[GTO]

Having your car sold out is a badge of honour in the car industry. Indeed, many Marutis & Hyundais (including the current Creta) have enjoyed the "sold out" status. There have also been unexpected successes by other OEMs like Mahindra (XUV500 & its lottery system), Ford (EcoSport waiting list ran into years), Renault (Duster) and more.

Indians - fortunately or unfortunately - are a 'herd mentality' culture. Success begets success in the auto industry, and the popularity of a car does contribute to even larger sales numbers. Saying that the model is getting sold out will push customers who haven't yet decided to bite the bullet into booking the car, and also creates a false sense of demand, which would arouse the interest of others in the market. Unfortunately, some manufacturers have started gaming the system by either faking their car being sold out , or using it manipulatively for CBUs which were imported in the single / double digits only . This is creating completely misleading hype; listed below are some examples that immediately come to mind (am sure BHPians will find more entries). Perhaps brands should stop being trigger-happy and mention “sold out” only when the cars have actually been sold or paid for. I know some OEMs will retaliate by saying “all the cars were indeed booked…and later cancelled”, but that is simply wrong. You cannot count a car as "sold" when someone has merely paid a 10000-rupee token amount to pre-book the car, in many cases before the actual price announcement!!!

Volkswagen Polo GTI

It was claimed that the Polo GTI was sold out within weeks of launch. Some articles even claimed that the car received more bookings than what was allocated for India. Volkswagen dealers were later caught trying to sell dead stock of the limited edition GTI at massively discounted prices.

Originally Posted by GTO

Hadn't VW earlier said they'd received a 100 bookings or so? Shows that PR speak is as reliable as a used car salesman's tongue .

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Only 99 sold. Or... unsold.

Imagine trying to get repairs/spares for this car in five to ten years. Really, it's a rich boy's toy.

having said that, if I were a rich boy... I'd buy one!

Originally Posted by Santoshbhat

As per info given to me they have sold about 60 till date. Apparently, mine is the last Black one. Colours now available are red, white and silver.

Originally Posted by Mission_PGPX

Congratulations sir. I visited the dealer here in Ahmedabad for the GT TSI and saw this beauty, waited to be picked up. He said "only 58 cars are sold all over India, out of 99 brought in." Yours is one of that. I have alteast this one in the radar as a pre-worshipped one.

Originally Posted by satyahanspal

There was a car in Chandigarh (not sure which colour).

Mumbai dealership has a test drive car - about 1000 kms done. You can squeeze a great deal out of that - that's the one I was wanting to get in the first place! But then I got a brand new one at a better price!

Mumbai has 2 dealerships, The one called VW Downtown Mumbai might also have one! There's a car at the Nagpur Dealership. There's one down South too I think. Plus many dealers might have TD cars! Going for a steal! So that's about 4 to 5 cars!

Skoda Octavia RS 245

Buoyed by the success of the earlier RS, Skoda went overboard with the 245's pricing. Even before deliveries of the Octavia RS 245 began, rumours suggested that the car was almost sold out. Fake marketing attempt by Skoda! Truth is, cars were left unsold even a year later, going at major discounts!

Originally Posted by kamilharis

LOL, this vRS sold out & back in the stock stories are more romantic than Romeo and Juliet.

Originally Posted by speedfreak01

In December, I had gone with a friend to pick up his Rapid and just casually enquired about the blue VRS standing in the showroom. I was instantly quoted 34 L without even getting in the negotiation part. No doubt dealers are now desperate to sell their VRS’s. Don't know what kind of discount is going on now.

Originally Posted by AMG1

Sadly, Lucknow showroom didn't have any but they did tell that VRS 245 can be ordered from the Skoda Plant as there are some lying unsold. The showroom can help me with that.

I asked, whether I can get any discounts on the VRS at the Skoda plant, to which they said it won't be much and will mostly be in the 2 lacs region as the discount will be directly from the manufacturer.

Originally Posted by ecclipse78

If this helps, any of you sitting on the fence.

A friend in Mumbai was offered 6 lacs off on the OTR price in early Feb.

Originally Posted by sambhav.jain

Missed out on the Vrs 230 and got a discount of 7 lakhs in December in Chandigarh for a blue Vrs 245, but because of my own stupidity, I lost that deal as someone else jumped on it (I thought the discounts would increase by March 2021 ).....

