Planning to buy your dream car this Dhanteras? There's some not-so-good news

Customers looking to buy their dream car this Dhanteras have some disappointment in store. Due to immensely high demand, dealers have stopped taking instant bookings for the auspicious day. More than four lakh customers have already booked their favourite cars to get the delivery on the occasion of Dhanteras, October 23, as per industry sources.

Those who booked their cars much in advance might be lucky enough to drive home their dream car on the day of Dhanteras. Most best-seller vehicles have a waiting period of more than 65 weeks. For example, Mahindra's best-selling model - XUV7OO - has a waiting period of around 66-68 weeks. XUV5OO has a waiting period for some models of 7-27 weeks whereas Thar Diesel has 23-25 weeks of waiting period, and Bolero Diesel has up to 10 weeks.

In the Tata Motors camp, Nexon has a waiting period of 16 to 20 weeks depending on different variants of the model while Tata Punch has 24 to 26 weeks. Magnite has a waiting period of 10-12 weeks, almost the same as for Maruti Brezza, Grand Vitara and Kia Seltos.

The industry saw sales of a total of 5,39,227 vehicles between September 26 and October 5 during Navratri this year. As many as 1,10,521 passenger vehicles and 3,69,020 two-wheelers were sold during this festival.

Despite high demand, data shows that the festive period of Navratri-Dussehra and Dhanteras-Diwali this year has delivered the worst performance for the country's automakers in almost a decade. The main festive season from Navratri to Diwali is the peak period of activity in the personal mobility segment. However, demand remained slow this time, particularly in North India.

Registrations of vehicles during the 30-day period declined by steep double digits compared with the same festive period last year. This can be attributed to various material shortages and global supply disruptions.

(with inputs from ANI)