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Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Cars to be costlier next year, Is it true?

Well as I reported earlier here: Indian Automobile updates December 07
Car makers like Maruti, GM, Hyundai, Skoda are all likely to increase the prices of all their models.
Hyundai cars are expected to get costlier by about Rs. 6,000 where as the prices for Maruti cars are expected to go up by Rs. 12,000 and also heard that Skoda cars would be dearer by Rs 20,000. The reason for this price hike is told to be the rise in input costs and freight charges.

Well at the same time if you have noticed, All the manufacturers are giving great discounts, gifts, additional accessories, free insurance etc., in the range of Rs 20,000 to as high as 60,000 that too on A and B segment cars. And all the offers are valid only till Dec 31.

So whats the catch? Great offers till 31st Dec and Price hike in Jan, does that sound fishy?
Okay one more clue: What would a second had car buyer ask you when you would sell your car? Well the question would be "Which Year ?".

Honestly i have been watching this for past couple of years and you will find history repeats its self. Car manufacturers and dealers are eager to clear all their stocks before year end as there is a natural slow down in auto sales in december as most of the car buyers prefer to wait for a month for buying a new car rather than adding an extra year in the life of their car. This is in spite of absolutely no changes expected in the models next year. Hence the dealers offer discounts, spread the word about price hike following next year (which is not found to be true in most of the cases) etc.

In my opinion this is the best time to buy a car. The prices may or may not increase but the discounts, benefits that are on offer right now wont be there for sure.

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