[Flyingdutchman]

Originally Posted by NotanF1driver

Setting the context

2. A week ago, I was contacted by a recruiter offering me a position in another company. When speaking about salary, I said I expected industry-standard hike of 30 - 40% (considering relocation) – to which he said that there were some instructions given to him that the hike could be only somewhere in the 20% range.

It was bound to happen eventually. Companies (Big Tech companies atleast) were on hiring/spending spree during that time offering ridiculous unsustainable packages to techies and techies being techies took full advantage of that and some of my colleagues even resorted to Moonlighting to earn extra moolah. Amazon was offering 55 LPA in India for SDE II with 3 years of experience which was unheard of before (atleast for non IITians). Many of my Oracle mates jumped the gun,now Amazon has started to revise CTC with more weightage to Employee Stock Option.
Hikes were in the range of 50-70% even 100% in some cases. One of my manager went to join Amazon Seattle office as SDM (Software development Manager with CTC North of Half a million USD.
Such exponential but short lived boom skyrocketed stock market,real estate with apartments gaining 20% appreciation after COVID.

Now,Market has matured and companies have finally came to their senses. Many have started restructuring,axing entire divisions in some cases. All of this have inadvertently (to some extent atleast)impacted automotive sectors. I personally know 2-3 people who were eying GLC/X3 now bought Fortuner/X1.

[ashvek3141]

Originally Posted by DCEite

The only car company whose car dealers act as "Buy it, or get out of our showroom fast" are the Mahindra and Mahindra dealers. Even today they boast of extended waiting periods, due to limited production capacity and pent up demand. But guess what ? They are now feeling the heat and introducing newer variants (a.la XUV 700 AX5 S etc.) and even offering minor discounts.

Along with M&M, include Kia too. I simply cannot understand their stubbornness even in today's times.

Moreover, this factor can also alter with the number of dealerships in a city/state. Monopoly is bad. Kia & M&M dealers in my state aren't even offering 350/- mud flaps as freebies.

Moreover, they made me wait for nearly 3 months for a Kia Sonet !! So, not sure if this situation in 'general' ; but yeah for companies like Maruti and Hyundai to some extend are offering supposed discounts, to attract buyers. But when you dive deep, you realise the actual 'cash discount' is barely 10 - 20K, rest all is stuff like the exchange bonus, corporate disc. scrappage disc. and the likes.

[DhruvBhardwaj]

I was in a belief that in a growing economy and ability to own car/s plus the COVID effect, people are naturally attracted to buy comparatively higher end, luxurious and feature rich/flashy cars, which seems to be good.

In 2013, a person buying a luxury hatch/compact sedan, today aspires to own a Creta, Seltos and the likes.

But it seems to be cooling off, even used car rates which very severely inflated seems to be very "cheap".

For example: Today's normal used car scrolling just shocked me
2019 Marrazo for 4.25 lakh
2023 Verna MT 1.5 for 12 lakh
2018 Aspire TDCI for 3.5
2017 Corolla cng for 5.25
I myself was able to get a 2019 Datsun Go 2 months back for a miniscule sum and more than 65% discount over its invoice value.

These prices were a far cry say a year ago and mind you these car were seemingly well maintained from direct individuals and all under 60k run.

A known was lurking over Slavia/Virtus and were offered mind blowing discounts especially for the Skoda much more than what we discuss on the forum.

I couldn't find any logical explanation for the above effect and that too suddenly (may be in last 3-4 months especially)when the economy will possibly get only stronger with time and global cues remaining more or less stable.

Seems to be a buyers market again and hopefully the COVID aspiration driven market has came to an end if not a halt and back to the days of value for money offerings and less autocratic behaviour of car manufacturers.

[JithinR]

Originally Posted by JithinR

To be honest, i actually see websites like Spinny marking down the prices for existing inventory. They basically put a price down tag on those cars and that moniker has been showing more often on the website at least for the Bengaluru location.
....

Lo and behold, Spinny has actually removed the Price down tag and the discounted price reveal on all their cars in Bengaluru. I guess it could be a coincidence.

But a part of me thinks that they don't want the general public to know that people have slowed down their purchase of the overpriced used cars (especially when they seem to be going on an ad-blitz with Sachin and the like).

[Sensible_Speed]

Originally Posted by JithinR

Lo and behold, Spinny has actually removed the Price down tag and the discounted price reveal on all their cars in Bengaluru. I guess it could be a coincidence.

But a part of me thinks that they don't want the general public to know that people have slowed down their purchase of the overpriced used cars (especially when they seem to be going on an ad-blitz with Sachin and the like).

Spinny prices are atrocious to begin with. Back when the market was rational (pre-COVID), their prices were more in line with the industry and a little premium over it for their vetting services. Now, they buy up anything they can get and a lot of examples from 6-8 years back are suspiciously low mileage. A mechanic friend of mine informed me, how easy it is to roll the odo back on a Celerio or Wagon-R.

