Dhanteras delight: Auto dealers eye robust sales

Dushyant Singh Pundir

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 12

Despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy, automobile dealers in the tricity are likely to beat the odds in retail sale of passenger vehicles this Diwali season. They are getting a more-than-expected response this festive season. “We are expecting to sell nearly 2,000 two-wheelers and 700 four-wheelers in the tricity on Dhanteras,” said Pratap Hoon, president, Federation of Chandigarh Regional Automobile Dealers.

He said every two-wheeler dealer in the tricity was likely to deliver between 150 and 200 motorcycles on the auspicious day. Parveen Singh, general manager, Harbir Automobiles, a dealer of Mahindra, said they had sold more than 70 passengers vehicles this month and were expecting to deliver 22-25 vehicles on Dhanteras. “This season, the demand has surpassed the supply,” he said, adding that customers had to wait for nearly 30 weeks to get the newly launched Thar off-roader. Also, due to the high demand, the buyers had to wait for nearly a month to buy a Scorpio and XUV 300 this season.

A member of the federation said there was no impact of Covid-19 on the sale of vehicles, but the pandemic had affected the supply as manufactures were unable to meet the demand for the passenger vehicles this season.

Deepak Joshi, a dealer of Hundai cars in Chandigarh and Mohali, said they were expecting to deliver nearly 60 vehicles on the occasion.

“This festive season, the response is more than expected,” said Deepak Girdhar, GM (Sales), Modern Automobiles, a Maruti Suzuki dealer. He said people were even coming from surrounding areas of the tricity and the neighbouring state of Himachal Pradesh to purchase vehicles in the city.

He said last year, they sold 39 cars on Dhanteras and this time they would deliver at least 62 four-wheelers. In the past three days alone, they had sold more than 150 vehicles and Vitara Brezza, Swift and Alto were in high demand, he said.