ronald_adi

Hi guys. I am working this week (for 1 week only) in Delhi (noida) India. They drive like monkeys here - absolutely mad !! most cars here are small suzuki's, and toyota etc all built locally due to the high 80% import duty on foreign cars.

i know that BMW doesnt yet have a plant here but they are looking into it - they have contacted an accountant i work with to look into taxation issues. So I have only seen 1 7 series and no other BMW's !!. Actually i havent even see any audi's, VW's, volvo's etc. i saw 1 mercedes E class but i learnt that mercedes has a plant here.

So whats keeping BMW from quickly entering this 1billion population market? Is there anyone here from india?

snkpkp

there are a lot of e60's and other luxury cars including maybach 62, ferrari f430, enzo, etc in India. Will give you the website where they post all the pics from India.

ronald_adi

cool do that - i would like to see. i got 3 days more here

clarence

Past experience with China, amongst others, suggests that big markets (geographically) should not be entered hastily.
They need time to train up & build up a sales & service network, as well as time to adapt cars for local conditions. In the case of China, it took Ferrari nearly 10 years to do it in full scale. Same with Porsche. The same applies to Benz & BMW, they only entered officially on a large scale during the end of 90's. Previously it's personal imports w/o official support. Benz found, with huge cost, the risks of an incomplete dealership network in China back in the 90's. Then, not every area in China is covered by the network, & consequently, cars were not taken care of properly for those owners who live far away. There were very high profile cases where disgruntled owners smashed up cars in front of the media, complaining of repeated faults with the cars (famous case with an SLK). In realty, failures were caused by poor maintenance & cars not adapted to local conditions.

535dMAN

Hi, I have been reading this forum for a while but thought I'd register now! First of all mate Monkey's can't drive and although I agree the driving is VERY BAD I think it's quite rude to make comments like that

I am from the UK although I visit Delhi nearly 2 times a year! I have seen X5's, E60's, E46's and even M3's and a new M5. If you want to see CARS you need to get out at night after around 10pm and visit:

1. Maurya Sheraton
2. Taj Palace
3. Le Meridian
4. Hyatt
5. Imperial Hotel
6. Oberoi Hotel

yes these are all 5 star hotels and this is where the "cream" hang out <_<

The E90 320i will be launched in India towards the end of this year. If you are in Noida get a cab and ask him to take you to Kashyap Motors in Okhla - this is the one and only BMW dealer for North India and they can get you any car you want! It's all a matter of affordability in the Indian Market.

The cars officially available here include Porcshe, Range Rover, Bentley, Aston Martin, Maybach, Ferrari and Lamborghini!

If you go to this website and look under new cars you will see all cars available in India:

http://www.indiacar.com/

ronald_adi

535dMan,

Thanks for the info. Obviously i have been here too short a time to make such a generalization. I do apologize for my comment. i certainly did not mean anything in disrespect and certainly had no intention of offending. So again sorry for the vague statement.

I'll have a look at 1 or 2 of the places u mentioned. It strikes me as so unfair that the people here have to pay almost double the price we pay elsewhere for a foreign car!

having said that, i can see that the government has been able to get a good car industry running locally with this law - because most people buy the cars made in india.

snkpkp

www.team-bhp.com

full exotic car pics from India, well some are not exotic to a lot of ppl , but considering a e60 530i costs about $130 grand, it sure is exotic for ppl driving these cars in this part of the world.

535dMAN

The Indian government have been quite strict with the laws on import not only for cars but for many other items too. But as you rightly said - the Indian car market locally is doing very well with people buying home made cars

On the other hand these BM's mercs etc are very expensive and are not for the common man so even if they do relax the rules we may not see exotic cars on the road for a while!

The cars are a rip off eg- the S320 Merc is Rs60 Lacs which is ?71,000! :thumbsdown:

Even locally made cars like the Honda Accord are rs17 Lcs = ?20,000 and discounts are rare!

But I'm sure as the number increase things will improve.

One thing I'll never forget was a Saturday night in Delhi - I saw a 911 race a Ferrari 360M on public roads! I was in a suzuki jeep and we tried to join in the fun by chasing them we eventually got to a red light and when we looked we realised that the 911 was driven by the owner of a music company and the ferrari was the owner of his rival music company - could be a take over bid

madoon

thats weird....i always thought that there are some places in india that were the cities are modern and people own expensive cars. perhaps your just unlucky.. or im just wrong..??

SolanNo1

An offensive characterization :thumbsdown: