[avira_tk]

Originally Posted by ssateesh

What reasons specific to diesel vs petrol?

Diesel is much more popular in Europe, so high mileage on luxury vehicles is very common. I saw a recent video where a snapshot of listings for used bmw 5 series e60 type, mostly 525d, was shown. With running in excess of 250k kms, there were at least a dozen available.

I have a friend whose e60 520d ran around 2 lakh kms in ten years, if I had the money, I would have picked it up when he put it up for sale. Another friend had an e280, that racked up 135k kms in around 5 years, the service costs with low running is what makes owners abandon the car. Low running means frequent repairs with these cars.

[Cresterk]

Originally Posted by ssateesh

What reasons specific to diesel vs petrol?

Petrol is where they did most of the planned obsolescence / purposefully designed to break right outside of warranty type of engineering that gave German cars a bad name after about 2005ish.

The diesels were more popular in their home markets and had less of it since the kind of people / companies buying diesel had atleast 200k kms of use in mind.

[bhaskaracs]

Affordability is key.

1) Tax on a car in India effectively sets one back by 40-50% of the total procurement cost depending on which segment she is operating in. Compare it with the US where the tax is probably 5-10% on cars.

2) Auto loan interest rates are close to 9%. Compare that to the US, where they are probably 5-6%.

3) Running costs in India are at least 3x those in the US. And the gap widens as the car grows large in size.

4) Probably there are cultural reasons too In India as they say - Proud display of goddess Lakshmi attracts the wrath of an evil eye, while display of goddess Saraswati is done unabashedly (often to attract Lakshmi). Few determined ones don't care what they possess and what they display. They end up owning luxury cars

[Maky]

Originally Posted by ssateesh

What reasons specific to diesel vs petrol?

Should be most likely the usual reason of lower running cost/higher fuel economy and overall more robust.

[soarersc300]

Originally Posted by Hayek

I think we are making a mistake in assuming that the luxury car makers are mispricing products due to which their sales don’t grow.

I would like to disagree here. China and USA are the largest two automobile markets. If India were to reach anywhere close to those numbers we also require similar support from the government. I feel the following three reasons make more sense

(1) Road infrastructure - the condition of the roads do not inspire any confidence or provide the fun in driving. In USA and China it's common to take cars for long drives - here it's restricted to enthusiasts like our forum members. And the distance once can travel in India in 4 to 5 hours is not even half of what one can travel in China or USA.

(2) Taxation - Compare any luxury car price in India, USA and China and we are easily paying almost double the price for the same product and not even getting it similarly specced (no ADAS in Audi or plug-in hybrids across all luxury brands in India)

(3) Depreciation - In the USA one can easily get a good luxury car for $60,000 and use it for 5 years and sell it for half the price. In 5 years the car can easily run 100,000 kms. So the depreciation cost per km is around Rs. 25. The same car will cost twice and run half the distance so the depreciation cost per km in India for a similar car is Rs. 100.

Eventually everyone is seeking value. What's the point in spending $100,000 and drive on pathetic roads which can't take you much distance in 4 hours when you know that the same car costs half and rides infinitely better in better roads and depreciates only at quarter the pace of depreciation in India.

However all these points get negated for cars costing Rs. 25 lakhs and below because these cars are predominantly made and sold only in India. There is no comparable quality of car at this price point anywhere else. Tuscon for example is an entry level car in the USA and if Tuscon was priced as it is priced in USA with all the similar features, and we get similar roads with less traffic, are able to depreciate at rates similar to USA, are able to fill gas at simiar prices then there is no reason why Tuscon should be in the list you have prepared.

[Theyota]

Originally Posted by soarersc300

I would like to disagree here. China and USA are the largest two automobile markets. If India were to reach anywhere close to those numbers we also require similar support from the government. I feel the following three reasons make more sense

(1) Road infrastructure

(2) Taxation - Compare any luxury car price in India, USA and China and we are easily paying almost double the price for the same product


(3) Depreciation - In the USA one can easily get a good luxury car for $60,000 and use it for 5 years and sell it for half the price. In 5 years the car can easily run 100,000 kms. So the depreciation cost per km is around Rs. 25.

I think the primary reason as Hayek said is that wealth is not growing in India. We should be growing at a lot faster rate for a young and relatively unexploited economy. Whatever little growth we have is getting lost with currency devaluation. Wealth disparity is also growing. The growth in wealth is not happening across the masses.

All other reasons are secondary.

[GreenerPlanet]

I disagree with last few posts. We are seeing big realty projects - which are being brought out fairly quick. Luxury apartments are easily commanding 4Cr per unit.

Money is certainly growing in India. 40+ LPA pay packages are not uncommon in certain industries.

Probably more a case of-
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...ml#post5446864 (Mutual Fund SIPs eating into Luxury car sales: Mercedes Benz India)

[RahulNagaraj]

August 2024 sales numbers of Audi, BMW & Mercedes India

FADA has released the vehicle registration data of luxury cars for August 2024.

Mercedes-Benz has come out on top with 1,234 units sold, followed by BMW and Jaguar Land Rover, which have sold 921 units, and 433 units, respectively.



Luxury carmaker sales for August 2024:

Mercedes-Benz - 1,234 units, up from 1,111 units in August 2023
BMW - 921 units, down from 1,109 units in August 2023
Jaguar Land Rover - 433 units, up from 267 units in August 2023
Volvo - 104 units, down from 160 units in August 2023
Audi - 20 units (CBU), down from 88 units in August 2023

Team-BHP's detailed analysis of August 2024 sales figures.

Link to Team-BHP news

[Fuel Of Satan]

Another month, and yet another sales report without CKD Audi numbers. Come on Audi, what's holding you back?

[amol4184]

Originally Posted by Fuel Of Satan

Come on Audi, what's holding you back?

If I have to guess, its probably shame.

[Reese]

Originally Posted by amol4184

If I have to guess, its probably shame.

I mean, I feel like I see more a=Audi's on the road than Bimmer's, probably due to the bit lower prices compared to the other two, but I don't know why they refuse to share the actual numbers

[Flyingdutchman]

Originally Posted by RahulNagaraj

August 2024 sales numbers of Audi, BMW & Mercedes India

FADA has released the vehicle registration data of luxury cars for August 2024.

Audi - 20 units (CBU), down from 88 units in August 2023

Sorry state of affairs at Audi India. Just 10 years ago, Audi was topping the chart, selling close to 12,000 car per year. Audi had great appeal amongst young and rich. Many used to think A4/6 represents them. Audi Q7 was politician's/Actor's favourite SUV. Now it's nowhere in the top 5.

[M/T]

BMW group sells 10,056 units from Jan to Sept 2024.
X1 makes up 20% of the numbers, the 3-series contributes 19%.

Source: https://www.autocarindia.com/car-new...t-sales-433109

[sunikkat]

X1 doing these numbers are really surprising for me. When it was launched with de-tuned engine and higher price, many including me expected BMW learning it hard way and doing a course correction. But the X1 sales is only giving opportunity for BMW to launch more cars like that. Eg: Proposed X3 with detuned engines.

In 3 series, what I have seen is the most expensive variant of Msport Pro is selling in good numbers. Also saw a few new 5 series in Bangalore, mainly the ones that were delivered during September.

Would be good to see how Mercedes performed in these 9 months. I am still expecting them to have sold more units than BMW.

[RahulNagaraj]

September 2024 sales numbers of Audi, BMW & Mercedes India

FADA has released the vehicle registration data of luxury cars for September 2024.

Mercedes-Benz has come out on top with 1,308 units sold, followed by BMW and Jaguar Land Rover, which have sold 1,011 units, and 447 units, respectively.



Luxury carmaker sales for September 2024:

• Mercedes-Benz - 1,308 units, down from 1,451 units in September 2023
• BMW - 1,011 units, down from 1,175 units in September 2023
• Jaguar Land Rover - 447 units, down from 448 units in September 2023
• Volvo - 112 units, down from 186 units in September 2023
• Audi - 37 units (CBU), down from 77 units in September 2023

Team-BHP's detailed analysis of September 2024 sales figures.

Link to Team-BHP news