New car prices to go up on 1st January 2012

The usual scene in the automobile market at the end of a calendar year is to clear their current stock of new vehicles. The main reason behind that is because people do not want to buy a car at the end of a year as the resale value of the car from an earlier year is less. As a result people want to wait for January when they can have a car with the latest model year tag and a higher resale value.

This results in car makers offering attractive discounts, free accessories and the lot to clear their model year inventory as a car from a previous year fetches less value in a new calendar year. Some car makers even shut down their plants at a point of time to reduce inventory for the month of December.

However, this December car dealers are singing a different tune by urging prospective customers to buy their cars in the current month itself as car prices are going to rise from 1st January 2012 onwards. And this is a valid suggestion as car makers have stated that they plan to increase new car prices from the 1st of January due to depreciation of the rupee. With the rupee falling against the US dollar in recent months car makers like Ford, Hyundai, Maruti Suzuki, General Motors and Toyota have decided to hike their new car prices by as much as 3% from January 1st.

Due to the fall in the value of the rupee car makers importing a considerable number of cars from abroad will have to pay more for various components, which ultimately increases the cost of production of a vehicle. A few months ago the rupee was valued at Rs. 45 to a US Dollar but on Wednesday the value of the rupee was closed at Rs. 51.71/72 on the Interbank Foreign Exchange.

As a result Hyundai Motor India plans to raise the sticker price of their cars by 1.5-2%. Ford India will be increasing the prices of their cars by 2-3% starting January 2012.
General Motors India will raise prices of their cars by 1-2% in January 2012, while the price of the Chevrolet Beat diesel is going to go up by Rs.15,000 from 1st January 2012. If you were planning to buy India’s cheapest diesel passenger car it’s time to stop deciding and go put down that booking amount for the Bet diesel.