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Year-end is time for best deals on wheels

Ashish Sharma

Almost as if to complement the creeping chill in the air, it is that time of the year again when automobile sales start freezing in their tracks.

Conventional wisdom says that it is better to wait for the new year than to be saddled with last year's model. An elementary precaution to improve resale prospects, goes the argument.

But it pays to look at it differently. For one, the used-car market is changing: buyers now look into many more aspects than the date of original purchase.

Secondly, the beginning of a calendar year wouldn't automatically mean an upgraded model on offer: this time, most upgrades arrived well into the second half of the year.

And, perhaps most important, it makes economic sense to be in the market when there are fewer buyers.

"People are increasingly buying during the last two months of the year. Buyers have become bright enough to buy when great deals are on offer," says Aman Syal, director, Atil Auto, one of Fiat's dealers in Delhi.

Atil Auto is offering Rs 30,000 worth of accessories on the Siena and accessories worth Rs 21,000 on the Palio.

"The month of purchase doesn't matter any more, so long as you get a good product at a good price," says Ashok Sharma, general manager, Southend Honda, which has two showrooms in south Delhi.

"The norm is that you get back 4 per cent of the loan amount from the bank," reveals Sharma, "plus, you get a cash discount from the dealer."

Which means, anybody who takes a loan of Rs 600,000 for a Honda City will end up saving Rs 40,000.

More than ever in India's automotive history, it's a buyers' market. And more so now than at any other time of the year.

Every negotiation is a battle of wits as smart buyers bargain as hard as possible and sellers strive to lose as little as is possible without losing the customer.

The operative word here, truly, is smart. Gone are the days of fixed sticker prices. Welcome to the world of automotive haggling.

If you play by the revised rules, you can drive home a deal for up to Rs 40,000 less than the on-road price in the mid-size segment.

There are some models like the Maruti Versa, which loses over Rs 100,000 on its original price. But such massive discounts are usually restricted to the luxury segment.

Different dealers means different deals

Different dealers may have been appointed to service different localities, but in practice they are all in the business of stealing as many customers from the other dealers as they can lure.

Often different dealers offer different discounts, which could well be over and above what the company offers.

That explains why three people who bought the Fiat Siena 1.2 model in Delhi recently got three different deals, with discounts and accessories ranging from Rs 11,000 to Rs 35,000.

Car finance spells cash discounts

What's true of dealers goes for banks and other financial institutions as well. For instance, there is no company discount on the new Fiat Siena. Yet, the three buyers in the example above managed to save some money.

That's because even if manufacturers don't seem to be able to cut costs any further, financiers are vying with each other to attract customers.

So, you stand a better chance of getting discounts and free accessories if you take a car loan. The more loan you take, the more you get to save by way of discounts.

If you get any car financed from ABN-Amro, for example, you get free insurance. Then, you can save up to Rs 45,000 on the petrol models of the Mitsubishi Lancer, for example, if you get the finance from Citibank.

The competition is just as stiff in the smaller cars. What's more, you can get some discount even on those models which have a waiting period, like the Mahindra Scorpio.

The magic of the music lies in the listening

If you are taking a car loan, along with a five-figure cash discount, you can almost always bargain for a complementary stereo.

But make sure that the speakers are of the same make as the stereo - if you have been promised a Rs 11,000 worth of Kenwood car stereo, for instance, you should get a new Kenwood stereo plus four original speakers, and not a Kenwood stereo plus four local speakers that cost much less.

Count your blessings before driving out

Going in for a car loan usually means dealing with an associate of a bank. Which means, you buy from the dealer, get the loan from a bank and negotiate with an associate of the bank.

Deals are mostly struck verbally and the documents arrive much later.

It is important, then, to make sure that you actually get whatever has been promised - three parties in the process means they can easily shortchange you and each can pass the blame to the others.

The simplest way of ensuring this is to hold back a part of the payment until you get to see and check everything.

Remember that you get only what you drive out of the showroom.

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