Look what India can do? When a slowdown wafts in, it’s time for car companies and dealers alike to gird their loins and offer generous cash rebates and freebies on to lure customers — and manage inventories. The headline-grabbing deal is being offered by Europe’s largest carmaker, Volkswagen India is offering Rs 25lakh discount on the Phaeton.This brings down the price to around Rs 75lakh.
“There is a cash discount of Rs25 lakh on the car but it will take a month for the car to be delivered as it is not readily available in stock,” said a sales executive at a VW dealership in Delhi. The company officials themselves could not be contacted for a response.
This is in an effort to clear stocks of the last lot of petrol Phaetons on sale. Word is that from now Volkswagen will only offer Phaetons with diesel engines. Word is that the last lot of cars is disappearing fast and we suggest that anyone intending to pick one up do so at the earliest.
Volkswagen Phaeton competes with the likes of BMW 7 series, Mercedes S class and Audi A8 globally, was launched last year in January more as a brand building exercise for the German carmaker than with any hope of capturing the market. But like everywhere else in the world, the Phaeton has been a dud in India as well, with only 53 units sold in over 18 months.
Some of these discounts like in the case of Honda Jazz and Audi A6 are also intended towards stock clearance ahead of the launch of facelifted versions. Honda was offering a massive Rs1.7 lakh off on the Jazz last week, while some Audi dealers are giving discounts to the tune of over Rs3 lakh on existing stocks of luxury sedan A6.
Also see – 2012 Volkswagen Beetle Unveiled
