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-   -   Maruti Suzuki now offers cars on lease to individuals (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/224338-maruti-suzuki-now-offers-cars-lease-individuals.html)

Maruti Suzuki has updated its lease subscription services to include individuals. Maruti Suzuki Subscribe will initially offer cars for subscription as a pilot in Gurgaon and Bangalore.



The new leasing scheme offers individual customers to subscribe a car for tenures of 24, 36 and 48 months. Customers will have to pay a fixed monthly charge which includes maintenance and insurance costs.

The models that are available for subscription include the Swift, Dzire, Vitara Brezza, Ertiga, Baleno, Ciaz and XL6. All cars offered as part of the leasing scheme will be brand new.

Maruti Suzuki has partnered with Japan-based Orix Auto Infrastructure Services to launch this leasing service in India. Maruti has already been offering a leasing scheme for corporates, small & medium enterprises and self-employed professionals since a while now.

Link to Team-BHP News

This makes a lot of economic sense for almost everyone. However, everyone might not be that interested given the Indian mindset of actually owning a car, feeding one's sense of pride, or whatever one might like to call it. Hope Maruti extends the facility to other parts of the country too. Every now and then one can switch cars without making a dent in pocket and also have a lot of peace of mind without having to burden oneself of taking care of the car during after sales service etc.

There is always a huge debate between proponents of owning a car vs those who advocate leasing a car in other countries, now that Maruti has stepped up the game in India too, let's just wait to hear it out and have fun :D

Out of curiosity, I just happened to check the rates. Rs. 50k monthly for a 24 month lease on an XL6 Alpha AT which sums up to 12 lacs in 2 years! Same for 48 months is Rs. 40k monthly totalling close to 20 lacs! One can outright pay or get a loan and buy the car for not much extra.
I wonder what scenario does this make a financial sense for anyone. Leasing makes sense for anyone who keeps switching frequently, but I don't think at these high rates. :deadhorse

This isn't leasing...its fleecing !!!!
I thought the monthly payments will be less considering that MS have grate resale value hence great residual value which in turn should make them cheaper to own than other heavily depreciating cars. MS what math is this!

Actually, it doesn't. Reasons:

- In India, the monthly lease payments are too high! In USA - the biggest car lease market in the world - the monthly lease payments are significantly lower than EMIs. $200 / month can get you a nice Honda sedan!

- Leases are great for people who like to change cars often. Indians usually retain their cars for anywhere between 5 - 10 years.

- The ones to whom a lease makes the most sense are businesses. Reason : no money down (can be used for investing) and a straight 25% off the lease amount which is basically written off as an expense.

- I have usually seen lease cars to have yellow-on-black plates and 80 kmph speed limiters. That is a big bummer. Your neighbour will think you're a taxi driver!

Exactly my thoughts. It just doesn’t make any sense to individuals. There have been car leasing companies in India for many years now who were procuring any car the buyer wanted, and the only customers they have are corporates, leasing cars for their employees. Some Companies manly MNCs prefer that for convenience and tax savings as expenses. A client of mine had leased a Mercedes Benz E250 CDI back in 2011. This was through their own MB leasing subsidiary. The R&D division of Mercedes Benz in Bangalore routinely leases their cars through their own MB subsidiary leasing company. Here their internal pricing is definitely lower for procurement to service costs to insurance, to loan interest component as all the three entities are essentially one company. For my client in 2011 it was standard price of 1.2 lakhs a month for his E250 CDI Avantguard for a lease of 4 years, that is what I was told, which was expensive then. As off last month another client of mine leased a E class petrol from ADL, a leasing company, is paying around 1.4 lakhs/month for 48 months with mileage limit of 48 k kms for the entire tenure. A certain charge per kilometre is imposed on exceeding that limit. This is a full package all inclusive, except fuel off course.

These cars are a catch for pre owned buyer, very well maintained, full service history, about 4-5 years old, perfect. I have bought a 2012 C250 CDI AMG edition in end of 2017 which had done just under 50k kms in great condition, I had to change only the rear tyres. But these cars are registered with white on black plates from day 1. So these leased cars with full package which includes total maintenance and insurance are a catch for the used car buyer, do remember they don’t come cheap, but you do get a good to great condition car.

I have seen all my life, every new idea in any product that is launched in India, the corporates get so damn greedy that it comes dead on arrival. In this case, they cannot possibly justify a realistic pricing to the corporates they have been milking for years now. It will take ages before the car leasing market matures in India.

