Maruti Suzuki's New Bet On Used Cars To Hit 2m Target By '20

Sixteen years after its creation, the company's used car business True Value sees a revamp. Sumantra B Barooah sees a twist in the tail, in the automaker's move to sell more new cars.

- Sumantra B Barooah

Two million is the number of new cars Maruti Suzuki has said it plans to sell by 2020. True Value, which was launched in 2001, is now being revamped to play a key contributor to realising the goal for 2020. But how? Research by the car market leader shows that 70-75 percent of used car buyers shift to a new car in 1-2 years. Get the connect with target 2020 now? "From that point of view, we worked on our products, we worked on Nexa, now we are working on True Value. It is being recreated now," says R S Kalsi, senior ED (Marketing & Sales), Maruti Suzuki India. Used cars usually also act as drivers of new car sales as customers upgrade to new cars. As someone who's involved with setting up True Value when Jagdish Khattar was at the helm of affairs at Maruti Suzuki, Kalsi can be trusted to know how to leverage it to the maximum.

TARGETING THE SMART BUYER

Around 30 percent of Maruti Suzuki's new car customers buy their favourite set of wheels by exchanging their old cars. Even if the figure remains constant till 2020, Maruti Suzuki would sell 600,000 new cars to customers who enter the Maruti fold through True Value.