[aby]

what we are not considering is that excise duty has on an average come down from nearly 60% in mid 90s to about 12% today (for small cars). In 90s Cars were seen as luxury to be taxed heavily. Slowly Govts. changed the way they saw things and duties went down.

So when you bought a car for 2.0 L in 1998, almost a lakh was excise duty. Today at 12%. So it is about 20k for a car worth 2L

Had excise duty been same, M800 would be priced close to 3.5L. Which still would be less than the rate of inflation, but the prices won't appear as if they have stagnated or in fact fell.

[volkman10]

"It was reported that auto companies like Toyota, General Motors, Honda, Maruti and Audi have said with falling rupee, they have to pay more for parts and components that are imported. The report quoted Toyota Kirloskar Deputy MD (sales & marketing) Sandeep Singh as saying "The rupee depreciation is adding to the cost and we will be going in for a revision from January next year." Toyota had last raised prices by 1 percent-1 .5 percent in October this year. "The hike could be of a similar range or even more." Toyota's vehicles like Innova and Fortuner have 50 percent imported parts and the faling rupee has made their costs higher"

Auto makers, Audi, GM, Toyota and Maruti Suzuki all set to hike prices | WheelsUnplugged