Finally, on 9th April, the Chandigarh dealer found the LAST BLUE VRS 245 in India and I took delivery yesterday on my mother's birthday - 26/04/2021. The discount I got was also 3 lakhs with the maintenance package for free and 50% off on the extended warranty.

Originally Posted by AMG1

So much for "the CAR that was sold OUT"
" the CAR that never depreciates"
" the CAR that appreciated RS220"
" the CAR that was an investment decision "
" the CAR that was Porsche Cayman at a budget"
" the CAR that can only be obtained by mere mortals, via online"
" the CAR that sold out quickly than you can pronounce its name"
" the CAR that somehow was great even though almost the same car was launched at 24L ex"

The car is 'OVERPRICED' in all senses and nothing can justify it. The RS220 model makes it feel like 'Robbery'. I am sorry if I ranted out too much, but some people's justification for its price perplexes me. VW-SKODA and their fraud marketing "SOLD OUT" communications is downright irritating.

Originally Posted by TRANSAM

Seen one on display at the South Mumbai showroom, it was in the shade of blue and they have one in white as well in stock, OTR is about 45/46L, they are willing to let it go at 41/42L as of now.

Originally Posted by Venkatesh

As of today, some units of the Skoda Octavia vRS 245 are still available with some dealers

Link

BMW M340i xDrive

Within a day of launch, BMW bragged that the M340i xDrive was sold out. However, BHPians called out the fake report and stated that dealerships still had unsold cars.

Originally Posted by Turbanator

There are some unsold left or at least that was the case until last week in North. Given the conditions here in North, I don't think BIC program is going to happen soon.

Originally Posted by AMG Power

I think this is a Skoda vRS 245 story being retold with the M340i taking centre stage this time. I know a dealer who has two M340i’s allotted to him and both have not yet been sold as of today and neither are there any serious enquiries for the cars yet.

The ad probably implies that the cars have been spoken for by the dealers and will be lifted from the factory. Maybe the number of cars imported aren’t a large number either.

BMW is learning a few tricks from VW in the area of hype creation, but it won’t be long before someone calls their bluff on this one.

Originally Posted by Vineet258

When the 340i was announced, the sales rep contacted me and informed me that it's expected to sell out and if I am interested, I should book it online immediately (it was before the launch). I told him that I am not in a hurry for a new car and I will wait and watch the price and some owner reviews. Yesterday he called me again and asked whether I want to book. He said if I book, it will come from the plant. This shows that the car is still available and not sold out. It may be a hype created by BMW.

Volkswagen T-Roc

VW has a long history of goofing up its product planning & sales targets - just ask its poor dealers who have been saddled with dead non-moving stock of Passats & Tiguans for TWO YEARS! The company imported a few units of the T-Roc in 2020 and there were rumours about the car being sold out even before deliveries of the crossover began. The car was supposedly "sold out" in June, but T-Rocs were still being sold months later!

Originally Posted by rags.singh

The VW website still says that bookings for the car have been stopped now. I still registered my interest on the site and got a call back from their customer care. When I asked if the bookings have stopped, they said that is not the case and asked me which website was saying this.

Got a call from the dealer then (Whitefield). He said he only has 2 color options - blue and grey but doesn't have any vehicles for TD. Is it the same case with other dealerships?

Originally Posted by Seahawk

Got this from the dealer. Is this a true situation or a ploy to make someone buy the car? Anyone got such an email if you have booking.

Dear Mr XXX,

Thank you for choosing Volkswagen as your adept choice of commute. We truly appreciate your enthusiasm towards our latest SUVW the new T-Roc and for booking the same with XXX Volkswagen XXX

We take this opportunity to personally assure you of world class experience in Sales & after Sales at our dealership.

We would like to inform you as a privileged VW T-ROC customer and for a pleasant experience, we wish to bring to your kind notice that the T-ROC vehicle is only a limited edition product which is getting completed and it will be sold till 15th of September 2020. As a pre booked customer we request you to confirm your T-ROC order on or before 25th of August 2020 and we urge you to submit your financial documents for further process. After 25th of August 2020 your order on T-ROC will not be valid due to the non availability of the car and limited edition product.

In case if you are now not in a position to take the delivery we hereby request you to send a cancellation mail to the Id which mentioned here email@email.com and the amount will be refunded within 7 to 10 working days. Hope you accept our current situation.

