panjim: The purchase of an automobile may be for several reasons, convenience for one. The state is remarkable for the numbers with regards to the ownership of vehicles. Panjim is ranked third in the country in terms of car ownership at 48 per 1000 behind Chandigarh and Delhi.
During the boom years which coincided with the large mining operation in the state, cars were purchased without hesitation. It could be a Maruti or a BMW, cars were purchased without a care. Maruti was selling approximately 500 odd or even more every month with other brands doing good numbers given the size of the market.
Those days however are long gone. The ban on mining brought the market crashing down and it has not recovered ever since. The period just after the ban was marked by the frantic sale of expensive cars like BMW and Mercedes Benz and other high valued automobiles. Today the market may be marked by low sales but interesting niches are developing in the Goan automobile market.
The second hand car market in the state has been growing steadily for a couple of years and the market around the state witnesses the sale of all kinds of cars.
Tejashri Pai, VP, Chowgule Industries Pvt Ltd said “The second hand car market in the state is growing steadily and will continue to do so in the coming years.”
This she attributed to small businessmen, members of the working class wanting to buy cars but not really having the budget to buy new cars. She said through the Maruti True Value, for which Chowgule is the dealer in the state, approximately 200 cars are sold through the outlet. According to her the second hand car market is approximately 500 odd cars a month with all kinds of models being sold.
Another individual dealer in second hand cars said the market was opening up in the state and yes there were certain brands that did not have a second market now. Pushed for names he said Maruti 800 was not very popular due to the fact that if they were available they would be very old and with over 70,000 km on the milometer it would not be a very good investment. Another car he said was the Nano which would not have a resale value.
Mahesh Kambli of Mahesh motors which deals in second hand cars handles brands like BMW, Mercedes Benz and Audi’s for which he claims there is still a very good market in the state.
He said “I buy the car from the owner and service it and resale it without a problem. We do not pick up vehicles that have over 60,000 km, usually it is 50-60,000 km which is the ideal. We sell these cars for Rs 25 to 30 lakh.” A brand new car will cost anywhere between Rs 70 lakh to well over a crore. Asked what the profile of the customer was he said it could be a very young guy to a person in his fifties. Many people who had such cars used them for three years then sold it and purchased another car which was more sophisticated. Asked how many cars he sold every month he said around ten to 12 cars a month which worked out to approximately 100 to 120 odd cars a year which was good business.
He felt the business would continue to grow in the next couple of years because the economy would turn around and there would always be people who would want to drive around in such cars without having to pay the huge prices for a new car.
