September 23, 2025

The festive season just got more exciting for car buyers all over India! On the very first day of GST 2.0 and the start of Navaratri, automobile dealers saw a wave of customers, with some places reporting footfalls soaring by over 50%. Yet, in Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad, the rush was quieter, resembling normal festive beginnings. The big winner was Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL), the largest passenger vehicle maker in India. Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer - Marketing & Sales at MSIL, shared thrilling news. “On the first day of Navratri, we have seen 80,000 enquiries (and still going on)...we have already crossed 25,000 deliveries (retail) till 8PM, and it is expected to reach more than 30,000 because retails are happening till late night. Coming to the bookings, since September 18 (when new prices were announced), in these last five days we have received bookings of 75,000 cars and that is also going on.” This means they are doing 15,000 bookings every day — a whopping 50% jump from the usual 10,000 daily bookings. Banerjee added, “Demand for small cars has been especially strong, with bookings growing by nearly 50 per cent. Enquiries remain very high, and we may even run out of stock for certain variants in some places. Dealers are staying open late into the night to deliver cars to customers.” The crowd’s energy is higher than last year’s! Tata Motors' Chief Commercial Officer, Amit Kamat, beamed about their rising sales too. “With the auspicious start of Navaratri, we are expecting record retail activity. Our dealerships have opened early and extended their working hours to welcome the festive rush. We are already witnessing a high volume of customer deliveries across locations. The response to our portfolio has been phenomenal, especially for the popular bestsellers Nexon and Punch.” Hyundai Motor India Limited also raced ahead. Tarun Garg, their Whole-Time Director and COO, revealed, “On day one alone, Hyundai recorded around 11,000 dealer billings, which is our highest single-day performance in the last five years. This shows the strong festive mood and customer confidence.” Down in South Delhi, at a Mahindra & Mahindra showroom, footfalls tripled compared to normal days, said Sales Manager Pramod Tiwari. “The sales have been much better than the last 25 days. Both footfalls and enquiry levels have grown manifold.” In Odisha, a two-wheeler dealer shared similar excitement. Pradeep Agarwal, running Hero MotoCorp and Ather dealerships, said, “The number of walk-ins have grown up by 2X or 3X – in terms of bookings and enquiries – which are turning into deliveries. The new prices were uploaded by the OEMs in the morning.” However, not everyone was celebrating. Mumbai and Hyderabad were hit by heavy rains, keeping customers away. Showrooms in Powai suburbs noticed fewer visitors, hoping business picks up later. Bengaluru’s market was calm. MP Shyam, MD of Cauvery Group, explained, “People who wanted to purchase had already booked their vehicles over the past 10 days, waiting for September 22 to register so they could avail the benefit of the GST cuts in registration and road tax. Today is the first day, and things have been normal.” Despite some ups and downs, the overall story is clear: GST cuts combined with festive spirit have sparked a colorful and powerful surge in car sales across India. Dealers are working late, customers are eager, and the wheels of the automobile sector are spinning fast this Navratri!

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Tags: Gst reduction, Automobile sales, Festive season, Maruti suzuki, Car bookings, Navaratri,