The news of American car giant, General Motors shutting shop in India came as a shock to the automotive fraternity and customers alike. While the company was gearing up for a new innings with new Chevy Beat, subcompact sedan Essentia and Beat Cross, the abrupt decision to wind up sales by December 31, 2017 in the world’s fifth largest car market has left dealers and customers perplexed.
Ironically, GM has announced its withdrawal from India at a time when it is projected to become the third largest car market by 2021, outnumbering markets like Japan and Germany as suggested by a research conducted by HIS Markit. India isn’t the first market that GM is pulling out from, in the recent years, GM also pulled back from Europe, Russia and South Africa. Furthermore, the company has closed 13 plants and ceased operations in various countries in the past years.
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While the dealers and existing customers are still coping with the decision announced last week, the repercussions of the pull out include lower re-sale value of Chevy cars. That said, the customers and dealers are worst hit due to the sudden withdrawal. The re-sale value of existing Chevy cars has dropped drastically, even the dealers are facing difficulty in selling Chevrolet cars. While there is an increase in the walk-in inquiries post the announcement, the customers are asking for unreasonable discounts including ‘buy one get one free’ and a flat 50% rebate in price. Since the dealers have not received any new discounts bulletin from GM, it is currently offering the same discounts. Read – Impact Of GST – Small Cars To Get Costlier
The company is still chalking out a plan to support dealers across the country, which will be discussed in detail at an upcoming meeting in Gurugram. In the meanwhile, the dealers have been asked to clear the current inventory by the end of this calendar year.
GM has assured to provide after-sales service across key locations in the country. The company will employ trained staff for the assistance of the customers at these units. Additionally, the company will continue providing the road side assistance, spare parts etc to support maintenance and repair.
