[akash_v12]

Every now and then, whenever I come by some exotic, I always wonder - The car has had to be bought from Mumbai or Delhi. So, to everyone in the community - Why are there so few supercar/exotic car showrooms in a country?

Till ‘15, Lamborghini having 3 dealers and Ferrari having 2 dealers was understandable. They were not having mass volume products and the 2/3 showroom system used to work. But with products like the Urus and Purosangue SUV coming in, respectively, demand will slowly but surely increase (like we have seen with the Urus.) Scrolling through Instagram leads me to believe that a new Exotic is usually delivered somewhere in the country regularly and this increasing demand along with India’s craze for SUV, demand will increase and so will customers from Tier-1,2 and 3 cities. Same is the case for Aston Martin. Now with the start of sales for the DBX, I expect sales to easily double. Recently, I believe the Aston Martin Mumbai showroom has also shut down.

Porsche is one brand which has started off very well. Having opened showrooms in almost every Tier-1 city, they hit it right out of the park with the Cayenne and the Panamera. With the oncome of the 911, they didn’t find it hard to find customers because the base was readily available. But somewhere in ‘13, things went south. Many Porsche dealerships started shutting down including Porsche Centre Kolkata and from what I read on T-BHP, Porsche Centre Mumbai operates out of a hotel room!

I will agree that the Indian economy is not as strong as say, the US. But it isn’t as if there are no supercars selling in the country. Exotic car manufacturers sell atleast a good 250 units on an average throughout the country and the number just keeps going up. Manufacturers have been constantly saying that there has been more prioritising of India lately, but where are the dealerships. I feel that they would do much better by opening up 7-8 minimum dealerships which would help in improving reach to smaller cities too.

So BHPians, Please do share your thoughts on this.

[Sahil]

I think the reasons are obvious. The volumes are just not there.
Luxury car dealerships find it hard to survive when there is more than one dealer in a city, how do you expect Supercar dealers to expand.

Porsche dealership in Mumbai was with Jubliant who gave it up and hence the kerela dealer was temporarily operating it out of Trident while Audi thane workshop did the service. However the Porsche Mumbai dealership is being taken over by Infinity group which has BMW dealership too and had Aston. This will come into effect from Feb 15

[TrackDay]

For a car that sells in really few numbers, there is no point in having way too many showrooms. That is just dead weight. Also for potential customers, this is not likely to be a regular purchase. Maybe once every 2 or 3 years. Besides, it might be better to take such cars in a carrier to the potential customer in a carrier, since they might not have the time to visit a showroom.

[TheHelix0202]

My old school was right behind the Lamborghini showroom pictured here. To be fair, I'd been seeing the exact same Huracan and Aventador be kept on display for more than a couple years. There weren't all that many other Lambos driving from or to the place either, barring the traditional Independence Day drives. These cars don't exactly fly off the shelves.

Though I must say that the Porsche service center opposite my home attracts 718s and 911s more often than not. I even saw a Taycan poster on one of their transport trucks a few days ago, though the car inside might as well have been anything else.

[landcruiser123]

Low volumes can be the only reason.

Also, many of the customers regularly travel abroad where they can easily rent these supercars. I doubt many really go to a showroom and test drive the cars.

[mmxylorider]

I would believe customers have probably decided on what they want when they walk into the showroom and not really get swayed by other offerings. That said, why can't there be an single point dealership for multiple manufacturers? With volumes being what they are even servicing can be done under 1 roof with dedicated bays and technicians.

There probably is a very simple answer, but that is eluding me.

[SnS_12]

It is a numbers game and unlike other luxury car dealers who divide the area of sale in a city among them supercar dealers have an agreement to sell and service cars among a number of states divided between them.

Case in point Lamborghini:

Biggest market is US where they have 128 dealerships and had sold 2,374 units of all their models combined together in 2019. Second largest market is China which saw sales of 770 units comparatively in 2019.

