Buy Skoda Rapid, Get Fabia Free In 2018

This can easily be called the mother of all deals. You may have heard of a ‘buy one-get one free’ offer on purchase of small FMCG products or a shirt or a pair of jeans, but an auto dealer in Gujarat has extended the same to cars — buy a car, and get another one absolutely free. 
    
Unbelievable as it may sound, a Skoda dealer is promising to give you a Fabia hatchback absolutely free if you buy a Rapid sedan. The only catch: the new car will be given after five years — in 2018. 
    
The slowdown in car sales is making companies and dealers go on an innovation spree: So you have Volkswagen offering a scheme wherein you can trade in your old car for a new Vento sedan by just paying Rupee 1 and not paying anything for the next one year. “Pay the rest a year later, in full or as 36 EMIs,” says the company. 

Volkswagen is also offering another innovative offer on the Vento wherein you pay 50% of the car’s price at the time of purchase, and the remaining after a period of one year. The freebies are not limited only to mainline carmakers. Audi, the German luxury maker, has come out with a new scheme called ‘Beat the Tax Hike’. The scheme, running till March 15, allows you to buy Audi SUVs at “pre-Budget prices” and negates the 3% duty the government slapped on off-roaders in the Budget. For carmakers and dealers this year has been the worst year in a decade, which experts say is them to offer packages to to lure buyers. “There are dealers that still have last year’s stocks lying with them,” says Pradip Saxena, who tracks the auto sector at research firm TNS. 
    
Saxena says many such schemes can work out wonders. “In December 2004, Hyundai had come out with a limited-period offer wherein you could buy a Santro for Rs 3 lakh, or at least 15-20% cheaper than the prices prevailing then. The company is believed to have got bookings for the next five months in just a few weeks.” The deal on the Skoda’s dealer in Gujarat appears to have helped push sales as it claims to have sold 600 cars since February 26 when it launched the offer. “We had a deluge of inquiries, and sales have been strong since then,” Neelmani Sharma, CEO of Torque Auto, told INN. 
    
So if you buy a petrol Rapid, you are entitled for a petrol Fabia (base version), and if its a diesel that you choose, then you get a diesel Fabia variant. Torque Auto owns 11 outlets in Gujarat, and claims to have worked out its math that enabled it to give the offer, which is limited to only Gujarat. And what if the Fabia is phased out by that time? “The agreement that we sign with the customer mentions that if the Fabia is not there, then we will give the customer another model that replaces the car in the market.”