Life cycle of car models is getting shorter: Kalsi

Hyderabad: With the people’s lifestyle changing faster than ever before, car makers are being forced to update their models and brands to retain their appeal to the customers.

“The life cycle of car models is getting shorter because of fast changing lifestyles of people. In the past, people used to drive one car for 15-20 years. But now people change cars every five years.

“This forces car companies to keep our models up-to-date and introduce new features. But we have to phase out existing brands before the customers themselves reject them,” said R.S. Kalsi, executive director (marketing and sales) Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. “Even now we get letters from our customers asking why did phase out Maruti 800 model,” explained.

In tune with the changing demograhics and lifestyles of customers, India’s largest car maker by sales has been trying reposition itself as the manufacturer of aspirational cars as against the affordable car maker. The car maker has recently launched an aspirational car model called Ignis for catering to the affluent customers.

As part of this, the company had started a new line of dealerships called Nexa to sell its premium cars. The firm has launched its 200th Nexa showroom in Hyderabad on Monday. “Nexa showrooms are for customers who need a higher level of customer satisfaction,” he said.

According to mr Kalsi, the Nexa showrooms and premium car launches have helped his company to attract a large number of customers, who were not traditional Maruti customers.