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      Year-End Discounts on Cars Unlikely This Year

      Payal Pathak

      Payal Pathak

      Car makers in India had refrained from offering any special discounts to their customers during this festive season. Now the next discount due in December seems unlikely as well. Car makers in India are basking in the glory of rising demand in the domestic market and are also fighting against the rising input costs like those of steel and rubber. Both reasons are enough for auto makers to not offer any discounts during December this year.

      Demand in the passenger vehicle segment is robust at 30 percent growth and most car makers are running thin inventory especially after an extremely successful festive season. “All manufacturers are working with capacity constraints. Most of us have reduced the production downtime on maintenance also. Inventory levels are not anything alarming. With the market growing at around 32%, we don’t expect any great discounts this year,” said Mayank Pareekh, executive officer (marketing & sales) at Maruti Suzuki India. He also said that if there are going to be any discounts, they will only region or place specific but they would also not amount to any substantial either.

      Last year Hyundai cars got cheaper by up to Rs. 30,000 including models like Santro and i10. This year Arvind Saxena , director (marketing and sales) at Hyundai stated that the company is really not looking at introducing any discount offers as it is not carrying high inventory to liquidate before the year end.

      According to P Balendran, Vice-President, General Motors, most popular models are on wait list and demand is definitely outstripping supply. “Consequently, we have trimmed our maintenance shutdown from eight days to five days and from twice a year to once, to manufacture more cars. Even before our December sales forecast, I can tell you that special schemes for sales promotion may not happen this year,” he stated.

      Thus, all those customers planning to drive home a cheaper automobile during this Christmas are likely to wait till the next one.