Numbers game  

January 6, 2011

Mercedez-Benz has made and sold 30,000 cars in India in 15 years, the company says. But going by the number of these and other luxury cars visible on our roads, India is slowly joining the group of countries involved in the global car theft business

Mercedes-Benz proudly revealed, a few weeks ago, that they had manufactured and sold about 30,000 cars in India over the past 15 years or so, since they first started assembling cars at the Tata Motors’ plant in Pune. This does not include Mercs brought into India legally or illegally. It is another story that they may well have taken out more than 30,000 separate advertisements in the media to do so, and pushed more than a few hundred golf tournaments when parking lots outside golf courses are usually filled with cars of other brands.

More importantly, there has always been a sneaking suspicion in circles that know that the real number of Mercedes-Benz cars in India is much larger. Second-hand vehicle dealers claim that over a lakh of Mercedes-Benz cars may well have made their way into India over the past decade or so—often to go underground under registration anomalies, surfacing every now and then in the re-sale trade.

That many of these, and other luxury cars, are great favourites in the global car theft business is now well known. No trip to Russia, Bulgaria or Albania, or some other countries, can be complete without observing the large number of luxury cars on their streets. That India is now slowly but steadily joining this elite band of countries is not surprising, given the loopholes in the registration system.

There are also a large number of cars that look like ‘E’-Class Mercs floating around with ‘S’-Class badges. It impresses the neighbours, like Toyota sport utility vehicles (SUVs) carrying Lexus badges. But hotel doormen and valets always spot the fakes and a few of them have taken great delight in pointing these out to me. Also, car thieves are smart—they wouldn’t be fooled into stealing an imitation ‘S’-Class. But E or S, Merc or otherwise, no car is safe. The specially fitted out Mercedes S-600 which belonged to Mercedes-Benz bossman Jurgen Schremp, equipped with every anti-theft device possible which could arguably be called unique and as theft-proof as possible, has still not been traced after it was stolen within 20 minutes of being parked in Stuttgart. Yet, Mercedes-Benz remains the most visible and aspirational upper-end car in India. Whether 30,000 or more is simply statistics.

Long Wait
While on luxury cars, the preference in India is slowly moving away from the German trio of Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW towards the other luxury brands like Bentley, Rolls-Royce and, surprise, our very own Tata Motors’ Jaguar. This is also revealed by the lack of interest that customers are now showing towards upgraded versions of these three brands. At the same time, there is always an inexplicably long waiting list for most luxury cars in India. Just-in-time manufacturing takes on a new meaning for Indian customers it seems, and is probably measured against the old joke of ‘Indian Standard Time’. Luxury in India is, and has always been, more about opulence than performance. And, for that, it seems, people are ready to wait. Maybe the whole luxury experience includes being made to wait for something which is essentially just another mass-produced item.

Automobile of the Year
Winter is also the silly season for automobile awards of all sorts, usually accompanied by grand parties as well as a lot of networking. Once again, no car or bike will be left out, everybody will win a prize and there will be half a dozen or more ‘car/bike of the year’ kind of titles floating around. All this is great fun. And leads to huge traffic jams at the venues. Maybe they should invite Jairam Ramesh to give another speech at these functions? Leading up to 2011, here’s wishing all of you a safe and pleasant motoring next year as I increasingly start using buses and Metro trains in Delhi.

Veeresh Malik started life as a seafarer, and in the course of a work life, founded and sold Pacific Shipping and Infonox Software, to return to his first love—writing.— Veeresh Malik