Maruti, others line up big discounts this Diwali, offer benefits worth Rs 20,000-1.3 lakh

If you had been waiting to buy a new car there could not be a better time than this. Carmakers are doling out mouth-watering discounts ahead of Diwali to cash in on the positive buyer sentiment.

These benefit schemes, which range between Rs 20,000-1.3 lakh  (10-20 percent) on the cost of the car, comprise cash-back, free accessories, free insurance or registration, gold coins, low interest schemes, discounts on annual maintenance contracts, to name a few.

These discounts and benefit schemes are driven by the companies and may vary from city to city. Dealers also run their own schemes which may be in addition to those offered by the companies. Buyers from government-owned companies, teachers and the army are offered even better deals.

Maruti Suzuki has been running schemes on the Swift offering benefits of Rs 40,000 and a similar amount on the Celerio. On the Alto, India’s second largest-selling car model, the company is offering benefits of up to 40,000.

However, there are nearly nil discounts on the top-selling models like Dzire, Baleno and Brezza. In fact, there continues to be a wait list on the Baleno (on certain variants) of about six weeks. Maruti is gearing up to launch the all-new Swift in the coming months and wants to clock as much sales as possible with the existing model.

 

Hyundai, the country’s second largest car maker, is giving Rs 80,000 benefit on the petrol Grand i10 and Rs 90,000 benefit on the diesel model. Grand i10 is the highest selling model for Hyundai in India.

Benefits worth Rs 50,000 are offered on the new Xcent which Hyundai launched just two months ago. The Korean company is selling the 2017 model of the Eon at its 2011 launch price of Rs 2.69 lakh.

SUV specialist Mahindra & Mahindra is offering Rs 50,000 benefits on the XUV500 as well as Rs 45,000 on the TUV300 and Rs 42,500 on the Scorpio.

In the volume segment Italian car maker Fiat is offering one of the biggest discounts. Benefits offered by the company range from Rs 50,000 on the Urban Cross and Abarth Punto to Rs 1.1 lakh on the Avventura.

Nissan Terrano and Volkswagen Vento saw the biggest discounts of Rs 1.37 lakh and Rs 1.3 lakh, respectively. Honda was offering benefits of Rs 1 lakh on the BRV while the Maruti Ertiga saw benefits totaling to Rs 1 lakh including exchange bonus.

These discounts are offered only on those models which are ageing and slow-moving and require incentives to find buyers. Some of the new models such as the Hyundai Xcent and Ford Aspire are also offered at huge discounts as their competition is the best-seller Maruti Suzuki.

Luxury car makers are not far behind either. Companies like Mercedes-Benz, Audi, BMW, Volvo and Jaguar Land Rover are believed to be offering benefits, including direct discounts of up to Rs 6 lakh.

Models like the Mercedes GLC, Volvo S60, Volvo XC90, Audi A3, Audi A4, Mecedes C-Class, Mercedes S-Class, to name a few, are offered hefty discounts starting from Rs 50,000.

Cars, which were impacted by the sudden increase in cess last month, have been the worst hit followed by the hike under GST. Companies are thus trying to woo back buyers offering such models at pre cess and pre GST levels.

All models, which are not classified as ‘small’ as defined by the government, have been the worst hit post July 1. This has pushed companies to offer discounts to clear dealer and channel stocks and replace them with new inventory.