Carmakers offer discounts & free insurance to prop up sales

Fiat India, Maruti Suzuki India, Tata Motors, Chevrolet India, Hyundai India, Honda India, Toyota India and Volkswagen India-nearly every ace car company is at customer’s service and doling out freebies just to promote car purchases this Diwali. Thanks to petrol prices and high lending rates, car makers are pleasing the customers like never before. It is perhaps, the best period to buy cars in India, according to Rajan Paintal who is holding the position of senior vice-president, auto loans at HDFC Bank.

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Best buys this season are petrol cars which are tagged with discounts as high as 25% on the ex-showroom prices. The demand for diesel cars lately went so high that now customers will have to wait for long period to get delivery. Petrol cars can make hay now and lure car-buyers by their attractive offers. Mayank Pareek, managing executive officer, marketing & sales of Maruti India commented that unfavourable market conditions are forcing companies to dole out discounts up by 20-22% since last year, especially on petrol cars which have lost sheen in the market. Maruti India has increased discounts across its entire line-up with Maruti Estilo being offered at Rs 4.13 lakh now. But, the car which is drawing all attention is Fiat Linea. A discount as high as Rs 1.3 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) is being offered on the sedan which includes free insurance/maintenance worth Rs 30,000. Customers who want to drive-in Skoda Fabia and Tata Manza their homes can save Rs 50,000 each.

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Not just discounts gifts like LCD TV worth Rs 32,000 are being coupled to the purchase of Chevrolet Spark and Chevrolet Beat. However Volkswagen adopted the strategy last month itself when the limited edition of Volkswagen Polo and Volkswagen Vento were released in market. Volkswagen India is continuing with this offer wherein additional features such as a new navigation system, leather seat covers and rear parking distance control are provided with the two cars at no additional cost. Arvind Saxena, Director, Marketing & Sales, Hyundai Motor India made an optimistic comment when he said that October should be better as the offerings from car companies have improved with the onset of Navratri stretching up to Diwali, unlike Ganesh Chaturthi and Onam when sales never picked up as expected. Hyundai i20 is being sold at Rs 4.59 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) in this festive season. Every top name in car business is following the market trend of proffering diminution in car price just to cash-in meager profit.

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