By S Ronendra Singh

Copyright thehindubusinessline

Automobile dealers across India witnessed largely enthusiastic response from customers on the first day of the GST 2.0 and Navaratri, with some saying footfalls have grown by more than 50 per cent. In some places such as Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, the response remained muted with the day resembling any previous beginning of the festive season.

The country’s largest passenger vehicles (PVs) maker Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) witnessed an exceptional day with the senior management maintaining that they have not seen such a response in the last 35 years.

“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,” Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer – Marketing & Sales, MSIL, told businessline.

He said bookings are being made for around 15,000 vehicles per day, which was a 50 per cent jump from any other day earlier (10,000 per day).

“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. Compared to last year, the overall response has been exceptionally strong,” Banerjee added.

Amit Kamat, Chief Commercial Officer at Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, also said that the company was seeing a “very enthusiastic” response from customers with surge in enquiries and bookings, with a noticeable increase showroom walk-ins, higher conversions, and a growing order book.

“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,” he said.

With a strong pipeline of bookings and scheduled deliveries, the company was fully geared to meet the festive demand and was optimistic about setting new records this festive season, Kamat added.

“On day one alone, Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL) recorded around 11,000 dealer billings, which is our highest single-day performance in the last five years. This is a clear testament to robust festive sentiment and customer confidence. Looking ahead, we anticipate sustained festive demand and remain committed to delivering value and excitement to our customers,” Tarun Garg, Whole-Time Director and COO, HMIL, said.

At a Mahindra & Mahindra dealer in South Delhi, a manager said footfalls have grown by around three-fold as compared to normal days. “The sales have been much better as compared to last 25 days and both footfalls and enquiry levels have grown manifold,” said Pramod Tiwari, Sales Manager at M&M showroom.

In Odisha, a two-wheeler dealer said that the responses have been “fantastic” since Sunday.

“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. There are customers in the pipeline and deliveries will start effective Tuesday (with new taxes on registration and road tax),” Pradeep Agarwal, who has dealerships of Hero MotoCorp and Ather, told businessline.

However, in regions like Hyderabad and Mumbai, heavy rain hampered business with dealers of both two-wheelers and four-wheelers noticing very less customer traction.

At showrooms of Kia and Honda Motors in the suburb of Powai, people were making enquiries during the late afternoon. The showroom managers said rain had kept the people away and they expected customers to return toward the end of the week.

In Bengaluru too, it was business as usual. “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,” MP Shyam, MD, Cauvery Group, said.

With inputs from Aroosa Ahmed in Mumbai, Aishwarya Kumar in Bengaluru and Naga Sridhar in Hyderabad

Published on September 22, 2025