Jatin Ahuja, founder of pre-owned luxury car retailer Big Boy Toyz, says the pandemic is pushing people towards value for money, and most demand is coming from Tier 2, Tier 3 cities and beyond
The pre-owned luxury car market is gradually getting back on track, but with a few interesting changes. The biggest, and most expected, is that consumers are down-trading. “Cars in the Rs 2 crore to Rs 4 crore segment, including the Lamborghinis and the Ferraris, took the biggest hit,” says Jatin Ahuja, founder of Big Boy Toyz (BBT), a Gurugram-based retailer of pre-owned luxury cars.
After three months of low sales, BBT, Ahuja claims, sold 48 cars in July and August. The second big change is the demand from Tier II and beyond. “About 35% of our enquiries are coming from the tier II, III and beyond,” he adds. “About 2-3% of our luxury cars underwent price correction,” he says.
Founded in 2009, BBT boasts of a wide range of luxury models from brands such as Bentley, Ferrari, Cadillac and Aston Martin, with price straddling from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 4 crore. To deal with the pandemic, Ahuja rolled out a new feature to sell a car within 29 minutes.
The feature is aimed at people and businesses with limited cash flow, he explains, and helps them in quick and easy liquidation of their assets. “We have gone the extra mile in making the transition from offline to online super easy and comfortable for our customers,” he says in an interview to Forbes India. Excerpts:
Q. How badly has the pre-owned luxury car market been hit by the pandemic?