Indians Ready to Spend on Luxury Cars But Not on Fuel

Indians do have all the reasons to boast upon their nation. Whether it be the recognized economists like Dr. Amartya Sen and Arindam Chaudhury or from being the home of few of the leading big brands like RIL, Infosys, Airtel, etc.

Indian customers have now grown their tastes towards all the luxuries in the world. India is becoming one of the major locations for almost all the car leaders of the globe. May it be Mercedes, Audi, BMW, Renault, Indian customers has a strong taste for their products.

This can be justified with the fact that by the end of 2012, BMW sold more than 9,300 units in India and has topped the luxury car market for the fourth time while Audi with a mark of 9,003 units was also in the topper’s list.

Also, along with the increase in the fuel prices in the Indian market, the rising taste of Indian customers towards luxury cars has been seen shifting from petrol cars to diesel cars. The increase in the fuel prices has made the Indian customers to think about the thickness of their wallet.

Roaring around the roads in a super car is no more an issue for the Indian customer but the maintenance, fuel efficiency and the selling value has become the major issue for the Indian customers.

And this might be the reason that now a days the advertisement industry has turned towards slogans like: “How much (mileage) does she give?” (Maruti ad).

Recent surveys in the big companies like Mercedes also tells us that now a day’s customers are getting more attracted towards the diesel cars rather than the petrol cars.  Mr. Surjit Arora , one of the best Auto Research Analyst in India said: “even as the overall market has totally shifted towards diesel, the luxury car segment has also tipped itself towards  and premium car makers like BMW and Mercedes have ramped up their capacity for the same,” as told to Firstpost.

Mr. Arora also added, “People who go for luxury cars are mostly categorized as the super rich, and it normally doesn’t matter how much they pay for fuel. But, given the present 40 – 45 per cent price differential between the two fuels, the running and maintenance costs of the car come down drastically…when one can get a car with similar features at better overall costs, people will tend to buy what makes more sense for them — which at present is a diesel car versus a petrol car”.

Most of the financial analyst agrees with Mr. Arora and has said that after having the cost advantage, the understanding about the degrading quality of petrol has forced the customers to change their taste from petrol cars to diesel cars.