Punjab beats slowdown with luxury cars

Even as economists
Even as economists are still busy discussing stimulus packages to deal with recession, Punjab appears to be beating the slowdown by showing greater appetite for luxury cars.

While in April this year German luxury car manufacturer Audi opened its sales office in Ludhiana, Mercedes Benz opened a sprawling showroom in Jalandhar on Saturday. BMW too has plans to start selling its top models from Ludhiana soon and Volkswagen will be opening an outlet in Jalandhar in the next couple of months. Each of these companies manufacture cars that range from around Rs 20 lakh to few crores. Explaining the phenomenon, Wilfried Aulbur, managing director and CEO of Mercedes-Benz, while inaugurating the new showroom, reasoned that tier-II cities were rapidly emerging as powerhouse of new India and Jalandhar was one shining example. ‘‘The city has a good base of professionals and entrepreneurs and the new dealership from Mercedes-Benz is recognition of this potential,’’ he added.

Deepak Joshi, whose firm has invested around Rs 2 crore on the showroom, said Jalandhar and nearby markets had been showing signs of coming out of the slump as was evident from demand for luxury cars.Vivek Arora, deputy manager of Audi Sales office in Ludhiana, claimed they were getting very encouraging response from buyers in Punjab and would come-up with a full-fledged showroom in the state by early next year.

Rajnish Oswal, who bought the new Mercedes E Class costing over Rs 47 lakh, held that while markets were doing better now, the Punjabi spirit of ‘‘never feel low’’ too contributed in keeping the sale figures up.

The big-hearted Punjabi can certainly steer their way through thick and thin — that too in class

TOI