Pre-booking of luxury cars puts customers in the super-fast lane

A week ago, many auto enthusiasts could not believe their eyes when a promotional email pertaining to the makers of Mini Cooper landed in their inbox. In what seemed like a first of its kind initiative in the country, the Mini Cooper S Carbon Edition was launched exclusively on e-tailer giant Amazon.in.

The limited edition automobile was being made available for pre-booking for the very first time on an online sales channel. And the response to the promo was quite encouraging in Chennai, according to the team at the official dealership, which sells the car, which comes at a premium ex-showroom price of Rs 39.90 lakh. 

Speaking to DTNext, Peter Windsor, the GM of Mini, BMW Kun Exclusive, which is the dealership for Mini Cooper, Rolls Royce and BMW says, “The pre-booking initiative was a trial of sorts and the response to it was quite heartening. We have three confirmed bookings for the limited edition Mini Cooper S Carbon. The customers pre-booked their car by paying an advance of Rs 50,000.” Once the car becomes available, they can approach the dealership to complete the rest of the payment and purchase formalities. 

Windsor adds, “When it comes to products like this, every customer requires a personalised service. Of course, there are those who would like to make their bookings in advance, at a certain price. The flip side is that one wouldn’t be able to negotiate when it comes to online pre-bookings.” 

Globally, the craze for online booking of high-profile automobiles reached fever pitch earlier this year, when Tesla Motors, the company co-founded by Space X boss Elon Musk, launched the pre-bookings for the Model 3 sedan. Musk had announced in April 2016 that the company had received 4,00,000 pre-bookings for this car. Varun Krishnan, the CEO of tech website FoneArena.com, is one of those who pre-booked his car. He says, “For the longest time, I was under the impression that the car would be available for pre-booking only in the US, Europe and some other countries. However, I was surprised to see the weblink active in Chennai. I used my credit card to pre-book my car for $1,000 (about Rs 66,500). The car is priced at $30,000, which is about Rs 20 lakh in India and should be available in two years.” Car manufacturers across the board have been gradually moving their focus to the online market with luxury car makers taking the lead. 

For instance, the Nissan GT-R, nicknamed Godzilla, which is slated to go on sale in India on December 2, and could be priced in the hefty bracket of Rs 1.5 to Rs 2 crore has already started its pre-booking for an initial amount of Rs 25 lakh. 

Similarly, in June this year, Boris Fitz, Vice President, Sales and Network Development, MercedesBenz India, during the launch of the luxury SUV, GLC in Chennai had remarked that the company had witnessed an encouraging traction from their online sales segment.

In a way, a few customers of luxury cars were open to making their purchases even without visiting the showrooms or taking their wheels out for a test drive.

According to VG Ramakrishnan, MD, Avanteum Advisors LLP, a company specialising in consulting for major auto companies, the online market has great scope for passenger cars in the budget segment well. “Online retailing of cars picked up a few years back with dealers in Bengaluru offering online booking through their own portal with a good uptake of 15 pc sales online. Indian customers are increasingly getting comfortable with online purchase even for high value high involvement products.” 

He adds, “With backing of OEM’s online retailing has the potential to disrupt the way people buy cars, buy insurance and accessories and take loans. An integrated platform can offer customer meta-convenience but also bring in high level of transparency in transaction along with increased choice of banks and insurance companies vying for the best customer.”