NEW DELHI: It�s raining discounts in Motown. Fighting sluggish demand and rising interest rates, car companies are doling out huge rebates to lure customers into their showrooms. In fact, the discounts are now no longer seasonal and continue right through the year.
Maruti Suzuki is offering a discount of up to Rs 47,000 under its �Freedom on Wheels� package. Its top-selling hatchback Alto comes with a rebate of Rs 30,000 in August while the newly launched Maruti 800 Duo (the LPG variant) comes with a Rs 18,500 discount.
�We have increased discounts on our cars. Alto now comes with an additional exchange bonus of Rs 10,000 while the rebate on Zen Estilo has been increased by Rs 4,000 over July,� said an MSI executive. The South Korean car major, Hyundai Motor India, has launched �Freedom for Life�, offering customised packages of up to Rs 30,00 in rebates.
Its largest selling car Santro carries an exchange bonus of Rs 15,000, along with a free insurance package. Hyundai�s senior V-P (sales and marketing) Arvind Saxena said: �These price discounts are basically cushioning the high interest rates, which has almost doubled in the past 10 months. These cash discounts make huge value to customers and make the price attractive for them.�
Tata Motors dealers have increased the discount by Rs 10,000 over the last one month. They are now offering Rs 30,000 cash discount on the Indica hatchback and Indigo sedan range. A token discount of Rs 5,000 also comes on the recently launched Sumo Grande.
The basic idea to increase discounts comes from the fact that car sales remained flat in July for the first time this fiscal, forcing car makers to start new marketing initiatives to offload their piling inventories. Special price discounts on Spark, which started a few months ago, still continue.
�We plan to sell Spark at the discounted price of Rs 2.66 lakh till the end of August. The basic idea is to offer greater value to customers. Besides, we are also continuing with other standard discount packages on our entire range,� said General Motors vice-president (sales and marketing) Akush Arora.
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