Mercedes-Benz India signals price hike

With rising commodity costs and an overburdening increase in rates for essential auto parts and other inputs a number of automobile manufacturers including luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz have been forced to take the decision of hiking the prices of their existing model line-up here in India.

While this has affected the prices of CBU models of other car manufacturers like Nissan, Mercedes-Benz India said indicated that prices of all its models will be revised upwards effective 1st May 2011.

Reaching out to all Mercedes-Benz customers and potential buyers, Mr. Peter Honegg, Managing Director and CEO of Mercedes-Benz India, said “The rising input costs and challenging exchange rates as well as inflationary impacts are areas that have a bearing on the cost of the final product. We have absorbed these to a significant level but moving forward we will have to pass on some portion of this impact to the customer. The prices of all Mercedes-Benz models will be revised upwards effective 1st May 2011 for the Indian market.”

The rising commodity rates have had a butterfly effect on the existing prices of multiple models being offered by various car manufacturers, which include the county’s largest passenger car maker Maruti Suzuki, homegrown Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra and finally Korean major Hyundai, which is showing signs of implementing similar steps.