In comparison sales in India in 2019 was just 52 units among 3 dealers. And 50% of it is sold in South India.

Hence, a Lamborghini Mumbai dealer will take their test drive cars to Gujarat and MP to show it to prospective customers and not just be aiming to sell cars in Mumbai alone. Also the cars are super expensive thanks to the tax structure and so just having a Huracan and Urus demo cars will cost you over 5 crs and on top of it rentals for your showroom and service centres in pricey prime location in Mumbai.

So the economics of it will never see a increase in number of dealerships unless the annual sales get into three digits.

[sodapop]

Originally Posted by SnS_12

It is a numbers game and unlike other luxury car dealers who divide the area of sale in a city among them supercar dealers have an agreement to sell and service cars among a number of states divided between them.

Case in point Lamborghini:

Biggest market is US where they have 128 dealerships and had sold 2,374 units of all their models combined together in 2019. Second largest market is China which saw sales of 770 units comparatively in 2019.

In comparison sales in India in 2019 was just 52 units among 3 dealers. And 50% of it is sold in South India.

Hence, a Lamborghini Mumbai dealer will take their test drive cars to Gujarat and MP to show it to prospective customers and not just be aiming to sell cars in Mumbai alone. Also the cars are super expensive thanks to the tax structure and so just having a Huracan and Urus demo cars will cost you over 5 crs and on top of it rentals for your showroom and service centres in pricey prime location in Mumbai.

So the economics of it will never see a increase in number of dealerships unless the annual sales get into three digits.

+1

Additionally, I would like to add that as we go up the price chain, customers do get less sensitive to a service network or proximity to service centre. In most of these cases, the owners have a huge fleet of vehicles so they aren't really too bothered with the downtime and don't mind paying and sending the cars on flatbeds either. Infact some uber-luxury brands even offer to fly down their technicians to the owner's garage provided the customers pay for their travel expenses.

In a bit lower tier brands among the "elite" like say Land Rover and Mercedes usually have more dealerships and in this case too, a lot of owners just send their chauffeurs to get their cars serviced in the next major city 200-250km away or so.

[Jhinchak]

I think a solution to this would be to open 1 multi brand car showrooms to reduce the overhead costs but will also bring some presence
At least parent companies such as VW group which owns many exotic brands like Lamborghini, Porsche, Bugatti Bentley etc. can easily showcase all their products in one showroom.
There are many showrooms the west which sell multibrand motorcycles. Why not in India too?

[v12]

Well, it seems someone heard you.

A new exotic car showroom - Boys & Machines - has opened up in Juhu Lane, Mumbai next to the Renault showroom.

[avishar]

More than dealerships, what potential owners look for is an ease of servicing and troubleshooting. As long as a brand can provide that, a physical dealership is the last on the list of priorities.

If you want a Ferrari and can afford one, just call the Mumbai dealership and they will probably fly you there and get you a test drive of the car, sit you through a virtual reality setup of the ways you can configure your car etc. And after that is done, brands with good personnel relationship programs will always create a immersive and informative experience for the would-be owners, sometime send them for drives in exotic locations or Buddh etc. Everything is remote these days.

Once the car arrives in India it will be shipped right to the owner's house (no cutting the cake at dealer and being handed a giant plastic key). For servicing requirements in smaller metros, brands usually can go for a tie-up with one of the bigger luxury manufacturers and lease parts of their service centres and send/install whatever trained equipment or personnel needed.

For a regular servicing they can probably send the service crew to the owner's house itself!

Ofcourse this is for brand new cars. If you are capable of spending 5 crore on a supercar, nothing is impossible in India.

[Sudarshan42]

Originally Posted by v12

Well, it seems someone heard you.

A new exotic car showroom - Boys & Machines - has opened up in Juhu Lane, Mumbai next to the Renault showroom.

Off topic, but the placement of 'Renault' next to the supercar showroom name is quite hilarious. "Boys, come meet your next mighty machine- a Renault"