Should santro owners sell their cars now itself for resale value

[rahul_intlad]

News is doing the rounds that the santro prices would be lowered to almost Maruti alto levels.This implies that present Hyundai santro would loose a lot of its resale value.Should Santro owners trust media reports sell their cars now itself so they can enjoy a much higher value in the seconds market or should they wait and see.Also would you go in for a hyundai santro now.The Hyundai Amica/pa is expected in the fourth quarter of 2007

Before the new hatchback is launched Santro’s price tag is likely to be slashed bringing it closer to that of the Maruti Alto while the Getz will continue to compete with the Maruti Swift.

I was asked this question by a very concerned santro xing owner and I put the question before you.

Source:
Hyundai follows MUL strategy with small car-Business of Brands-New@ET-News-The Economic Times

[squarecut]

Hyundai Santro Xing erlx is comparable to Maruti wagonR rather than Alto. So I do not think that the price will fall down to Alto level. But then we never know the Indian auto market, where hype often rules over content.

[theMAG]

Logically the top-end versions of Santro will be stopped. They cant price it any lower than 2.6 laks and be profitable at the same time.

[WhiteKnight]

Originally Posted by rahul_intlad

News is doing the rounds that the santro prices would be lowered to almost Maruti alto levels.This implies that present Hyundai santro would loose a lot of its resale value

Please don't try to to create paranoia!

From the same article "The Santro is priced between Rs 2.6 and Rs 4.3 lakh while the Alto sells at Rs 2.3-2.9 lakh". So there is already an overlap in price across Santro and Alto. I do not see Santro loosing "Lot of resale value" as you are projecting it to do. Remember, Santro is the top-selling model in the category, not Wagon-R or Zen whatever.

Secondly, I believe it is a good strategy from Hyundai to launch another model in the same category provided it is positioned correctly ensuring it won't eat into Santro's market share

Only people who should worry is Maruty/Suzuki honchos

[jango]

That's an intresting piece of information here. I am planning to pick up a santro so may be i iwll drop the idea and wait for some more time !!

[esteem_lover]

Would not the potential buyers also be wary of that & stop buying used santros for the moment ? There will never be such a situation in this market.
cheers

[nispatel]

[quote=rahul_intlad;378131]News is doing the rounds that the santro prices would be lowered to almost Maruti alto levels.This implies that present Hyundai santro would loose a lot of its resale value.Should Santro owners trust media reports sell their cars now itself so they can enjoy a much higher value in the seconds market or should they wait and see.Also would you go in for a hyundai santro now.The Hyundai Amica/pa is expected in the fourth quarter of 2007

I was asking myself the same thing. I'm sure that it's all about marketing department and product positioning and no one can legally stop Hyundai from reducing price of Santro but indeed from a customer's perspective who has recently purchased a Xing, all that xing will evaporate when they hear the same vehicle being sold at a lesser price. We have a Safari owner BHPean who had similar grudge against Tatas...

But the more I would think about it, I realize that Hyundai is good a marketing and they won't leave their existing Santro owner high and dry. As someone has said, they'll price their new car smartly. What probably will happen would be slight reduction in Santro price, introduction of new variants by swapping equipment level here an there, an overlap in price and feature of top end Santro viz a viz entry level model of new car and this way making top end Santro less attractive in terms of VFM.

Now hypothetically if Hyundai indeed reduce price of Santro to good extent and you want sell you Santro to salvage future resale value of Santro, I don't think it would good proposition. In fact you could sink in more of your money becuase if you calculate loss on capital value Santro at current market price plus money required to acquire new car would be more than the loss that we are apprehending on resale value of Santro in FUTURE (huhhh...).

It probably would make sense for those who have already made up their mind to sell off their Santro for any other reason. They better do it sooner than later.

[shuvc]

Generally speaking, any car is never an investment, in monetary terms i.e.

If you are happy with your Santro and had planned to keep it for a few years, then do so. The difference in resale should not be too much.

If you were anyway planning to sell it within the next couple of months, then it might make sense to sell it now.

[Ram_NP]

I think, there may slight reduction in price of Santro, due to new car (code named PA) from Hyundai but not to the Alto level.
May be Hyundai will price the new car with 1000cc Petrol engine to compete with Alto rather dropping Santro prices.

[shyamhegde]

I would sell my Santro only when I am ready to buy a new car again [Read it - 'when I have money to spend on a new car again ] ... not because the car is losing it's resale value. Guess it is true for most of the car owners....

[mail4ajo]

I found this on a website. Could be the new Santro. Looks similar to the car I saw being tested near Sriperumbadur, chennai. The headlights were not round though.

[Equus]

I dont see much chance of that happening..
Whats the used car price of the Alto VXi 1.1? I think it still commands what it deserves.

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by mail4ajo

I found this on a website. Could be the new Santro. Looks similar to the car I saw being tested near Sriperumbadur, chennai. The headlights were not round though.

ajo, that changes the meaning of santro totally to a decent looking car. how i wish that would be true.

[jango]

I checked with the Hyundai dealer and he told me that Hyundai will continue manf Satro's atleast for the next 5 yrs for sure ....so even if the new car comes out i beleive Santro will still be in the corner around ...

[rahul_intlad]

There was never a doubt as to whether the santro production would stop considering it is hyundai's golden goose in India.The point is New santro customers should give a thought that you would get a biggger most probably better,also maybe with a diesel crdi option as well in the new model called the Hyundai amica at the end of the year for the same price of a santro.

There are some santro owners who would like to upgrade from their hatches to a sedan in maybe around a year to 1.5 years,this thread would most ideally be for those individuals and does not mean every Santro owner should rush to sell their santro immediately,nor is it that new customers should not buy one[just that they keep their options open].