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Compared: Price hikes of BMW 7-seater SUVs vs Innova over 16 years

You can see how the price of the German SUV is increasing disproportionately over the best alternative available in the mass market segment.

BHPian 84.monsoon recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Having watched the exponential way in which the prices of the German luxury offerings are rising over the years, I thought it would be interesting to compare the price premium of the luxury 7 seater SUV from BMW - which is a good sample of the price trajectory of the German marquees - and compare it with the top spec Innova. We could have also compared it with the Fortuner, which would show a similarly shaped graph:

  • In 2007, the first generation top end Innova cost 12 lakhs on road, the 7 seater X5 cost 55 lakhs.
  • In 2010, Innova and BMW prices increased marginally with the Innova moving up to 14 lakhs and BMW X5 7 seater costing 65 lakhs on-road.
  • By 2014, the BMW X5 had moved up to 80 lakhs, while the Innova top end had crept up to 18 lakhs.
  • When the Crysta was launched in 2016, the top end of the Innova moved up to 25 lakhs, X5 stayed launched the M-Sport top end around 90 lakhs on-road.
  • Fast forward to 2019, BMW launched the new X5 the top end retailing at 98 lakhs on-road and removed the 3rd row of seats. They brought in the 3 row X7, at 1.2 crore on-road. The Innova crept up to almost 30 lakhs for the top end on-road. The comparison moved to X7 from X5 as it is the only three-row full-size SUV offered by BMW.
  • Cut to 2023, the new Innova is going to retail at 35 lakhs on-road, while the X7 goes up to 1.5 crore!

You can see how the price of the German SUV is increasing disproportionately over the best alternative available in the mass market segment.

I think we will find a similar trend if we compare the price movement in other segments - when we compare the German marquee offerings versus the popular market offerings from the Germans or even the local companies.

Moral of the story - the Germans are becoming more and more difficult to afford for the initial buyer segment they were targeted at, and showing the characteristics of a luxury good, where demand is increasingly inelastic to the price. So if you want to own one of these, it is better to get in earlier and own it over a longer period of time. Fortunately, reliability of BMWs etc. has been improving, which makes it easier to hold on to these cars much longer then before.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.

 
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