[Swap_Abarth]

To me it's loud Yes, two month extention is reasonable considering current extreme circumstances. Most of the car/bike dealerships are facing hardship for last couple of years with auto industry meltdown. Writting off the inventory will make the matter worst for them. It might result in permanant closure / job cuts.

BS6 rollout is necessary, but not at the cost of humanity. They should be given a chance to clear existing BS4 stock.

[Nav-i-gator]

I voted No. Though I understand the extreme circumstances being quoted as an excuse are a bit justified, but the buck has to stop somewhere. Dealers' greed on sticking to selling cars on near same prices as normal rather than focusing on liquidation by starting to give out decent discounts well in advance is the reason "some" dealers are still left with BS4 inventories. Some dealers are sitting with FY18 manufactured cars!

Infact, whatever be the reason, why should one particular set get the benefit of leniency? Everyone is impacted by COVID-19, in some way or the other. Why not then ban layoffs completely till May2020? OR, why not allow sale of non-food items post their best before date too? Hospitality industry is the worst affected. Many airlines, restaurants will not even survive this phase. Why only allow sale of "old" cars?

[AnandB]

I believe major impact started after mid-Feb or end of Feb. Dealers should have cleared most of their stock by then. Covid-19 has just started its grasp on India and this is going to last months here as well as globally. Extending a month or two will have zero effect on sentiment of consumer. Although no harm doing it but i still voted no as they had plenty of time regardless. Auto sector has been down for more than a year and holding onto their stock instead of liquidating it earlier (for lower profit or even small loss) is their own fault.

[charanreddy]

Do we know which manufacturers / dealers / have unsold inventory. Was looking for a good deal and when I visited the Renault showroom the SA told that all BS 4 stock was sold out. Not sure how true it is though!

[KiloAlpha]

I voted YES - and given the current situation, I think the dealers really need this extension. While a majority of the car dealers might have exhausted their stock of BS-4 cars (with a few exceptions), I think it is the 2-wheeler dealers who are stuck with larger inventory of BS-4 bikes.

If the hon'ble Supreme Court rules in favour of FADA, it needs to be implemented in such a way that will prevent manufacturers from pushing any remaining factory stock on dealers. Maybe dealers can give a list of all BS-4 vehicle VIN numbers that they have in stock as of today, and these will be the only ones allowed to be registered until 31st May.

[Reinhard]

Empathy & compassion made me vote for YES here. Dealers would be looking at quite a bit of inventory to junk otherwise considering footfall at showrooms, loan approvals at banks & registrations at RTOs would be dramatically low right now.

However - this still is a reflection on how poorly prepared the industry (makers, transporters & dealers) was overall. The BSIV inventory really should have been cleared before end of 2019. Car makers were still dispatching BSIV cars - even now in March. Thats really sad. While the deadline is 1st April - the BSVI cars should have started rolling out much earlier. At least petrol ones.

[Tucker48]

This is a classic example of a mindset who doesn't care about the system and it's painful to see culprits take advantage whereas law abiders feel anguish.
SC should have said manufacturing of BS IV vehicles should not be allowed after 31st 2019 instead of 31st march 2020.
But well organized and sane manufacturers should have done that voluntarily, so that it gives them leeway of 3 months to get rid of old stock.
Now, if the extension has to be given then for only those vehicles which are manufactured before 1st Jan 2020.
I hate the scenario when too big to fail companies game the system and ask for bailouts at the tax payers expense. It has become a norm and it inspires others to follow their footsteps. Get rewarded for mistakes while there is no appreciation for the honest as they just followed the ethical ways of doing a business.

[S.MJet]

I guess the issue is with two wheeler and commercial vehicles.

Maruti visualized the picture well ahead of time and started rolling out BS-VI vehicles more than 6-8 months ago and are have no worries now of clearing BS-IV stocks.
Most of passenger vehicle manufactures have been giving out statements about their plans and how they have complete control over the dealer stocks.

