A car showroom on Dakbungalow Road in Patna. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Oct. 19: This Dhanteras, the hike in petrol prices has veered the car buyers to diesel variants. Overall sales, however, dipped this year. Dealers claimed the demand this year was around 34 per cent less.

More than 1,500 cars have been booked in the city till Wednesday for Dhanteras, an auspicious day for purchases, when these vehicles would be rolled out. The favourites across different brands — Maruti, Hyundai, Chevrolet or Ford — are the utilitarian small cars. After all, few things can be better than easy navigation on choked city roads, easy parking and better mileage.

Car dealers said overall sales are expected to slow down this year because of steep hike in petrol prices and interest rates. Only hope in such times is the in-demand small diesel cars, stressed the dealers.

Maruti Suzuki dealer Karlo Automobiles’ general manager K.C. Gupta told The Telegraph: “Diesel cars, especially Swift, Swift Dzire and Ritz are high in demand. Till now, we have booked 200 Swift diesel cars. But we are unable to deliver the vehicles to our buyers because of some problems at the production level.”

This Dhanteras, Karlo Automobiles aims to sell 300 cars. So far, 200 cars have been booked, added Gupta.

Showroom manager of another Maruti dealer — VAU’s on Dakbungalow Road — Moazzam Iqbal echoed similar sentiments over the demand for diesel cars. “We have booked 150 cars out of our 300 target for Dhanteras. We are not taking any bookings for diesel cars, as they would not be available on Dhanteras or after it.”

The reason behind the long wait for Maruti cars is the ongoing strike at its production plant in Manesar, Gurgaon.

A customer at Karlo Automobiles, Saroj Kumar, told The Telegraph: “I have booked a Swift diesel in Jamshedpur two months ago. But the dealer clearly said it would be impossible to deliver the car on Dhanteras. Now, I have come here but even this dealer is expressing his inability to deliver the car on time.”

On the surge in the sale of diesel cars, which are priced higher than petrol cars, Priyadarshi Ford’s sales manager Rahul Pratap Singh said: “Customers want peace of mind. Though diesel cars are priced higher and require more maintenance, they give more mileage and the fuel is much cheaper. There is a gap of almost Rs 30 per litre between petrol and diesel.”

At Priyadarshi Ford, 80 cars have been booked against its target of 120, said Singh, adding that 50 of them were diesel cars.

Tata’s Guinea Motors’ senior sales manager M.N. Murtaza said at least 20 per cent of customers who wanted to buy petrol cars ultimately veered towards diesel cars because of the fuel price hike. “Of our target of 305 vehicles, we have booked 75 cars, 35 utility vehicles, 50 Nanos and eight Fiats.”