Demand for used diesel cars soar as petrol gets costlier

With yet another petrol price hike, consumers are shifting their attention towards diesel cars to have their budget under control. Moreover, high fuel price is not the only issue to rack their brains, they are suffering from many ailments in the society like the high interest rates on loans, food inflation and sluggish economy. Combating against all the worries, the consumers are tending to opt for used cars in India and to be specific, a diesel used car to make worthy investments. As if to prove the car-buyers tendency, the used car dealers of Maruti India and Mahindra and Mahindra have reported that the petrol cars inventory at their sales outlets are forever increasing especially after witnessing the petrol price hikes of late.

While at few dealerships, the petrol car inventory has almost doubled with the accumulation of the petrol cars due to low demand, there is another dealer who reports an increase of one-fifth of the inventory. The recent hike in petrol of Rs 1.82 on November 5^th is the fourth revision during the year widening the gap between the petrol and diesel to Rs 25. Therefore, its not just the new petrol car sales that have dipped by 1.36% to 909,283 during September, but the used petrol cars are reported to be in low demand. The month of July has been the most ill-fated month with sales shrunk by 16%, the worst in the past 3 years. There are a few reports from across the country, where there is an example of a customer who contemplating to exchange its petrol car with a used diesel car.

Apparently, the demand for the used cars has increased by 1.5 times the new car during the past year, which was earlier in the ratio of 1:1. Shubhrabrata Saha, chief executive of Mahindra First Choice had commented that the organised sector of the used car market is as big as the new car market, but the used cars are more in demand and are comparatively less affected by the car market slowdown. Sandeesh Dugad, the Director of Fortpoint Automotive, a Maruti used car dealership, had said that another increase in the petrol price will lead to the abysmal sales of the petrol cars in future. The increasing demand for the used diesel cars has led to the surging diesel car price by 8-10%. While there are fewer diesel car owners who are willing to sell their cars, used diesel car dealers are expecting to contract Rs 50,000 more than the consumer is willing to pay.

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