Originally Posted by SSR0608

This is misleading info I guess. I had a call from VW's Hyderabad dealer this morning, asking me if I wanted to book a T-Roc. This after I had cancelled my initial booking 2 months back. I was a bit cheeky and asked them what colours are available. Said most of them are...so looks like a ploy more than anything

Originally Posted by TRANSAM

I was informed last week of a couple of cars in stock with VW Downtown, a dealer in Mumbai. They had the car on display as well, if anyone's interested, they could reach out to them and find out more.

Mahindra-Jawa faking it!

Jawa was caught faking the demand, faking the waiting period and creating fake hype! Further, they royally messed up its planning & production. End result? Jawa - the brand and its motorcycles - have done poorly. So poor that the company was hiding numbers. Well, FADA stats eventually came out and they weren't pretty.

All the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) share dispatch numbers every month which are considered as eventual sales. Mahindra does that for its Mojo and other products, however, its subsidiary Jawa does NOT! It must be noted that Jawa did share its monthly numbers for the first three months. Here they are..

Jawa Sales Numbers
January 2019 – 44
February 2019 – 130
March 2019 – 54

But after that, it stopped revealing its sales numbers without providing any reason whatsoever! We thought after a gap of a few months, we would get to see figures again, but that has not just happened!

[GTO]

Other tricks used by the brands to create fake hype

The CBU Trick

Some cars are sold in India in extremely limited quantities (think single or double digits), yet manufacturers are quick to claim that the first batch has been sold out, without revealing the actual number of cars!! Eg: Mercedes EQC and Audi Q8. What brain-dead, utterly pointless moves. We should now be prepared for Rolls-Royce importing a single unit of some "gold" edition, launching it, then screaming "sold out our entire year's allocation".

Originally Posted by Senna4Ever

Well Mercedes, is the batch 10 cars or 100? It would really add a meaning to ''sold out''.

Originally Posted by arunrajk81

I doubt if its actually sold out or "sold out" due to single digit availability as a CBU.

Originally Posted by yashcosmos

So when I took the TD of this last month, there was only ONE EQC sold in Mumbai till then, and a couple in Gujarat.

Really need to know their batch size, it cannot be more than 30 cars for sure!

Scene isn't much better internationally - related news article:

Originally Posted by theMAG

The EQC has been reported to be a sales disaster in Europe since its launch in 2019; Mercedes-Benz is known to not have posted any sales figures for the EQC officially, as a result.

Bookings closing tonight H-Y-P-E

For a brand that sells just 4000 cars / month - 90% of which are from a single product - you got to hand it to MG for always staying in the news. Go to the Team-BHP news section, and select MG from the brands drop-down. You'll be amazed at how many press releases they send out! Well, here is a booking trick by MG. Announce that bookings are closing tonight, thank the public for the response, but not revealing the actual number of bookings received or when the bookings will re-open. This is an absurd ad if we ever saw one, but it did generate hype. There was a lot of buzz around the Hector in 2019.

Bookings were still open at the time of placing the ad. Stimulating a "last day" rush?

Originally Posted by ajmat

Well, the ads announcing this came out exactly a month after the prices were announced, on prime ad spaces which are tough to reserve at short notice, unless it is a government advertisement. MG should give us numbers - Production capacity is XXXX but booking total is YYYYY.

I have yet to see a Hector on the road whereas the Venue was available straight after the price announcement. One thing that I will credit Hyundai is that the time to market for their cars after the announcement is almost lightning speed.

Originally Posted by GTO

IMHO this "bookings stopped" news is a major marketing ploy. For one, I don't believe that any Rs 15 - 20 lakh car will be overwhelmed by demand in this sluggish market. Second, MG Motors knows that the one way to boost its image is by screaming "demand has exceeded supply". If there is a guaranteed way to attract Indians, it's by telling them everyone else has beaten them to something. FOMO (fear of missing out) is built into our DNA.

MG still has a bit of a complex about its Chinese ownership. I feel this "sold out" news was always part of the original brand-building strategy.

They've got a big plant at Halol and the Chinese are grand-masters of manufacturing at high volume. There's no way they can't meet any expected demand.

Agreed with Viddy. It's a stupid announcement, considering the Kia Seltos is launching soon.

And if MG is so confident of its demand, the company should start sharing its factory dispatch numbers (missing here (June 2019 : Indian Car Sales Figures & Analysis)).

Originally Posted by GTO

Aha, two things that stand out.

