will get the bike.

The high-end bikes, however, did not draw the same number of people which was evident at Rajajinagar KTM showroom. “We have offered Rs 20,000 discount on Duke 390 and Rs 5,000 on Duke 200. We have prospective buyers and confident of selling the 60 vehicles in stock,” a personnel at the counter said.

With Thursday and Friday, the last two days to clear their stock of BS III vehicles, dealers said they were preparing to work harder. “We have decided to open the shop around 9 am and to close late as we expect more people,” Ahmad said.