Porsche plans pre-owned cars thrust in India

Targeting a major splash in the Indian automotive mart, German sports car maker Porsche is lining up a new initiative in the pre-owned car space.

Porsche has stepped on the gas for an ambitious plan of making its pre-owned car programme available in India. The proposed Porsche used cars initiative will commence by year 2009 and will be rolled out through the Porsche authorized dealer network in the country. The company is expected to spend a substantially big amount for the initiative in India.

Statistics show that despite the fact that the Indian automobile industry is growing at only 7 percent during the current financial year, the sales of luxury cars has been left unhampered. With the rich growing in India and banks lending large sums of money to such buyers, the luxury car mart has never had it so good.

The pre-owned car sales programme is expected to lure more potential customers who till now looked at Porsche cars as too expensive. Sources said that Porsche dealers will also chip in offers that would help in attracting more customers to the pre-owned Porsche showrooms. The cars will also be offered with company warranty, they said.

The programme planned for India is in line with Porsche’s global initiative of the same type. It has been reported that the whole range of pre-owned Porsche cars will take part at a show in Amby Valley, near Mumbai between 14th and the 23rd November 2008.

Porsche is, in fact, very bullish about its prospects in India in the new car segment too. The company is said to have lined up showrooms in all the major cities such as Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Ludhiana, Delhi and Mumbai. This apart, yet another move being planned to attract customers is the proposed launch of finance options for its high end cars. The company is said to be close to inking deals with two leading institutions to bring in the sales figures in this regard.

The car major, which has been present in India for the past two and a half years, has in the Indian market place models such as Cayman SUV, Boxster, Carrera, and Cayman.