Regarding the main topic of discussion in this thread, I feel car manufacturers took advantage of the supply constraints from COVID and misread demand. They mercilessly over-inflated prices of automobiles in hope that this demand spike was a genuine sign of upward mobility of their customers. Now, that the constraints have flattened out and the revenge buying has come to an end, people are waking up to these atrocious prices. The pent up stock, rotting away in the dealers' stockyards and substantial discounts on even current MY products confirm this.

Popular models are constantly available at a discount, and I suspect that to be the main reason for their sale. VW/Skoda, for example, claimed they sold roughly 70ish thousand cars in the last FY, but they had discounts in place, pretty much throughout the year in 2023. This statement might solidify if one looks at the increasing number of discounts being offered on models that are perceived as good sellers.

[kushagra452]

Car prices in India have certainly been on a tear. The used car market too was selling overpriced cars. The Covid 2020 demand spurt seems to have subsided. I am in the market for a used auto hatchback for city runs. Last year I visited to both Cars24 and Spinny. However, the products being offered were significantly overpriced. I shelved my plan of buying a car altogether.

Seems it might be worthwhile getting in touch with them again. Hope to find a more 'value for money' deal this time round.

[Turbohead]

Here's my assumption on what's happening in the car market:

- 2020 to 2023 would've been the year when many first time buyers bought a car due to public safety. Thanks to the chip shortage and the need for survival, people who had to get a car had to pay a premium.

- But now, with the gargantuan rise in prices, people who are in the market after 5 years i.e after buying in 2019, cannot make any sense of the prices. For way more money, they get the same car/segment practically.

- Since most owners take a loan to buy a car ( I can imagine 5 year EMI tenures to be quite standard by 2019) they would've probably just finished the loan. Would you pay even more money to change a car for miniscule changes? Or save some dough for a rainy day? You can't change the core habits of Indians - that is to save unless you give him an irresistible deal.


Here's an example with prices I can remember from 2019 with discounts:

Vento Highline plus DSG TDI: 14.5 lakhs
Kia Seltos TGDI DCT: 20 lakhs
Innova Crysta GX AT 2.8: 22 lakhs
Octavia TSI Ambition : 23/25 lakhs
Ecosport 1.5 Petrol TC : 12 lakhs


When people who bought at those prices and see the current prices, they simply cannot make sense with the current prices. I'm seeing people holding on to their cars for longer - most just prefer to invest in real estate or stocks instead. Or is the real competitor to the automobile industry being the online 'fin-fluencers'?

[myavu]

Originally Posted by myavu

People might be laughing at Altroz Racer, but it's been noted by even middle-aged lady drivers too...

Yesterday evening, we got a call from SA stating that Creative Plus MT is now available with a 1 lakh discount. (Don't know if it's due to 7th anniversary celebration or 3XO banging on the doors.)

Now they are offering 13.62 OTR including a 5-year warranty for Fearless MT White DT which is slightly less than Creative Plus MT's original OTR.

Definitely it's buyer's time now.

[GS2323]

Came across the below article today

https://www.business-standard.com/in...1700204_1.html

Apparently, manufacturers like Maruti & Hyundai are pushing financial institutions for extending the credit cycle to 90 days from the current 60 days

Also, the inventory level of 60 days now is comparable to 2019 when it reached 70 days, now the following can be expected in the coming days

It seems as if manufacturers want to guard their own volumes & completely push the inventory carrying cost to the dealers - Not a good news for the dealers

[vzvish91]

Originally Posted by DCEite

4. Maruti has discounts to the tune of 60k on the Grand Vitara, FronX, Ertiga, XL6.

How much discount were you offered for XL6?

[DCEite]

Originally Posted by vzvish91

How much discount were you offered for XL6?

I did not dig into details as I was not interested in XL6. However in my view it should be same as GV ~40k to 60k.

By the way, Nexon Fearless MT/DCA variants are now available too with flat 60k cash discounts as per my sources.

[xway]

Well the automobile industry is smarter than us anytime.

Earlier they played the Waiting period and huge demand card.
Many were told waiting periods are crazy, you need to rush and book
it will take 1year to get a car, but were delivered in a couple of months and
in some cases even instantly.

Now they are playing the discount card, by offering some exchange bonus,
cashbacks tid-bits. But in reality in last 2 years they have increased the prices to the extent of even 20 = 30% in popular models.

Case in point -

Scorpion N - Base model Launched at 11.99 lacs, now cost 13.99 lacs, thats a whopping 2 lac increase in just 2 years.

Grand Vitara - Was starting 10.19 lacs and now starts 10.99 lacs, so even if 50k discount is thrown in they still are making more than initial days.

Maruti Brezza, Hyundai Exter, Tata Punch, Kia Carens all have continuosly upped the prices every quarter and fact is people were buying in hordes.

Now it seems this demand bubble is full blown and some sense is back among buyers and we are seeing the prices softening and restoring back to normal days.