Desperate times call for desperate measures, and the automobile industry is looking and sounding increasingly harrowed. With dismal sales in the festive season, the biggest players, including Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Hyundai, Ford, Honda, General Motors and even Bajaj Auto, are offering staggering discounts in a frantic bid to clear their 2008 stocks before the end of the year and to bring home some profits before the Bureau of Indian standards (BIS) notifies a new set of standards for a host of items including galvanised steel sheets. The new norms come into force from February next year.

H S Lheem, MD of Hyundai Motors, expressed his reservations on the fate of sales in the auto industry well into 2009, saying, “We are surviving on technicalities. Despite economic recession of 0.3 per cent, since it was expected to be 0.5 per cent, our stocks rose. We are even considering bearing the burden of marketing costs with our dealers in different countries to promote sales.”

In mid-November, Honda announced it was slashing the price of its Hybrid Civic Model by Rs 8.14 lakh, bringing it down to a mere Rs 13.36 lakh from Rs. 21.50 lakh and saw a marginal increase in its sales.

Ford has announced a Rs 91,000 cut in the price of the EXI petrol variant Fiesta, bringing down its ex-showroom price from Rs 6.2 lakh to Rs 5.29 lakh and an equally substantial cut of Rs 51,000 on the diesel variant which takes its price to Rs 6.59 lakh, effective immediately, but for next 10 days. Hyundai intends to spend December wooing customers with the appeal of 1998 flagship model Santro GL for as little as Rs 3 lakh, its introductory price of ten year ago.

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