KOCHI: With the global meltdown, the car business in the city is facing the music.
The sale of cars has come down after October. The seasonal business nowhere matches that of the last month with banks limiting their loan facility.
“The crisis has affected the business on a large-scale. Compared to last month, the market is very dull.
We had 50 percent dip in sales during the festive season in October. In October last year, 226 cars were sold. It dipped to 119 cars in Kochi. Our showroom itself sold 42 cars, compared to which only 24 cars were sold in October this year,” said Hyundai, MGF dealers, Kochi, assistant sales manager Johnson Varghese.
According to the RTO authorities, the number of vehicles which came for registration has also decreased.
The number of vehicles registered on a single day on January 1 was 137 but now the number has decreased to mere 69 vehicles on November 4. In September the number of vehicles registered was 4,956. In October, it dipped to 3,500.
Even the different schemes, which were brought in to cash in on the sudden hike in the Central Government payscale, did not attain success. In Ernakulam, Palakkad, Thrissur and Idukki districts, Popular dealers had sold 560 vehicles last month. But it was only 350 this month.
“The defaulters are on the rise which made us take strict measures.
We take the customers case by case and on the basis of that the loan is allotted,” said bank sources.
Even when a bank has taken such severe steps, the car dealers have not stopped on their facility with finance executives still on their role.
But with a few people still having confidence in the nationalised banks, some dealers do not feel the heat like others and hope that the business would come back in a month or so.