1. Bookings were still open at the time of placing the ad. Stimulating a "last day" rush?

2. No mention of when they will re-open. Now, MG knows how many bookings it has and how many cars it can produce. The company could easily say that bookings will re-open in 3 months (example). But it has reserved that privilege for itself.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[ashis89]

Excellent thread!

From what I understood, except for MG, no other manufacturer has gained from such sold out/closing soon campaign. For what it's worth, based on past demands, the dealers themselves could be blocking cars anticipating high demand but are proved wrong.


IMO, booking or blocking a car is very easy - matter of a few thousands and a filled up form. But it is a far cry from an actual sale. Neither the seller is assured of an actual sale against a booking, nor the buyer is protected against price hike and delays against their booking. High time when people focused more on actual retail numbers.


On a parallel note, what about the unrealistic waiting periods quoted by OEMs? How many of us would wait 6 months to get their hands on a Creta IVT? Or 5 months for their Sonet/Seltos?

Is it worth waiting half a year to buy your choice of new car? And one might end up paying a lot more than the price list they received while booking!


The days of license raj is long gone, when people had limited choices to buy and the factories could produce very few. Today we have a wide choice to choose from across segments and IMO, models aren't so vastly different from each other to warrant such waiting periods!

[PrideRed]

On a lighter note , is this a European thing? Except MG, which is Chinese in European clothes rest all are Germans.
This is a marketing gimmick, which i understand however i think some cases were true like to M340i. BMW i heard planned only limited quantities and are planning to roll out more copies as they saw good demand. However the case of Polo GTI, VRS245, MG Hector all are blatant lies.

BTW one more joining this brigade- Suzuki Hayabusa
https://www.autocarindia.com/bike-ne...n-india-420661

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Excellent thread GTO!

I'd like to add the Skoda Rapid Rider example, where Skoda declared the base variant which had earned a lot of attention is "sold out", " overbooked" and "beyond production capacity".

But for an additional 50k, you could order a Rider Plus variant, which is essentially the same car + some stickers and a headunit. You get nice discounts on Ambition variants and big fat discounts of more than a lakh on Onyx variants - because apparently the Rapid wasn't selling as much as Skoda could produce.

Just doesn't make any sense to have no production capacity for the base variant, but discounts on the higher variants! Clearly this was fake PR for prioritising the money-making higher variants.

[CEF_Beasts]

I still remember the EcoSport demand initially!

We had booked the car in September 2013, the waiting period quoted was around 240 days+ (around May 2014 was the tentative delivery date) at that time. Demand was crazy back then, in December we got a call from our dealer saying the delivery date has been changed by Ford to September 2014, basically a year from booking! We were on holiday and this news ruined our holiday.

In the meantime we were asked by the dealer to change our booking multiple times to either the 1L Ecoboost or a change in colour to the silver, white or chill metallic. But we didn't budge, we wanted the Kinetic Blue colour and we weren't changing our engine option from the 1.5L Sigma petrol either.

Suprise, suprise in February 2014 the dealer calls us and says 'your car has arrived at the dealership!' So our was delivered to us 3 months before the original delivery date and 7 months before the new delivery date. Now I don't know whether this exact specification car was cancelled by someone who had fallen for the dealer's persuasion to change the colour/engine or it was actually our car.

Anyways, I feel even if the delivery date quoted is 6 months +, there is a high chance the dealer/manufacturer is showing an inflated delivery time to grab even more attention! Today I see a similar thing happening with the Hyundai Creta, I don't believe the waiting period of 6 months for some variants.

[a4anurag]

Maruti Swift Diesel - The year 2010 - When dad and I gone to Varun Motors in 2010 for Swift Diesel to replace the WagonR, the demand was so high that the waiting period was 7 months minimum even if one paid in full. We had to settle for Ritz VDi instead that was readily available. The booking amount was ₹11,000 (refundable).

Hyundai Creta - The year 2017 - Similar situation experienced as all the dealers were accepting booking for the car promising delivery in 20-25 days but it generally crossed a month or month and a half. White being a popular colour, production and allotment were slow due to the demand that Creta managed nationwide. I got the delivery in 51 days of the total waiting. The booking amount was ₹25,000 (refundable).

But seeing the current wait times for Creta and Sonet is mind-boggling. Hyundai and Kia must be laughing away to the bank seeing the craze and following these cars have generated and I am pretty sure it is going to remain like this for a while thanks to the shortage of chip which is causing further delay.

[m8002?]

