Two, four-wheeler sales soared on first day of Navratri, say dealers

Sale of automobile vehicles jumped sharply on the first day of Navratri coinciding with the introduction of the reduced Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate. On normal days, around 200 two-wheelers are sold in the district. Their sale might have doubled on the first day of Navratri, said dealers.

On normal days between 40 and 50 four-wheelers are sold in the district. Their sale jumped from 100 to 150 units on Monday. The vehicles sold yesterday surpassed the number recorded during the last Dhanteras, said city- based automobile dealers. They said the authentic data of the vehicles sold would be available after the conclusion of the Navratri when officials of different car manufacturing companies would share their record.

Udit Kapoor, director, Speedways, an automobile agency having dealership of Kia car brand, said sales of four and two-wheelers surpassed previous records of Dhanteras. It showed that there was a pent up demand of vehicles from walk-in customers. Bookings were higher than usual as a car costing Rs 8.50 lakh was available at Rs 7.10 lakh, he said. He said the higher share of customers was visible in commuter and entry segment cars.

Aanshul Arora, Managing Director, Rishabh Four wheels, said before September 22 people only enquired about vehicles. The customers rush was definitely more than the last Dhanteras, a day in a year when automobile industry records extraordinary jump in vehicle sale, he said. Arora said apart from the reduced GST, Maruti was offering discounts on the purchase of cars which was the highest on Alto. A base model of Alto, which was priced at Rs 4.23 lakh, could be bought at Rs 2.95 lakh after availing consumer offer, bonanza booking and pledging old car for scrap, he said.