Repeat customers outnumber Maruti's first-time buyers

The first-time car buyers may have been driving the growth of Indian car market, but it is the repeat customers who are increasingly adding to the sales numbers, according to Maruti Suzuki that makes every second car sold in the country.

"We have observed that the percentage of first time buyers has come down marginally. So, additional car in the family and repeat buyers or exchange buyers have taken some more percentage," a senior Maruti Suzuki India official said.

The company, which sold 6,96,923 units in the April- December period this fiscal, has nearly 50 per cent share of the total Indian car market.

"In the last four years, the first time buyer percentage has come down from 52 per cent to 45 per cent (of the total sales)," the official said, adding that for the industry it would be slightly lower than 45 per cent.

Traditionally, it has been the first time car buyers who have been driving the growth in India, which has been dominated by small cars.

"Usually small car buyers are very high. Most of the sales are coming from this segment, specially models like Alto (Maruti) and Santro (Hyundai), where first time buyer percentage is very high," Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers Director General Vishnu Mathur said.

The Indian passenger car market stood at 18,70,483 units in 2010, growing at 31.03 per cent over 2009.