No. 3 car seller in India? It's Maruti True Value!

Maruti sells about 100,000 new cars each month, with Hyundai in second place at ~38,000 cars. In a distant 3rd are Mahindra & Honda who frequently trade places with each other, moving between 15,000 - 20,000 cars / month. Over the last year, Mahindra & Honda have held 3rd place an equal number of times.

It's time for them to move over; we now have a new no.3 in the market. Maruti's True Value has sold more (used) cars than Mahindra or Honda have new. Maruti's used car arm has moved a whopping 3.6 lakh units from April 2014 - March 2015. That's 30,000 cars each month! With the way that the pre-owned sector is growing - and it is at a faster rate than the new car market - don't be surprised if Maruti True Value overtakes Hyundai in terms of car sales. After all, Maruti's used car division sold 100,000 more cars in FY15 than in FY14.

Maruti has over 800 True Value outlets across India. That's bigger than the Mahindra & Honda networks! Margins in used cars are usually fatter than that of new cars too.

Due to the disorganised nature of the segment, it's hard to keep track of absolute numbers. Yet, most analysts agree that the Indian used car market is moving 3 million cars a year. That gives Maruti True Value a 12% market-share.

Excerpts from Business-Standard

In the first quarter ended June, a total of 87,800 cars landed at True Value, up 12 per cent from last year.

R S Kalsi, executive director (sales and marketing) at Maruti Suzuki, said on an average 30 per cent of new car buyers go for an exchange. These cars go through a valuation process at a True Value outlet and the money is adjusted in the margin money that the buyer has to pay for a new car.

Kalsi said the gap between interest rate for financing a new and used car has also come down from five to six per cent a couple of years ago to about two per cent now.

Mahindra First Choice Wheels, backed by Mahindra & Mahindra, is also a leading player. First Choice, unlike True value, is a multi-brand used car player with a network of 500 outlets and plans to grow to 1,800 outlets by 2020. It sold 140,000 used vehicles in the last financial year.