Maruti Suzuki, the brand we all know for the country’s most reliable and affordable vehicles is all set to raise the prices of all its cars. This change will take place from the 1st of January 2013 and will result in all the cars getting dearer by upto INR 20,000.
The company has some long time bestsellers in its portfolio like Swift, WagonR (Read Review), Dzire (Read Review) etc and has been the leader of the pack when it came to providing the consumer with a car that has a high fuel efficiency and cheap maintenance written all over it. The brand gave the common man a car to drive without burning a hole in their pocket.
The company’s Chief Operating Officer, Mayank Pareek confirmed that they are considering a hike of upto Rs 20,000 and the quantum will vary depending on models indicating that the cars at the top of the tree will get dearer the most which we believe will be for its best seller Ertiga and not so brisk seller SX4 with other models such as the Alto, Wagon-R following with an increase of around Rs.10,000-15,000.
This move was long awaited and comes right after the festive season just finishing up. The company suffered a loss of INR 350 crores in the quarter ending July 2012 due the depreciating Rupee in relation to the Yen . These fluctuations in the currency have resulted in a dent in the company’s profits.
From what we think of it, Maruti offers discounts on all its products all round the year. The price increase will offset the discounts to some extent but will hurt the buyer as it would eat into the discounts. Considering that many manufacturers follow Maruti, similar announcements have been made from them as well. Considering it from another angle, these are also marketing strategies which manufacturers have started adopting to clear out the existing stock of the year.
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Source: Economic Times
Richie Rich
