Oh lord! Won’t you lease me a Mercedes

Mercedes Benz is the first of the German luxury car manufacturing trio to start its business in India. The famous and celebrated German auto maker has planned to make it large by tapping the car buying crowd of the fast developing auto market of India. The objective is of improving the perception of its luxury cars in India by making sure that a wider section of population can aspire to buy their cars. And MB has come up with an interesting and tried & tested plan to fulfill its wishes. In order to make this possible the German car maker is now offering people to drive home their cars on a lease basis.Sounds interesting? Read on.

Mercedes Benz is the first manufacturer in India to come out with this scheme. By carrying out this task the German giant aims to bring the masses into its list of customers and thereby increase its profits considerably.

Debashis Mitra, Director, Sales & Marketing, Mercedes-Benz India commented “Like many other firsts, Mercedes-Benz first brings to India a financial product which can change the way consumers purchase a car. Our leasing product shall ensure easy upgrades for consumers & hassle free ownership experience. We are proud to be the only luxury car manufacturer to offer this option in India.” He further added, ”Consumers shall now have an option to drive away a Mercedes-Benz without any initial investment & just pay affordable rentals which shall cover all insurance & maintenance costs for 3 years.“

Leasing is the grant of use of a vehicle where the customer pays only what he uses. Under a leasing contract the customer has the use of a vehicle over a period of time for a fixed monthly lease rate. Daimler Financial Services India Pvt. Ltd will be the owner of the asset and maintenance of the vehicles will be carried out by Mercedes-Benz dealers as a part of the leasing contract.In western countries, car leasing is in a high demand . It is estimated that half of all people who don’t pay upfront, lease their cars instead of going for full financing.

As mentioned by Mr. Mitra, one will have to pay only 50 % of the cost thru monthly rentals and this shall continue for 3 years after which the customer will have an option of choosing between returning the car and paying an additional sum to purchase the vehicle.

Interesting it is but one may ask in what way is it different from buying a car on EMI and then selling it off after 3 years if one wishes to let go of it?

We think that the customer will benefit from having a tighter check on cost control as leasing would be demanding a lower EMI to be paid as compared to the financing schemes available. The vehicle would not a part of the customer’s assets and that would gift the person with tax benefits. The ownership of the vehicle appears to be risk free as the residual risk is to be taken care of by Mercedes-Benz India Pvt. Ltd. Through this flexibility the customer can afford to change his/her Mercedes-Benz every two to five years, or can very well upgrade to a costlier and better model that would have been beyond their budget till now.

If all goes well, we can safely expect to see more 3 pointed stars on roads of the non-metro cities. This plan by the luxury car manufacturer seems to be squarely aimed at the fast growth rate of its main rival, the BMW and also the Audi, which is fast catching up. Also, it may pull prospective buyers of cars like Camry, Accord, Passat, etc towards the nearest Mercedes Benz showrooms.

So, we can safely edit Joplin’s famous song to go like “Oh lord! Won’t you lease me a Mercedes Benz?”