The steep depreciation in the value of the Rupee coupled with sluggish sales has prompted luxury car makers like Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW to offer heavy discounts. The trio are together offering discounts of up to 15 per cent or Rs 10 lakh on specific models.
Segment leader BMW is offering a discount of Rs 4.5 lakh on the X1 and Rs 1-4 lakh for its other models but has confirmed that this from the dealer end only. However, during the launch of the facelifted BMW X6 Phillip Von Sahr, president of BMW India, said that they would be hiking their prices by up to 10 per cent from January 1.
Audi, which is poised to eclipse BMW soon, on the other hand is offering either a Rs 1-2.5 lakh discount coupled with warranty and finance or a bigger amount in the range of Rs 3-5 lakh (depending on the dealer). Audi will also be increasing its prices by up to five per cent from January.
Mercedes-Benz has placed a discount, depending on the dealer, in the range of Rs 1.5-3 lakh on select variants of the C-Class and Rs 6-8 lakh on select variants of the S-Class. These discounts are likely to have been initiated by the dealers themselves to clear old or slow moving stock and are expected to stop before the end of the year.