With fuel prices sky-rocketing, vehicle sellers are coming up with innovative schemes to woo the buyers.
Sensing that many of the prospective customers are in a dilemma whether to buy vehicles now, dealers are offering sops such as discounts, free insurance and accessories, cash benefits and even free fuel.
A two-wheelers dealer, Sri Dadaji Motors at Sanmati Nagar is offering petrol worth Rs 1500 free on purchase of certain models.
Its owner Shiv Singh Tanwar said he felt everybody is hit by the soaring hike in prices of in petroleum products. “So I circulated bulk SMS offering petrol on purchase of any new entrant model variant,” he told DNA.
He started with the offer on September 15 which is available till October 31.
Although the sale is low now due to the ongoing ‘Shraddh paksh’, several enquiries related to the promotion have come, he said.
The offer is available mainly for second hand vehicles. Fuel for half the tank is being offered on purchase of second hand vehicles. Aqram of Shaan Automobiles said, “Those who come in to purchase second hand cars are either first time users or hit with budgetary constraints.”
Vikram of Vivian Automobiles said, “The first thing one would like to do after purchasing a vehicle is to go on a long drive. The hidden costs emerge when after paying in full one is left with an empty fuel tank.”
Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) chief general manger (marketing) Shashank Srivastava, said the fuel price hike has been a major deterrent to sale in the last two months.
“We have organised mileage rallies to highlight their fuel efficiency. The company is also offering discounts in the range of Rs 15,000-26,000 on many its cars”.
GM India director and vice-president (corporate affairs) P Balendran said, “The company is offering cash benefits ranging from Rs 43,700 to Rs 51,200 on small car Spark, and free insurance and accessories worth Rs 21,000 with hatchback Beat.
Discounts on the Aveo range vary from Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000, while for some variants of multi-utility vehicle Tavera, the cash benefit can go up to Rs 1.44 lakh”.
Industry experts said the sudden spurt in the sale of diesel vehicles has led to inventory of the petrol variants of cars piling up.
Hyundai is now offering a fixed monetary package to the buyers of petrol variants of Santro and I10 to cushion the rise in price of the fuel. Volkswagen, which has announced an increase of 2.2 % in the price of Vento due to rising commodity costs, has limited the hike only to the diesel variant.
