The last day of March saw a gold rush to motorcycle showrooms across the country with buyers hoping to take advantage of the deep discounts announced by automobile companies to dispose of their stock of outdated inventory.
With the Supreme Court ushering in the era of Bharat Stage IV emission norms from April 1, auto companies, mainly two-wheeler manufacturers, offered discounts ranging from Rs 5000 to Rs 25,000 on two-wheelers to get rid of their old stock. Since temporary registration of BS-III was still possible on Friday, buyers flocked to showrooms in their hundreds across the country.
At the beginning of the day, dealers had an inventory of 6.7 lakh two-wheelers manufactured under old emission norms BS-III. But by the end of the day, almost all the top showrooms in India’s cities reported that they ran out of stocks. Industry insiders said the rest of the inventory will now be palmed off to rural India.
Hero offered up to Rs 12,500 off plus free insurance on Hero BS-III two-wheelers. Honda Two Wheelers India said it offered a cash-back up to Rs 22,000 on any Honda BS III motorcycle.
A Crisil report said most of the inventory disposed of on Friday was BS III compliant as only a few players like Bajaj and Yamaha had upgraded to BS IV.
Across Maharashtra, there was a steep rise in vehicle registrations. In towns like Osmanabad police had to be deployed to control the crowds wanting to buy vehicles.
Maharashtra transport commissioner Praveen Gedam said there was a significant hike in registrations in the last two days with Mumbai reporting a 10 per cent rise.
“Our people have been working throughout the week without any leave to help speed up registrations,” he said.
In a scene reminiscent of the aftermath of demonetization, long queues were seen at every auto dealership in tier-II city in Maharashtra.
In cities like Pune, Nashik and Aurangabad, stocks ran out just a while after business hours began.
In Kolkata, Rajesh Dey said he bought Honda Activa for Rs 60,000 – a cool discount of Rs 12,000. “My wife had been nagging for long to buy a motorbike,” said the moped driver. “But she didn’t know I was buying today. I’m going to surprise her.”
“Though the BS-III bikes may not have a great resale value, people are attracted by the discounts. Many are doing upgrades,” said Ronit Das, a Hero dealer in Kolkata.
Outside dealerships, successful buyers boasted of the killing they made. In Chandigarh, Bhupinder Singh gloated that bought a Honda motorcycle for Rs 26,000 at the Premier Honda showroom in Sector 43. “It’s real price is Rs 46,420!”
Karamjit Singh, general manager of Heritage Autos in Sector 43, said he sold more than 70 two-wheelers on Friday.
``It’s like Diwali,” he said.
About 100 dealerships in Patna reported running out of stock on Friday. One insider guesstimated that two-wheelers worth about Rs 100 crore were sold in just the just two days.
“I bought a Hero Maestro Scooty. Not even during Dhanteras does one gets a Rs 14,000 discount on such a bike,” said Suman Kumari, a college student.
Many of the showrooms arranged for registrations on the spot. Significantly, most of the purchases were by cash, a source said.
“It was tough to cater to them all. We had to ask a lot of customers to take their bikes in a day or two,” said Sandeep Kumar, general manager of Pataliputra Automobiles, a prominent showroom in Patna.
The largest crowds of customers were seen at Hero Honda showrooms.
“It was disappointing that there was no discount at all on Royal Enfield bikes,” said Sanjay Kumar, a businessman.