While most of the drivers in India are grumbling and complaining about skyrocketing gas prices, others hardly even noticethe increase.
The luxury car market is thriving right now despite gas prices. In fact, sales in India up until April of this year reached 4,000 units. That’s the same amount of cars the nation sold in all of last year! One prominent member of the board of management for BMW, Herbert Diess, said the market in India has been great in the last few years. “Developments over the last three years in India have been stunning for sales of luxury cars.” About the future of the luxury car market in India, he said “India will become a very important market for us” in the next five or ten years.
In addition to that, luxury automakers predict sales topping 7,000 units before the end of the year. That would be an increase of about 75 percent over last year’s figures.
The reason for the increase is due to a “generation that wants to spend all they’ve earned in the here and now,” according to a spokesperson for one luxury car maker. That’s reflected in the fact that the average age of owners of luxury cars has dropped from 45 to 35 in the last few years.
The way it looks, luxury vehicles are becoming more and more commonplace in India and in other places as people are using their cars as status symbols.