[rkv_hunter]

Voted Yes, Looking at the pains of auto industry and this specific situation it makes sense for SC to extend this by at least 2 months. In some places like Pune RTOs are closed and registrations are not possible.

In addition there is no public cost of this extension. The courts have been taking too hard a view on this.

[ShankarG]

Voted Yes only on compassionate basis.

This is a typical mentality of hanging on with things until the last minute and then finding ways for an extension or getting away using some jugaad. I'm 100% sure that even if the government extends this to 31st May, dealers would scramble to sell this stock only in the last week of May and will request a next extension too. I hope the government doesn't budge in then (assuming the virus gets in control and we are back on track).

[Vipin Kumar]

Voted 'no'. This is only eleventh hour. And a manufacturer would not normally wait for this hour to sell all the stock. That process was well known and manufacturers must have started the process early. Indeed, they did.

These days, I see a Rapid on display in the Skoda showroom here, but it has registration number plate. So, one can assume that Skoda dealer got it already registered it in someone's name/his name, because post BS-VI set-in, sale is not the issue, but registration will be the issue.

[NiInJa]

I think this issue is more with 2 wheelers, I gave my dad's TVS Jupiter for servicing at a big dealer in Pune last week and came to know that they are still giving massive discounts for BS4 scooters, goes on to show that they are keeping quite a lot of BS4 stock considering Gudi Padwa falls on 25th March (an auspicious day for vehicle purchases). Extension of 2 months is reasonable.

[DrCar]

Voted for Yes.

Car manufacturers should certainly get an extension, as we are facing a health crisis and buying a car is the last thing that comes in our mind right now. Nor the dealers, nor the manufacturers would have anticipated this.

Yes, Maruti are able to sell BS6 cars before the deadline itself. It commands a large market share and has deep pockets to start early. But what about the other competitors which don't have much of market share? They would have definitely hoped to sell all their existing BS4 stocks before the deadline to make as much profit possible from them before introducing BS6 products.
If they don't get extension, they will be staring at a huge loss and will better shut shop then to continue further, as potential demand for cars in immediate future doesn't seem good. We need competitive market to keep all other manufacturers on toes. A duopoly or a monopoly won't be good for us buyers.

Only cars manufactured till 31st March 2020 should be allowed to be registered. Anyways, most of the auto manufacturers have reduced production and stopped few of the assembly lines due to virus scare and slowdown in economy. So, there won't anyways be too many of BS4 cars left to buy.

About bikes- This won't be affected much because all the dealers will register them in their names and sell it to the buyers. Buying a second owner bike doesn't matter much for the buyer looking for common commuters; since value of bikes don't get affected much due to number of owners as compared to the cars.
But, high end bikes will definitely be sold at discounted prices.

[yesyeswe]

There should be a website/application where all the car/bike showrooms should be registered. All the available stock, variants and colours should be mentioned there with the dealer details, there can even be option to mention the minimum discount available.

So that the people who are intrested in buying can look at the availability of the vehicle and contact the dealer directly. There might be a possibility that a certain model/variant/colour is not available in the nearby showroom or in the same city, but it's available in the nearby city or some other showroom.

Only by this way people who are looking to buy BS4 stock can take the advantage of good discounts and even the dealers can clear out the old stock. Because visiting each and every dealership or even calling and enquiring about the cars/variants/colours is PITA.

One application and a website to check the availability nationwide, that would be really convenient.

[RahuKetu]

I think it is a justified demand, an apt case of force majeure. Many projects have delayed quite a bit due to corona issue. Visits & inspection calls are postponed by clients in the affected countries thus delaying supplies. Containers carrying essential parts are stuck inside china & at various ports. All project planning has gone haywire.

Car makers would have also done some planning for production of their cars considering monthly sales figure. But if that figure dwindles too much due to less footfalls in showroom then they can't be blamed. People are holding their money for uncertain conditions such as delayed salaries or job cuts arising out of this situation. This will definitely impact sales of cars & other non-essential products. Therefore, Time extension seems justified.