The Hindu Business Line : `First-time buyers getting hooked to mid-sized cars'

THE country's mid-size car segment, growing at 26-28 per cent per annum, is where the action is. Ford says a good number of motorcycle owners are directly graduating to this segment bypassing small cars.

It is the aspiration to own big cars that is fuelling this trend. Generally, one would have expected a bike owner to graduate to a small car. And, in fact, Maruti, the country's largest carmaker, has a tailor-made scheme that helps this upgrade.

As opposed to industry growth of 6-7 per cent on a large volume base of one million cars, the mid-size segment — in the price range of Rs 4.5 lakh to Rs 9 lakh and estimated at about 200,000 — is witness to rapid growth.

The Ford India Managing Director, Mr Arvind Mathew, said the company's research indicated that about 27 per cent of their entry-level mid-size sedan, Ford Ikon, buyers are those who do not own cars. This comes as no surprise as similar trends have emerged in other markets such as China and Brazil.

"Given this trend in the market place, we would continue to be a major player in the mid-sized market and do not have any plans for a small car," Mr Mathew said addressing a press conference after inaugurating a new dealership, Mody Ford, and a large workshop of Fortune Ford in Hyderabad.

Refraining from giving out any numbers of the potential sale of its latest mid-size sedan Fiesta, Mr Mathew said the company has received an encouraging response of about 1,200 bookings for Fiesta variants within a week of its launch.

The Vice-President of Marketing, Ford India, Mr V. Sivaramakrishnan, said the company is making all efforts to enhance owner experience with a range of loyalty schemes and the effort is to lower the overall ownership cost of Ford cars. The company is expanding its dealer network and expects to increase them to 115 from 109 now thereby covering 79 cities as opposed to 74 now.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page