Volkswagen has begun operations in the pre-owned car market with launch of a DasWelt Auto showroom in Mumbai. This is a global service operated by the German auto giant in most of its markets. The speciality of DasWelt Auto is that dealerships will exchange car models from all manufacturers and will not be restricted to Volkswagen car lines.
The cars will be subjected to a 160 point check-up that has been formulated and certified by VW global. However, this is modified from country to country according to local standards and all vehicles sold only reach the showrooms after being certified for road worthiness by the company.
Among other features the company is offering through the DasWelt Auto route is a one-year/45000 km warranty (included in the price of the car) they also offer the option to fit accessories like leather seats, music systems and alloy wheels on the car, just like one would get while buying a new car.
Stressing on the need for organised players in the second-hand car market Arvind Saxena, MD Volkswagen passenger cars, said Volkswagen had been in the Indian market for the last four years and this is the next logical step as the Indian second-hand car market is maturing quite fast. He said that at present OEMs and manufacturers constituted 12-14 per cent of the market and hoped this number would increase to 17 per cent within the next two years.
At present, Volkswagen plans to source cars through trade-ins but is also willing to buy vehicles if a customer wants to sell. On the question of setting up dealerships, Arvind said that at present VW had 15 dealerships and planned to expand this number to 21 by the end of the year.
