Car manufacturers across the country are laden with heavy unsold inventory and in view of it are considering hike in passenger vehicles. Toyota Kirloskar, for instance, after offering a slew of benefits under the Memorable March programme, has days after announced a hike in price on some of the select models from April 1.

Then JLR followed suit who has announced a price increase by 4%. This is despite the fact that some of the company's offerings including Range Rover Evoque and the Jaguar XJL offer benefit scheme to the tune of Rs 7 lakh and Rs 20 lakh respectively.

Also, the hike announcement comes at a time when the banks are unlikely to compromise on lending norms and also fuel price are again trending northwards.

So, with retail sales also dipping to new yearly lows and FADA claiming that now inventory remains with the dealer for 2 months, instead of the otherwise 1 month.

"Given the current environment, FADA urges our OEMs (vehicle makers) to take a realistic stock of the current retail situation and recalibrate their production to regulate dealer invoicing to facilitate return to stock normalcy for dealerships to maintain a sustainable business environment," FADA had said on March 13.

Later in the week gone by, Tata Motors upped car prices by Rs. 25,000. The trend of hiking prices in a regular case is witnessed in the cooling off period in December after the festive sales.

GoodReturns.in