Interesting FAQs at their website which one should read if they plan to take a car on lease from them :)

https://www.marutisuzuki.com/more-fr...suzuki-leasing

A taxi driver would be quite the upgrade, considering what my neighbours think I do right now.

Jokes apart, this is still the very early days of leasing and the prices reflect that. Can see it in the car rental space as well. Companies are perhaps testing the waters, worried about use/abuse?, theft and god knows what else. Especially since there is no corporate to share some of the risk.

Also, my thoughts:

1. Maruti is not on my top list for lease desirability. I would look at leasing only for premium vehicles. (Personal, not official)

2. I would consider a lease only if the lease amount equals or is maybe slightly above what I would lose in depreciation if I were to buy a car and sell it in say 3 years. And that would work out mostly in vehicles that cost north of 30L or so. Anything cheaper and unless it's a startup willing to burn to earn, they can't do it.

3. I may consider a lease for these cars, at these rates, only for short periods (<year) if I'm say in a city for 6 months for whatever reason and need my own car.

Exactly my thoughts, someone has to put a gun to my head for me to lease a Maruti!

I feel the leasing model will never take off in India as we keep the cars longer and still look at cars as more of a desirable thing than commodity.

So for 50K we can lease a Maruti XL6 car worth approx 10 lacs.
Considering we buy this on 5 year loan - the approx EMI comes to 20K for 10 Lacs
For the remaining 30K one can buy an affordable flat on loan, or easily pay Rs. 20K for rent of a decent 2BHK, that would still save us 10K which can be used for petrol/travelling or even better another additional car.
The lease rates are atleast double then what they should be, maybe they are just experimenting with the pricing and later tweak or come out with discount offers.

Such schemes keep returning and only get limited to headlines. One can easily gauge that they themselves do not wish anyone to opt for these schemes. The rates quoted are not wrong or inflated, they are downright insulting and I am sure a potential customer would be immediately advised the benefits of instead opting for the regular EMI scheme. No amount of tax write off etc can counter such high rates. the only purpose of such schemes is to possibly generate some news and footfalls in the showrooms.

Last month, Maruti Suzuki had launched a new car subscription program called Maruti Suzuki Subscribe in Pune and Hyderabad. The service has now been introduced in Delhi-NCR and Bangalore.



Maruti Suzuki has partnered with Orix Corporation to provide leasing options for buyers. Customers can choose to subscribe a new Swift, Dzire, Vitara Brezza, Ertiga, Baleno, Ciaz and XL6. The cars can be subscribed for a period of 12-48 months.

Subscription charges start at Rs. 14,463 (including taxes) for the Swift LXi in Delhi for a tenure of 48 months. The charges include maintenance expenses, zero depreciation insurance and 24x7 roadside assistance. The subscription fee also includes road tax and registration charges. Customers also get the option to register the vehicle in either white plate or black plate with all India permit.

After the completion of the tenure, customers can opt to upgrade the vehicle, extend or buy the car at market price.

Link to Team-BHP News

Maruti Suzuki has launched its leasing program called Subscribe in Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. The company has partnered with ORIX Auto Infrastructure Services India, to offer leasing options in these cities.



Maruti Suzuki Subscribe allows customers to use a new car without actually owning it. The customer has to pay a monthly fee that covers maintenance and insurance for the complete tenure. The car is registered in the name of the customer and comes with a white number plate.

After the completion of subscription tenure, the customer can either choose to extend the lease, upgrade the vehicle, or buy the car at market price.

Customers can choose to subscribe a new Swift, Dzire, Vitara Brezza, Ertiga, Baleno, Ciaz and XL6. The monthly subscription charges for the Swift LXi for 48 month tenure is Rs. 15,368 in Mumbai, Rs. 15,196 in Chennai, Rs. 14,665 in Ahmedabad and Rs. 14,691 in Gandhinagar.

According to Shashank Srivastava, Executive Director (Marketing and Sales) Maruti Suzuki India Limited, the company has received over 6,600 enquiries in the first few months of pilot launch. The program offers flexible tenure, zero down payment as well as 24x7 roadside assistance.

Maruti Suzuki aims to introduce the program in 40-60 cities over a period of 2-3 years. At present, Maruti offers leasing options in Hyderabad, Pune, Delhi-NCR and Bangalore as well.

Link to Team-BHP News

Is there a way to find out how many of these enquiries were converted to a lease?

If MS is planning to expand to many more cities, then they must be seeing the potential or getting the response. However I myself explored the option and found it making no financial sense. So surprised with their plans. What am I missing?