Jains in Gujarat buy 186 luxury cars, save ₹21 cr in 'one-of-its-kind deal'

These 186 luxury cars, each priced between ₹60 lakh and ₹1.3 crore, were handed over to their owners across India between January and June this year

The Jain community has put up an impressive show of its formidable buying power by driving home 186 high-end cars after securing discounts of Rs 21 crore.

This "one-of-its-kind deal" with luxury automobile brands like BMW, Audi and Mercedes was pulled off by the Jain International Trade Organisation (JITO), its vice president Himanshu Shah told PTI on Saturday.

JITO is a not-for-profit community body with 65,000 members from across India, he said.

These 186 luxury cars, each priced between Rs 60 lakh and Rs 1.3 crore, were handed over to their owners across India between January and June this year. JITO's nationwide drive helped our members save Rs 21 crore in the form of discounts, said Shah.

He said the organisation was just a facilitator and did not profit from this deal.

The majority of the cars were bought by Gujarat-based Jains, Shah added.

It all started when some JITO members suggested leveraging the community's strong buying power to secure heavy discounts from carmakers, said Nitin Jain, who drove the initiative.

Since buying power is one of the key strengths of Jains, we came up with this idea of directly contacting the brands to ensure higher discounts on purchases our members make. The carmakers also saw a win-win situation and offered us discounts as this deal eliminated their marketing cost, Jain said.

A few community members initially bought cars before word spread about the hefty discounts, he said.

Soon, other JITO members also started buying cars. In all, 186 cars were bought and Rs 21 crore was saved. On average, each member saved between Rs 8 lakh and Rs 17 lakh, enough to buy another car for a family member, Jain quipped.

Buoyed by its successful luxury car deal, JITO has now launched a new initiative named Utsav', striking similar arrangements with major brands in jewellery, consumer durables and electronics, he added.