Me thinks the Swift Diesel, Ecosport and Creta waiting periods earlier were genuine. I booked my Creta in Apr 2017, registered a May manufactured car on May 15th. I was kept in the loop on the production, transport and PDI by the SA.

But the current wait times are bordering on absurd. Even more crazy, no other manufacturer has still got a proper competitor to the Hyundai Twins. Its been 6 years they have been ruling the chart.

[ABHI_1512]

This thread just reminded me of a recent incident where one of my friend went to buy a Creta SX model. The Sales Manager was known to me and as usual I had a good talk and accordingly the booking was made. The waiting time was quoted at three months but with a rider that every effort will be made to deliver the car early.

One month passed by and the waiting time increased by another two months and now it stood at five months after the booking date. The sales manager went incommunicado after few days and went on with not picking the calls. Waited for a week and every effort was made to contact the sales manager in this Covid era. Finally, fed up, contacted another dealer in the city and got a confirmation that the car will be delivered within a month.

Meanwhile, the original booking needed to be cancelled but not before exchanging some emails with the Hyundai authorities. Promptly mailed the regional head of the company with the complaint and bingo, the MD of the dealer called up next day to deliver the car in seven days flat and with discounts to boot. Shows how much the dealers take the customers for a ride and make arbitrary promises to them. My friend still cancelled the booking and went on booking with the other dealer.

Maximum dealers create this hoopla around their products to maximise the revenue and Creta is a prime example of that. Of course, the present chip issue is also not helping but the truth remains that dealers do manipulate bookings to create artificial demand for a product !!

[AZT]

I remember Xiaomi creating massive hype when it was launched with those 1 minute sold out flash sales. And this was people logging into their PC's at midnight LOL

They had the capacity and stock but nothing generates more hype than scarcity or being able to brag you're one of the "lucky few" who managed to get this phone. Cars are just catching on to what phones have been doing for a while

[PearlJam]

Personally, I think there's nothing wrong with faking a 'sold out' status. Cars being in the non-monopolistic category today, and no quota and license Raj, it's a free market. For the potential customer, there is generally an alternative to choose from, or they may just need patience to wait it out.

It's a high risk game though, and could boomerang on the auto companies. In the interim so called waiting period, anything could happen - the hype might die down, economies can take a downturn, there might be bad press in an unrelated area (think VW dieselgate) or something new/better might come up. VW finally selling the GTIs at a massive discount proves that this could happen.

The Maruti and Hyundai waiting periods, and maybe a few others too, may be genuine and the car in question may also be priced well, and that will sustain them through this genuine waiting period. I think that unless there is real substance, such gimmicks will only take you so far.

[ajmat]

You see this in the property market. Back in 2004, I was looking at investment property. I look at

Prestige Ozone - sold out

Similarly - Prestige Shanthi Niketan - "sold out" within 3 days. Translated to processing 3 transactions / 30 min. I visit my cousin much later when he rented a place and see a tower, fully unoccupied.

When I finally zoned in on a property near the new airport. I made an appointment, as I drove in, the person whom I was to meet was driving out. Claimed nothing was for sale anyway (why call me over that too, I came via a reference!). I gave him my Intel business card. Next day, I get a call, "I never realised there was a X000 sq ft corner plot which is available, it was missing in our system"

Never mind the bullshit, I was able to make a deal which was favourable to the person and it happened quickly.

[AKSarkar1]

Originally Posted by GTO

I know some OEMs will retaliate by saying “all the cars were indeed booked…and later cancelled”, but that is simply wrong. You cannot count a car as "sold" when someone has merely paid a 10000-rupee token amount to pre-book the car, in many cases before the actual price announcement!!!

What an excellent thread. This is exactly the reason why I love TeamBHP because no other automotive website would dare to post such threads!

Completely agree with GTO for the above quote. I think I would go one further and say that in India especially, one should only consider the car sold when it has gone through the due RTO process.

This strategy has been a constant with the VAG India group. Their 'limited editions' are also symbolic of this mindset as these editions just aim to rush customers to purchase a specific unit before it is sold out.

Rather cheap for huge automakers to do this, right?

[SnS_12]

Mercedes-Benz India CEO Martin Schwenk said Indians "look for value for money and that's even in a high-end product."

And when a brand offers that in India they are rewarded with sales like the 3rd Gen Hayabusa saw which sold out all the 101 bikes allocated in the first batch in 48 hrs at 16.4 lacs a piece