Mercedes launches pre-owned car brand in India

It is no secret that the pre-owned car market in India holds substantial growth potential. Major brands like Maruti, Hyundai, Toyota, Volkswagen and Mahindra already have separate divisions dealing in pre-owned cars.  Mercedes-Benz has now announced that it will have a different wing for its pre-owned cars in India. Dubbed ‘Mercedes-Benz Certified’, this arm of Mercedes will look to capitalise on the slowly-but-constantly growing interest that customers have in second-hand luxury cars.

The launch of Mercedes-Benz Certified was marked by inaugurating 12 brand new outlets across the country. Mercedes claims that buying a pre-owned car from one of these showrooms will be an experience, equivalent to that of buying a new car. It will offer the same quality facilities, infrastructure, customised financing options from Daimler, and unique warranty and service packages. Mercedes will also be launching a new website for the same. You can buy a pre-owned Mercedes, and you can also trade-in your car, regardless of the make, for a pre-owned Mercedes.

The cars under this division will undergo stringent quality checks and will also be fully refurbished before it is put up for sale. Some of their conditions are - the car should not be more than five years old, should have run less than 1,00,000km, must not have an accident history and should not have had more than two owners. When they are put up for sale, the cars will be sold with a manufacturer-backed warranty of one year or 20,000km.

‘Mercedes-Benz Certified’ has been launched with more than 150 pre-owned Mercedes-Benz cars, which will be available at all the 12 new dealerships. Beginning with the metros for now, ‘Mercedes-Benz Certified’ will eventually spread to tier II and tier III markets. Currently, the network has more than 150 sales bays and it will be extended to over 250 by the end of 2015, claims Mercedes. The 12 dealerships are Shaman Wheels, Auto Hangar (Mumbai), Sundaram Motors, Akshaya Motors (Bangalore), B.U. Bhandari (Pune), Panjab Motors (Mohali), T&T Motors (West Delhi), T&T Motors (Mathura Road), Joshi Autozone (Chandigarh), Rajasree Motors (Cochin), Transcar (Chennai), Adishwar Motors (Hyderabad). Of these Shaman Wheels, Auto Hangar and Sundaram Motors are stand-alone outlets while the other outlets are shop-in-shops, with a showroom and display within existing facilities.

“There is immense potential in this segment and it will be a key to future growth of the auto industry. Mercedes-Benz witnessed 39 percent growth in 2014 year to date in the pre-owned cars segment. With attractive trade-in and financing options and complete peace of mind on offer from ‘Mercedes-Benz Certified’, we anticipate this segment to grow further, driving the sales of new cars as well,” said Eberhard Kern, MD and CEO, Mercedes-Benz India.