Car sales rev up to festive season

The festive season this year has given the recession-struck city car dealers a new lease of life with more customers flowing in for purchases. According to various car dealers in the city the car sales have jumped by 40 per cent from what it was in the last three months.

What’s cheering dealers is the fact that not only are the customers buying cars, they are also not settling for base models or regular cars. “All kinds of cars from Swift to Wagon R to Ritz, all categories are selling this season. The customers do not seem to be bothered by the recession and the salary cuts when it comes to buying cars this festive season,” Tapan Ghosh, regional manager, Maruti told ‘TOI’, adding that in the past one month the company has grown by 4 per cent despite recession. This being just the beginning of the festive season, Ghosh said that the company would expect more sales on Vijaya Dasami day, and later just before Diwali.

Other car dealers also reported that sales this year were as good, if not better than they were during the last Dasara season. “The sales almost match that of the previous year; this was unexpected considering the fact that the industry was not doing well after the meltdown,” a Malik cars spokesperson said. He said that it is likely that more customers would turn up by the closure of the festive season in the second week of October. “If this happens, then season would turn out to be better than last year,” the spokesperson said.

Some of the car owners are also going in for a second car this season, the dealers said. “Given the rising maintenance costs, many people were not interested in keeping the car they owned leave alone going for another one. But the festival seems to have changed that,’’ said another car dealer.

Some agents felt that the car sales will only get better by the end of the year, as always. “The car sales have been improving from April with month on month improvement. And since the beginning of this festive season, things have been looking up. We expect the sales to increase in the next month and hit a high point in December,” Ram Chandran, regional manager, Hyundai motors told ‘TOI’. He said that cars of all price ranges are finding buyers. The favourites include i20, i10, Verna. So going by this trend, one can expect to see more cars and new models zipping through the city.