The term discount, as good as it sounds, manages to capture everyone's attention instantly. As the year nears its end, many carmakers in the country have put their line-up with lucrative discount offers. But, this does not end here, though the carmakers have offered hefty discounts, none of them have been considerate enough to offer safety features as a priority. Instead, they site higher cost as the reason for not using the airbags and ABS in the vehicle.
If your consider facts, carmakers are currently offering discounts of over Rs. 50,000 across its trims, whereas the same carmakers have been arguing over the fact safety features like airbags and ABS appear as 'Additional cost' to them which is not feasible. On an average, installing safety features shall only cost an additional of about Rs. 40,000 which indeed is lower that the current discount offers.
Currently the savings offered are in form of freebies like zero insurance cost, cash discount, exchange bonus, corporate discounts, loyalty bonus and zero insurance costs. All this cost us reportedly shared between the manufacturer and the dealer. Speaking more on the occasion, S P Singh, Coordinator at pressure group Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training (IFTRT), said, “If you have the capacity to offer such massive discounts, then what is the fairness of the prices?”
Most of the carmkers have argued that making safety features like airbags and ABS is not required atleast for next couple of years as the vehicles traveling here are usually at a lower speed. As of now installing safety features in the vehicle cost the company about Rs. 40,000, which can indeed come down owing to benefits from economies of scale.
Source: TOI
