[Mafia]

The consumers are out of options now. The used market and the new car market will make hay while the shortage shines.

The losers are the potential consumers who cannot wait for a year for the supply chain to stabilize.

[sunikkat]

I was lucky, booked i20 IVT Asta on 20th Nov and got the car on 24th Dec within the promised timelines. There was no discount from Hyundai, but managed to get 15k from the dealer after lot of pushing.

[johy]

I got my i20 NLine N8 within a couple of days of booking; vehicle was in transit already (The sales executive told me that Hyundai was now allotting vehicles randomly to dealers and they had just allotted two vehicles to them) when I booked it. Once you start waiting for a particular product, there is much too much time to think about options, including not going ahead with a purchase /going for a pre-worshipped vehicle.

[raksrules]

Originally Posted by adisan

Given this situation, are freebies / discounts being offered when booking new cars?
Or have the offers dried up completely?

Do discounts (not freebies) even matter? I say this because the SA at Maruti showroom told me (company) discounts are always as applicable at the time of Invoicing. I booked my car on 31-Oct-2021 and he told me there is some 10k+15K discount as October discount. Now it is December and there is only I think only 5K discount so I will get that and that too only if car is alloted in Dec (which I know won't happen). So lets see what Jan brings and if any discounts are there or not. I have zero expectations in terms of discounts.

[SoumenD]

Good lord!!! that’s a huge backlog

Wonder how are manufacturers giving discounts in such a scenario? Just noticed a news article where TATA is offering upto 40k discount on various models? Whereas here it shows they have a backlog of 1L

Source

[sunilsreenivasg]

7 lakh is too big a number. Hope it is a business opportunity in India for chip manufacturing. I think we do today but may not be in a large scale as demanded. It would be interesting to understand the chip market.

[raksrules]

Is it that production of cars (at least at Maruti) is stopped for 7 days in month of December? I have booked S-Presso VXi+ AGS Granite grey colour back on 31-Oct-2021 and even today when I asked the Sales associate at the showroom, he told there have been no dispatches until now in this month for the grey colour and variant.
He also told me that there are 6-7 bookings for exact same colour and variant before me and said that the grey is most in demand colour for the S-Presso and he can get a blue immediate which obviously I don't want and like. He is offering VXi(O) which is 10K (ex-showroom) less but he says it is readily available in my colour choice. But with the less price I will lose out on Internally adjustable ORVMs, touchscreen infotainment (very much needed as I intend to fit rear camera) and steering mounted controls, all of which will incur far more additional costs if I were to fit aftermarket and won't be as good as stock.

I have no idea when I will get my vehicle. He told me that they get dispatch list every 15 days and will check that and let me know if any dispatches of VXi+ AGS has happened or not. He further mentioned that maruti didn't make a single S-Presso (I think he meant AGS) in month of December as they are prioritising CNG models.

Also enquired with 2 other showrooms in Kandivali and Malad (in Mumbai) and both quoted me 3 months waiting if I booked now. But they did tell that 2022 cars have started manufacturing after the hiatus period.

TLDR; I have no idea when I will be allotted a car and waiting period even for something like S-Presso is increasing.

[Nanolover]

Maruti is focusing on cng and higher margin products now. Also the production might be skewed to the newly launched Celerio. Spresso is their cheapest automatic model ( in fact the cheapest AMT available,if you discount slow sellers like Datsun) and the market is prepared to wait till they get it. The spresso dispatches are also lower as you can see from team bhp monthly sales chart and majority are manual gearboxes.

Unfortunately, the only thing to do is wait, especially if it for a particular color/variant.

[KPR]

The scenario of waiting period for any car has given upper hand to dealerships in giving no discounts and talking rude to customers even during calendar year end. So I will wait for better times. Also car is not like a flat or house to be constructed and then enjoyed. It should be like buy within weeks if not in days and start enjoying it. The satisfaction should be fulfilled immediately else mind will go search for another car of another make during the waiting period. I can't think of how buyers book for a vehicle to be delivered next year.

[7000plusrpm]

Off-topic but I'm really happy that people are made to wait.

No offense to anyone in particular but over 7L new car buyers probably translate into at least 20% of people buying their first car. They will be driving on the road without any road sense. Procuring a license after a 10-hour training and they just learned to control the car, creating a nuisance for others on the road.

Hope this continues longer and the buyers utilize this time to hone their skills. One of my friends is doing the same and it gave me hope. Let's hope for peaceful driving on the roads.

[TheHelix0202]

^^ Another outcome would be more people willing to get into the second hand/used car market. I just realised that for the same amount of money or even lesser, at least for those that see the value in pre-owned automobiles, many would take this opportunity to bite the bullet and go down the Used route; a good thing at that. This market would be buzzing right now too!

[GBX]

Originally Posted by 7000plusrpm

Off-topic but I'm really happy that people are made to wait.

No offense to anyone in particular but over 7L new car buyers probably translate into at least 20% of people buying their first car. They will be driving on the road without any road sense. Procuring a license after a 10-hour training and they just learned to control the car, creating a nuisance for others on the road.

These are two unrelated issues.

Those first time drivers, will still be first time drivers when their cars are finally delivered.

The grievance should instead be directed at the RTOs, which have lax standards for driving.

[raksrules]

Does it make sense to do additonal booking of same car at couple of more dealers? I booked Spresso VXi+ AGS back in end Oct 2021 but still the showroom guys cannot commit a date. They are saying Feb end may be. They are also telling no AMT Spresso has been dispatched in this month at all. I have no idea how much I will keep waiting. It is nearing 3 months now. And this is not even an in-demand car I think. May be my specific color choice and AMT is bottleneck.

So in my case, does it make any sense to Also book with 2 other nearby dealers for same variant? Whoever can delivery first good, I will cancel other bookings if that happens.

[KPR]

Originally Posted by raksrules

Does it make sense to do additonal booking of same car at couple of more dealers?
So in my case, does it make any sense to Also book with 2 other nearby dealers for same variant? Whoever can delivery first good, I will cancel other bookings if that happens.

Contact other dealers within 100 Km viscinity for ready availability. Also be flexible with colour choice. Last option is to check out Datsun Redi-go or Kwid 1.0 AMT which I think should be in stock.