Dhanteras adds thrust to turnaround in motown

For many automobile dealerships, it was once again an exciting Dhanteras (October 21) as buyers took delivery of their cars and two-wheelers on a day that is considered auspicious in India for not only for buying cars but valuables such as gold.

According to some dealers, some customers chose to take deliveries on Dhanteras even though they had booked their cars way back in August.

A Mumbai-based Maruti Suzuki dealer said bookings and deliveries went up 20 percent over the last year. While the number of deliveries usually range from two to three cars a day, on Dhanteras, this dealership saw 30 deliveries.

For one Tata Motors dealer in Mumbai, Dhanteras was “the best day they have had since the launch of the Zest.” The Tata Zest is one of the newest cars in the market and is into its third month. With an all-new Tata car on the market after a gap of several years, dealers certainly had reason to rejoice. This particular dealership received eight bookings and delivered 17 cars. This year, they delivered more cars than they did last Dhanteras.

Not all dealerships experienced the festive impact though. A  Chevrolet dealer said he had delivered just four cars and that “it didn’t quite feel like the festive season’.

Another Chevy dealer said last year’s festive season was a lot better. The reasons for this have been attributed to the fact that there were no new launches apart from the face-lifted Sail.

Honda beats Hero on Dhanteras 2014 sales

In what can be called as a meaningful achievement for Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI), the Japanese two-wheeler maker has registered record single-day sales of 165,000 units on October 21.

HMSI has marked a remarkable growth of 110.19 percent over 78,500 units sold on Dhanteras day last year. According to an official communication by HMSI, it had sold 45,000 units of its Dream series (Dream Yuga, Dream Neo and CD110 Dream) commuter bikes yesterday alone.

The release by HMSI states that some dealerships had reported stock sold out for the Dream bikes by mid-day yesterday and for scooters by the evening yesterday. The company is hoping that the sales momentum would continue till October end.

“This happens to be HMSI’s first festive season as only Honda in India and results of Dhanteras sales reinforces from trust that customer repose in Honda. It aptly summarises our corporate campaign, Honda is Honda. We hope to close this festive season with new records,” added Yadvinder S Guleria, vice president (Sales & Marketing), HMSI.

Meanwhile, country’s largest two wheeler manufacturer, Hero MotoCorp (HMCL) has shared a corporate announcement with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today about the Dhanteras sales it has achieved yesterday. HMCL’s initial forecasts estimate that it has sold close to 1,50,000 units yesterday, marking a healthy growth of 36.36 percent over its last year's retail sales of close to 1,10,000 units on this day. The company is yet to announce accurate sales registered on October 21.

While HMSI has clearly managed to beat its arch rival, HMCL in terms of securing more sales than the latter on October 21, it would be interesting to watch how close the two companies end their monthly sales for October 2014.

Interestingly, Hero, which is inching towards the 700,000 unit mark for its monthly sales for the ongoing month, is likely to register highest monthly sales for this month ever registered by any other manufacturer.

The other listed two wheeler companies – Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor Company – have not shared their sales numbers for yesterday.

Dhanteras, which is popular for marking peak single day sales for automakers, sees almost all dealerships across the country working overtime. 

Photograph by Ashley Baxter