Last year, backed by easy availability of credit and attractive discount schemes, both passenger car and motorcycle sales witnessed a solid growth of 16.34% and 13.6% respectively during the (October) festive season. This year experts expect the growth in passenger car sales around 12-15%, whereas the sales would be flat in two wheelers.
Ravi Narayanan?Group Business head, vehicles loan, ICICI Bank told FE, ?There will definitely be an improvement, but it won?t be drastic. We expect this festive season will hopefully spurt the growth of passenger cars to 15-17%. And I see lot more action in the two wheeler industry.? Traditionally, car and bike majors offer a variety of schemes and packages to lure buyers during auspicious occasions, and with dismal sales in the last two quarters, experts believe that manufacturers, dealers, and financiers would all be queuing up to make up for the losses this season. Car majors have already started offering discounts in the range of 5-15% on select models and have also introduced special edition cars, exchange offers and free accessories.
Maruti Suzuki, is offering a discount of Rs 10,000 on Maruti 800, Rs 6,000 on Omni, Rs 18,000 on WagonR Petrol and Zen Estilo and Rs 30,000 on Esteem in the western parts of the country, whereas Tata Motors is offering a discount of Rs 61,000 on Indigo Marina, Rs 45,000 on Indica Xeta petrol and Rs 40,000 on the Indigo diesel range.
VG Ramakrishnan, director automotive and transportation, Frost & Sullivan said: ?The market sentiment is not too great this time.To make up for the sliding sales of the last two quarters, companies will have to do something significant now. And we can see that in form of offers from Ford and General Motors.?
Amit Nandi, general manager (Marketing) Bajaj Auto Limited says, ?We are very bullish about this festive season too. Against the earlier trend,the industry is expected to grow by 10-15%. For Bajaj the next two quarters are going to be distinctly better,? says Nandi.