The festival season for car buyers might have just kicked in. As 2012 draws to an end, car makers have lined up the highest cash discounts and benefits (insurance, exchange bonus) seen this year in order to clear the inventory pile-up with a 2012 manufacturing date. As an added push, the industry also hopes that price hike fears from January will make prospective customers sitting on the fence advance purchases to December.
A major reason why stocks are running higher than normal is because car sales in the usually upbeat festival months of October and November have been sluggish even after manufacturers tried to create excitement with multiple launches.
?A car with a November, 2012 manufacturing will fetch a significantly lower price in the used car market than one made just two months later in January, 2013. In the resale market, the year of manufacturing is important, not the month. So, car makers need to clear old stocks,? an analyst said.
?It is important to clear stocks in December, many manufacturers wait for this month,? said Sandeep Singh, Toyota Kirloskar?s deputy managing director (marketing).
Market leader Maruti Suzuki is offering 5-7% higher discounts in December than other months this year. However, the top-selling new Alto 800 and diesel models are not covered under the benefits. ?We have an inventory of about 3 to 4 weeks. Our retail sales are doing fairly good and we expect a good December,? Mayank Pareek, Maruti?s chief operating officer (marketing & sales), said.
Honda is offering schemes that lead to savings of over R2 lakh on the Accord premium sedan and R1.4 lakh on the Civic, though the offers on its top-selling City and Brio models are nominal. General Motors (GM) is offering a R61,000 discount on the Tavera, R35,000 on the Beat, R40,000 on the Spark and R25,000 on the Cruze.
P Balendran, vice-president at General Motors India, said discounts in December will be higher than those offered during the rest of the year. ?We expect improved sales in December over November because of the schemes on offer. We hope there will be advancement of purchases because of the announcement of price increases from January.?
Meanwhile, Hyundai Motor has come out with a ?December Delight? campaign, under which customers will see benefits of R53,000 on the i10, R37,000 on the i20, R47,000 on the Santro and R15,000 on the Verna. ?This is the first time that we are offering discounts on our diesel models under the scheme,? Hyundai?s Rakesh Srivastava, VP (marketing & sales), said.
