PUNE: Koregaon Park resident Kailash Chitre had bought a 350cc high-end bike for Rs 1.45lakh in 2019. He is desperate to sell it off now.
“I cannot sustain it anymore. With the cost of petrol on a high, a mileage of 30-35km per litre is not what I can afford now after facing substantial salary cuts owing to the pandemic. I want to sell it off and buy a simple scooter. I am talking to my friends, colleagues and second-hand dealers and trying to negotiate a price,” Chitre, who works in Hinjewadi phase-3, said.
Many owners of high-end bikes and cars in the city are considering selling their gas guzzlers even at low prices. Dealers said that they were witnessing an increase in the sale of high-end cars and bikes for the past two months. “In the car segment, the number of people approaching us to sell their cars costing Rs50lakh or more has increased by around 20%. The sellers are mainly businessmen going through bad times and they do not want to pay high EMIs now. In the two-wheeler segment, the increase has been around 25%. Most people owning high-end bikes now want to go for simple two-wheelers or e-bikes,” a Mundhwabased dealer said.
Pune RTO officials told TOI that the number of transfer of ownerships of vehicles till October this year is set to surpass last year’s figures. “Last year, the ownership of around 47,800 vehicles were transferred. This year, the figure stands at 47,600 already. With more than a month to go for the year to end, we are looking at a 30% increase this year compared to 2020. While around 4,000 pre-owned vehicles were sold per month on an average last year, this year we expect the monthly average to be more than 5,000 vehicles,” an official said.
Sarang Kenjale, founder, Blitzkrieg Riding Club, said that the high fuel prices have impacted the rides organised by them. “While some have sold their bikes, the rides we organize have gone down drastically. Long rides to places like Ladakh are out of the question now due to high fuel cost as we cover almost 10,000km one-way. We have to think twice even to go to Lonavla now. From organising four rides a month, we are down to one,” Kenjale said.
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The cost of ownership for a pre-owned/used vehicle is significantly less in comparison to a new one, mainly due to high depreciation, higher taxes, RTO/ registration fee, and expensive vehicle insurance policies, Grant Thornton Bharat said in its report.