The month of May 2011 saw many manufacturers registering good sales figures. The searing heat wasn’t a deterrent to car sales as there were many good deals on offer. However many banks, some of them the leading ones had recently hiked the car loan interest by about 1 percent. So more and more car buyers are looking at their saved resources instead of approaching a bank. Lower loan amount is the call of the day whereas higher down payments rule the roost. However some dealers are of the opinion that the rise in interest rates hasn’t cut down the demand for automobiles. As much as 70 percent of the buyers still choose a loan for their car buying needs. Car loans is the one single factor which is the leading thing for a growth in the bank’s shoot graph. Innovative schemes are the talk of the town with some of the manufacturers coming in with a 0.50 discount in the interest rates if the customer opts for a finance scheme which borders on the 80 percent line. Even if the customer opts for a longer tenure, the bank may give him a discount of 0.25 percent on the interest rates. This month, though there are a very few discounts coming up. Here is the list of them.
Chevrolet :
The General’s right arm wing in India, Chevrolet are offering their eye catching small car, the Chevrolet Beat with a more bang for buck proposition. The Beat was known to be a value for money small car however with the current discount of Rs 30k, it sounds like even more better deal. The Rs 30k discount translates into almost a whopping 10 percent off the car’s base price. This deal includes the free first years’ insurance package which means upto Rs 12-15k off depending on the variant chosen. The dealer would throw in a Rs 5k gift cheque or even provide you for GM certified accessories for the same price. If you are a Chevrolet owner who wants to exchange his car for the new Beat, then the GM dealer would give you Rs 10k as exchange bonus. Some of the dealers were saying that this was lure for the Chevrolet Spark owners who were willing to trade in their Spark for the Beat.
Honda :
The car maker has been troubled with the recent floods and Tsunami destroying its smooth operations in Japan. So as a rare sign of magnamity, Honda is offering their bread and butter model, the Honda City with cash discounts. This cash discount may be the direct result of the Volkswagen Vento overtaking the City as far as sales are concerned. The automatic City gets Rs 15k as a discount while the manual variant gets Rs 10k off. This should be enough to give some troubles to the Volkswagen Vento.
Maruti Alto :
The number 1 selling car across India, the Maruti Suzuki Alto has some competition from the small car from Tata Motors, the Nano. Hence to counter this Maruti brought about some engine upgrades and stuff. However not being content with that, Maruti is offering upto Rs 36 k off on the Alto models namely F8 and K10. On the 800 cc F8 model, Maruti is offering a flat Rs 18k cash discount whereas for the larger engined Alto K10, Maruti are offering a Rs 25k discount. This is besides the Rs 11k off exchange bonus that the car maker is offering for exchanged cars at the dealerships. This makes the deal for India’s number 1 small car even sweeter.
Nissan Micra :
The Nissan Micra is the highest selling model from its stable and it has helped the Japanese manufacturer to find a foot hold in the Indian car market. However the Micra cannot hold a candle as far as upsetting its more established competitors is concerned. So the company is resorting to the discounts thing here. The company is offering a free insurance package on the top end diesel as also petrol models. This means savings of upto Rs 16,000 on the Nissan Micra.
Tata Safari :
The Tata Safari replacement is just around the corner and for the time being, in a bid to move stocks of this very capable SUV, Tata Motors are offering a cash discount of Rs 5k on any variant of the Safari. Moreover, as a good will gesture towards customers who are exchanging their existing cars, Tata Motors is ready to pay them a Rs 10k exchange bonus as well. Hurry up since this offer is only for 15 days.
These were some of the small offers that the manufacturers have brought out in a bid to capture the car market and also boost their sales figures.
