Market Watch

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

101 BMW in single deal by Aurangabad rich men


Together, 101 residents of the tourism centre of Aurangabad in this state who’d mass-booked a BMW (Bayerische Motoren Werke GmbH) car each, are jointly negotiating with State Bank of India to get a seven-year loan at a seven per cent rate of interest.

They did the booking on Sunday at a Pune-based dealer, Bavaria Motors, and are also negotiating with the latter to supply the models (3-series, 5-series, 6-series and 7-series) at a 10-20 per cent discount. The total deal is expected to be worth Rs 40 crore.

A BMW car costs between Rs 28 lakh and Rs 1 crore. The buyers include young entrepreneurs, doctors, builders, politicians and other professionals.

Something similar had taken place in Aurangabad earlier in the year, when 150 people got together to book a Mercedes-Benz each. They got the car last month, in a Rs 65-crore deal.

Pankaj Agarwal, a young entrepreneur who took the initiative in this regard, told Business Standard: “We have organised a road show and test drive on December 3, 4 and 5 at Aurangabad to get acclamatised with various models of BMW. We expect to strike a deal with the Pune-based dealer within a month and hope to take the delivery in January.”

After the news-making Mercedes deal, he said, the group had approached BMW for a similar one. “The company was quite enthused and directed us to coordinate with Bavaria Motors. We expect a discount of 10-20 per cent on each car, like Mercedes, which had offered 22 per cent discount to the buyers.”

“Talks are at a preliminary stage,” said a senior executive of Bavaria Motors.

SBI normally grants scuha loan for only five years, but the group is holding out for seven years, at seven per cent. “Each buyer would have to pay an advance of Rs 4-5 lakh,” said Agarwal.