48% Of Versa Owners First-Time Maruti Buyers

If you thought most of the buyers of the Versa were existing owners of a Maruti car, think again. At least 48 per cent of the Versa car buyers did not own any Maruti car brand before they bought the new multi-purpose vehicle.

A research by Maruti on the profile of the Versa owner throws up interesting facets of the buyers. The average age of the Versa owner is 36 -- he is typically married with two kids and parents who need a large car to move around. A total of 68 per cent of those who bought the Versa have an additional vehicle at home, while 28 per cent hawked their old vehicle to buy the new MPV and 4 per cent were first-time buyers.

 

Surprisingly, the Versa owners previously owned a wide range of car models. Thirty three per cent of the Versa customers previously owned a A-segment car which includes the Maruti 800 and the Omni, 38 per cent owned a B-segment car which could be the Santro, Indica or the Zen among others, while 38 per cent owned a C-segment car (Hyundai Accent, Ford Ikon, Maruti Esteem, among others), and 14 per cent owned other multi-utility vehicles (such as the Toyota Qualis or the Tata Sumo).

But, as much as 52 per cent of the Versa buyers also previously owned a Maruti vehicle. 23 per cent owned a Maruti car in the A segment, 20 per cent, a Maruti branded car in the B segment, while only 9 per cent owned the Esteem.

Interestingly, 68 per cent of the buyers are professionals such as doctors and lawyers, and businessmen, while the rest is represented by government officers and company executives. In 84 per cent of the cases, it was women who influenced the decision to buy the car.

The Versa was launched by MUL primarily to open up a new non-existing market for multi-purpose vehicles which did not exist in the market. Maruti has already sold over 600 Versas (launched in October) in the last one month and expects the numbers to grow every month.

The study also reflected a relatively high awareness of the Versa, especially as a result of the advertisement campaign starring super star Amitabh Bachchan and his son Abhishek. Says a senior executive of the company: "Our study shows that customers are well aware of the product, what they are asking now is what is the relevance of the product to me. And that is what we will be addressing now".