A common man is worried about the recent price hike of petrol and his grouse is that this hike may lead for price hike of essential commodities. People of upper middle class are worried about filling their cars.
Most affected are automobile companies those manufacture cars. Bangalore Wishesh today contacted a few leading dealers of cars in Bangalore and they all sing the same song.
‘We are expecting good sales, our particular model car is picking up well in Bangalore and during this festival season we projected 20 percent more sale. But to our dismay, it is not working out and the sales growth would be restricted to single digit’ said a dealer. Another company dealer has expected 30 % growth but sales are dipping, according to him, Small cars are doing well and variants of major brands have a setback, it is pointed out.
Bank rates are fuel to fire, commented another dealer. We have plans and strategies to beat our competitors, but we cannot project higher volume of sales because of petrol price hike and increase interest rates, he added. Bangalore has good market for medium and high end cars. Maruti Alto is constantly moving and Swift Dezire is picking up well, a dealer said. But the dealers have lost optimism, it seems. If the price of petrol is going up every quarter, how to think of buying a car, lamented a prospective buyer with whom BW interacted. The EMI should be Rs. 5,000 to 6,000 for me to consider for going a car, he added. My daughter’s wedding is on cards. We have spent lot of our earnings on her education. We have sacrificed so much for her. Now we are just planning for buying a car, but it seems it may not be possible to maintain it, worried a woman bank manager. A small increase in the price of petrol is making lakhs of people worried.
Dealers of almost all brands of cars in Bangalore are gloomy, They said that their counterparts in other major cities are also facing the same problem, it was pointed. A few who had plans of disposing their used cars and opted for a higher variant of a new car, but they have changed their minds. A dealer said that the position and statistics on manufacturing of cars during the F1would be known in October. If the Centre imposes another hike, there would be eternal gloom for auto industry, he pointed out. Dealers and their executives are working in great pressure from the manufacturers. They are ready to cut the selling price of cars and forgoing part of their commission also, if good number of orders materialized, it was stated.
