At 27, Roobesh Emmanuel, an entrepreneur from Cochin, with a little help from his parents and an auto loan from ICICI at 9% interest, sat behind the wheels of his very own BMW 3 series, tagged at Rs23 lakh.

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Before the BMW, Emmanuel’s travel companion was a Maruti Swift and with the latest buy he has now joined the bandwagon of young and the restless Indians who are increasingly becoming important clients for the luxury auto giants.

No more does one have to be a manager pushing 40s to drive in luxury, today young professionals are hopping onto a Merc or a BMW much earlier in life at around 25-35 years.

Debasish Mitra, director, sales and marketing for Mercedes Benz India, said the average age of clients over the last couple of years has dropped from 40s-50s to mid-20s and mid-30s for his firm. “They mostly buy the C class which comes for Rs25 lakh onwards. It has gizmos like I-pods in it and the colour red is the preferred one compared to the stately hues of black and steel grey preferred by the more senior customers.”

Easily available bank loans and careers that pay more along with more awareness and change in lifestyles according to Mitra are some of the main reasons for the change.

Dhimant Kothari, manager – research for the Mumbai-based Credit Analysis & Research Limited (CARE), that the buying age has definitely gone down and double incomes, nuclear families without financial obligations and the availability of more car models are the prime reasons for the growth.

“Customers earlier had to import all the fancy cars for 100% duty but now models are made catering to the Indian roads making them much more suited and accessible.”

An Audi dealer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the young buyers are primarily builders, architects, software engineers and entrepreneurs.

The Audi A4 with flashy headlights which comes for Rs30 lakh is the main draw for them and around 30% of the customers are youth.  Experts also pointed out that often parents who are well established give their children luxury cars which in turn increase the number of young owners driving these vehicles.