City based car dealers seem to have started celebrating Navratri and Diwali festivals early on the back of the festive buying spree with new small cars in the market. Sales are expected to surge more than 30 per cent in the festival months of September and October.
"Small cars comprise nearly 70 per cent of the Indian car market, and these are always in demand. With the new Nissan Micra, Maruti Suzuki Alto K-10, and the revamped Wagon R, festive buying this year is likely to reach new heights", said Jainee P Gordhandas, chief executive officer of BigGaddi.com, an automobile portal.
The Nissan Micra, the first small car for India from the Nissan stable, has been received well in the Ahmedabad market. "We have over 500 bookings and have been able to deliver around 150 cars so far. As the festive spirit has set in since Janmashtami, we have already seen a surge in daily bookings from 3-4 earlier to 5-7 bookings per day now. For the next two months we are expecting to sell over 150-160 cars per month", said an upbeat Sukhbir Bagga, director, Group Planet Petal, a city based Nissan dealer.
Maruti Suzuki is not left far behind, it already has experienced a 35 per cent surge in sales post the Alto K10 launch, which now has a wait period of over 10 days. A city based Maruti dealer, Popular Wheelers (India) Ltd, informed that while they are booking around 60 Altos per month, the K10 has been selling over 70 units every month. Anil Patel of Manan Autolink, leading Maruti dealer in Ahmedabad said, "The Wagon R is an evergreen car, and usually comprises nearly 40-45 per cent of our net sales, and with the new 'bue-eyed boy' variant of the car, there is a renewed interest in the veteran model. We are expecting to comfortably clock a 30-35 per cent growth during September-October".
Though there have been hardly any luxury car launch right in time for the festive season, major premium car dealers in the city expect to reap in rich benefits too. Sanjay Thakker, chairman of Landmark Cars, that deals in Honda and Mercedes cars, said "There has been a 60 per cent growth in luxury car sales in Gujarat between January to August this year over the 2009 period. July and August have been good months, and September and October would peak higher.
Even by conservative estimates, September-October sales should be over 30 per cent higher compared to the previous two months". Around 500 luxury cars were sold in the last calender year,and this year it is expected to touch 800-900 cars by December. Parsoli Motors, dealers of BMW cars in the city, expects to have a busy festive season too. Banks have stepped in as well with incentives to woo customers who choose to bring a new car home on the auspicious occassion of festivals. Punjab National Bank has slashed interest rates by 50 basis points basis points to 10 per cent for a three year car loan to cash in on the growing demand in low cost cars.