Maruti dealers make a night of it in Agra

At a time when the UP government has banned shops and commercial establishments in the state remaining open after 8 pm and the summer heat is making daytime shopping a hard task in Agra, automobile dealers in Agra have taken up a new concept of marketing.

Kavisha Motors and Madhusudan Motors Pvt Ltd, the two Maruti car dealerships in Agra, took the initiative of moving out of their premises to sell cars by night by organising a two-day "Night-bazaar" of Maruti-certified used cars, on Sunday.

Talking to Business Standard on this occasion, V Lucien, assistant general manager (marketing), Kavisha Motors, said it had been observed this summer that the clients were visiting the auto dealerships most during the late hours of the day, usually after 6 pm, and continued to pour in till almost 10 pm.

But with the UP government prohibiting the opening of commercial establishments after 8 in the evening, it had become imperative for the auto dealers to devise ways of surviving in the business and the "night bazaar" concept had been introduced by the Maruti dealerships to test its viability.

Wahid Raza, the technical head of Maruti in Agra, said sales of used cars in the United States were almost five times those of the Indian used cars, which was pegged at about 700,000 cars each year.

He said at present the new car sales in India were equal to the used car sales, but within a few years, the Indian auto market too was expected to follow the US model, with the used cars far outstripping the new cars in sales, at an annual growth of 25 per cent, as compared to the 15-17 per cent growth of new cars.

He said Maruti expected the sale of its used cars to increase by almost double its present anticipated sale of 65,000 units in 2005-06, with the increase of its true value outlets in India from 156 at present to 180.