Car companies slash prices by Rs 18,000-48,000

Car companies slash prices by Rs 18,000-48,000
ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU

MUMBAI, MAR 1: Enthused by the Union Budget's excise sops, Indian automobile majors have decided to pass on the benefits to customers by dropping prices. While market leader Maruti Udyog had already announced yesterday that it would be cutting prices, almost all car manufacturers, Fiat, TELCO, Hindustan Motors, General Motors, Daewoo and Hyundai announced on Thursday that their models would now be cheaper by Rs 18,000-48,000 depending on the variant.

A Fiat official told this newspaper that its Uno model would be cheaper by at least Rs 18,000 while the top-end model Siena Weekend would cost Rs 45,000 less. ``All models of Uno and Siena range will cost Rs 18,000 less for lower end cars like Uno and maximum of Rs 45,000 for Siena,'' a Fiat spokesperson said.

India's second largest car maker, Hyundai Motor said it has revised prices of its popular models of Santro and Accent. Passing on the entire excise relief to the customers, Hyundai reduced the ex-showroom price of its base model Santro LE in Mumbai by Rs 19,230 while the Santro LS will now cost Rs 21,646 less.

The price of top end Santro GS has been reduced by Rs 23,094. Accordingly, the ex-showroom price of Santro LE, Santro LS and Santro GS will be now Rs 3.35 lakh, Rs 3.77 lakh and Rs 4.01 lakh respectively in Mumbai.

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Similarly the ex-showroom prices of various Accent models have been reduced with the Accent GLS now costing Rs 6.26 lakh and top end Accent GLX model costing Rs 6.86 lakh. The company is now in the process of launching its third model Sonata in the next few days targeted at the premium segment.

Tata group firm, TELCO said that it is cutting the price of Indica by about Rs 18,000 with immediate effect. In a statement, TELCO said that the Indica V2 Diesel would now be priced at Rs 3,27,938 (ex-Delhi) and Rs 3,29,071 (ex-Mumbai). The Indica 2000, MPFI petrol, would now be priced at Rs 3,15,285 (LEI, ex-Delhi) and Rs. 3,16,182 (LEI ex-Mumbai).

According to a Daewoo statement, its Matiz variants would be cheaper by Rs 16,500 to Rs 23,000 with effect from today. The company, however went one step ahead and said it will refund the difference to all customers who have bought Matiz between February 5th and 28th. Calcutta-based Hindustan Motors said that it has reduced its vehicle prices by upto Rs 50,000 following eight per cent excise duty reduction announced in the 2001-02 budget.

HM officials said ex-showroom prices of the premium mid-size car Lancer, manufactured in collaboration with Mitsubishi Motors of Japan, have been reduced by Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000. Hindustan Motors currently, sells three "Lancer" variants in the domestic market. Similarly, Ambassador would now become cheaper by Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000.

US multinational General Motors announced a Rs 30,000 to Rs 48,000 reduction in its car prices with immediate effect. The measure would be applicable on its Opel Corsa and Opel Astra brand of mid-size cars, a GM statement said.