Maruti offers month-long car exchange programme to drive sales

With the car market continuing on a downhill drive, the country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) today said it has launched an exchange programme for its existing customers that will be valid for the whole of June.

The company is targeting to reach out to over 5 lakh customers across the country with special discounts and offers through the network of its pre-owned car business, True Value.

It is holding what it termed as "a mega carnival" across 112 cities on June 15-16 as a part of the initiative across metros, Tier I and Tier II locations, including Ranchi, Patna, Indore, Bhubaneshwar, Raipur, Karnal, Hubli, Sagar, Mandi, Vapi, Vardha and Jamnagar.

"The month long Mega Carnival is an initiative for driving exchange and facilitating the new car sales...This initiative will provide a boost to an overall sluggish market and also create a positive sentiment for the entire automobile industry," MSI Chief Operating Officer Mayank Pareek said in a statement.

MSI said it will offer a slew of spot booking benefits, including attractive EMI schemes with bank partners, exchange bonus and loyalty bonus for the full range of Maruti Suzuki cars, during the month-long exchange campaign at all dealerships across India.

Car sales in India fell for a record seventh consecutive month in May with a decline of 12.26% at 1,43,216 units, prompting industry body SIAM to caution that the prolonged slump in the market could result in job losses in the automobile sector.

During May, MSI registered 8.25% decline in domestic sales at 66,342 units. Rival Hyundai Motor India posted a marginal increase of 0.35% at 32,052 units, while Tata Motors saw its sales dip by 48.60% to 8,927 units.