Consumers offers will go down post-October as such discount offers have reached its peak and keeping discounts at such high levels is unsustainable, according to a senior Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) official.
The company has tried to revive the market but it cannot have high level of promotions at all the time, these are not sustainable, said Shashank Srivastava, executive director, marketing, sales, MSI. “Going forward there will be decline in terms of offers,” he added.
The firm is offering cash discounts and extended warranties on various models as a result MSI witnessed its sales jump by 18-20 per cent last month compared to July and August.
Further, almost all the leading carmakers and dealer showrooms are offering lucrative offers to boost sales at a time when the Indian auto sector is going through a prolong slowdown.
Maruti Suzuki is currently offering discounts ranging from Rs 40,000 to Rs 100,000 on its vehicles.
The firm also expects current month to be better in terms of sales as compared to the same period last year.
“These are probably the green shoots and if we look at first week of October, which was Navratara period, then bookings and retails have been better than last year as far as this period goes,” Srivastava said. Offtake of vehicles, including diesel models and BS-VI compliant eight cars, has been good and driving the sales, he added.
He, however, said it would be too early to say that the auto sector is out of the woods and it would take at least two more months to get a clear picture.
“We have to see that in absence of this stimuli (promotions) whether there is an upturn or not. That I think will be evident in the next few months then we will be able to make more definitive statements about the change in fortunes of auto industry,” Srivastava said.
Counting on the positives, he said the demand from rural markets is set to improve with better monsoon.