Whether or not the festive season has worked wonders for auto manufacturers will be known shortly as the month comes to an end. But, surely recent activity at dealerships has lifted downcast spirits.
While increased momentum on Dhanteras does indicate a sense of festive spending and a fixation of taking delivery on what is considered an auspicious day, it may not necessarily indicate the end of slowdown. Activity on the day is normally higher as a segment of buyers prefer to take delivery on the day. Given the pattern, Maruti Suzuki has reported 45k units delivered on the day.
Owing to low base sales, auto manufacturers are reporting sales improvement during the 10 days leading up to Dhanteras by upto 5-7 percent. Maruti of course dominates market share, though some of that sheen has been wiped out in recent months. MSIL sales have contracted keeping in mind a backdrop of slowdown.
Comparing Dhanteras day deliveries of Maruti Suzuki India with rivals, they come out far ahead. Hyundai has delivered about 12,500 cars, Mahindra delivered 13,500 vehicles, Kia delivered 2,138 units of Seltos, Mercedes delivered 600 cars, MG delivered 700 Hector.
What has helped boost sales for Maruti this Dhanteras, is the reduction of prices and huge discount offers. The reduction of corporate tax rates to a globally competitive level will benefit the auto industry to some extent. The current fiscal has been bad for the entire auto industry and this tax cut comes in as a lifeline as it is expected to bring in some respite.
In view of these new tax cuts, Maruti Suzuki India Limited, announced a reduction in prices across some of its select models by Rs.5,000. This price cut has been in effect since 25th September 2019, and offered on all variants of the Alto 800 and K10 and diesel variants of the Swift, Celerio, Baleno, Ignis, DZire and Tour S and also on the Vitara Brezza and S-Cross.
These price cuts will be over the various discounts being offered by the company through the month of September. These discounts extend upto Rs.1.05 lakhs on the Vitara Brezza while the DZire and Swift are being offered at discounts of Rs.90,000 and Rs.80,000 respectively. There are also discounts upto Rs.70,000 on the Maruti Suzuki Celerio and the Eeco and Omni are being presented at discounts and benefits to the tune of Rs.55,000 and Rs.3,000 respectively.
