Whopping discounts on luxury cars as year draws to a close

With the year coming to an end, car dealers are offering huge discounts to clear their inventory.

The discounts begin at Rs 15,000, and go up to Rs 9 lakh in the luxury car segment.

Maruti Suzuki, India's largest carmaker, is offering discounts ranging from Rs 15,000 to Rs 40,000. Over and above these, it offers an exchange bonus of Rs 50,000 on some models.

The highest discount of Rs 40,000 comes with an exchange bonus of Rs 50,000 on the Ciaz and Ertiga diesel models.

"We are only a couple of days into the sale, and expect a big jump in business," an  executive said.

Honda prices going up

Honda on Wednesday said it would increase prices by up to Rs 25,000 from January 1, 2018 to offset the rise in input costs.

But it is offering deals in December: the Jazz comes at a discount of Rs 30,000 and with free insurance for the first year, and the Amaze comes with free accessories worth Rs 13,000, Rs 20,000 in exchange bonus, and free maintenance for two years.

Honda is also offering a Rs 1 lakh discount on the BRV Vx and Rs 1.5 lakh on the CRV. This is in addition to the discounts for corporate and government employees.

The country's second largest car-maker, Hyundai, is offering discounts of up to Rs 1 lakh. This is over and above the regular discount of Rs 5,000 for government employees.

While Toyota is offering benefits of up to Rs 1 lakh, Mahindra and Tata have lined up various deals. Renault discounts go up to Rs 1.2 lakh.

The discounts are even bigger in the luxury car segment. Volkswagen is offering discounts of up to Rs 90,000, with an exchange discount of Rs 10,000. The company offers Rs 10,000 more as loyalty discount for existing Volkswagen customers.

Big cuts on Audi prices

Luxury carmaker Audi is offering Rs 9 lakh off on the A6 Matrix.  Two other models come with discounts of Rs 3.5 lakh and Rs 6 lakh. The additional exchange bonus goes up to Rs 1 lakh.

An analyst said luxury cess, coupled with GST of 28%, had hit sales and prompted luxury automakers to offer huge discounts.

"The inventory build-up in the industry is high right now, as sales have come down after the festive season," an analyst told DH.

Raining discounts

* Maruti Suzuki  Ciaz
Rs 14,000 off, plus Rs 50,000 in exchange bonus
Price after discount:  Rs 11 lakh - Rs 12 lakh

* Honda Jazz
Rs 30,000, plus free insurance
Price after discount:  Rs 7.5 lakh - Rs 8 lakh (including benefits)

* Audi A6 Matrix
Rs 9 lakh off
Price after discount:  Rs 52 lakh -  Rs 54 lakh