Is the 2 Series worth the money? For those who've always wanted to
drive a BMW in India, the 2 Series is easily the most fun to drive everyday car
that money can buy.
How do you get
people to buy your car when excise duties and high pricing render the retail
cost much higher than what it would otherwise sell for? One way is to launch
entry-level cars that start at the bottom of the price scale, and hope
customers will keep trading up. That's something that BMW has tinkered with in
the past as well.
In 2010, it
launched its Corporate Edition 3 Series for some Rs 24 lakh, which was around
Rs 10 lakh cheaper than the regular 3 Series. But the catch was that it came
without bells and whistles and led some to question whether the car-maker had
gone too far with the decontenting blade. After all, at the time a customer
could have easily opted for cars such as the Skoda Superb, which were larger,
roomier, had more features and were priced similarly.
But the Bavarian
car-maker was betting on the allure of its badge. The gambit worked and the
cars sold out. They were later discontinued.
Sometime in 2013, BMW
again experimented with entry-level cars and launched its 1 Series, a premium
hatch that sold for above Rs 30 lakh. It was introduced amid much fanfare with
cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar launching and endorsing it.
While the 1 Series
was also discontinued, the luxury category of cars has seen all the players
experiment with small “entry-level
cars” at some point in time or the other.
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