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Daewoo Motors' premium small car Matiz appears to have finally got a lease of life.
The sale of the car as well as its price have surged after the recent offer by the US auto giant General Motors Corp to buy the car assembly unit of beleaguered Daewoo Motors India Ltd.
A DMIL dealer, Triumph Motors, had picked up over 300 unsold cars through an auction at the DMIL factory after the company closed operations in 2002 and was selling these through outlets in Noida and Jaipur.
Prices of the two variants of the Matiz, SG and SD, have shot up by Rs 18,000 and Rs 35,000 to Rs 285,000 and Rs 240,000 respectively following the news of GM's offer, the proprietor of Triumph Motors Rajan Mehra told Business Standard.
The SG and SD models were originally priced at Rs 422,000 and Rs 240,000, respectively.
"The demand for Matiz has gone up now. We have even increased the price," Mehra said. He said over 200 cars have been sold till date.
Even though the Matiz, one of the popular compact cars in India, was offered at a hefty discount to its original price, it had became increasingly difficult to sell them due to customer worries over the after-sales service and the availability of spares after DMIL shut shop.
The local subsidiary of South Korea's Daewoo Motor Company was put on sale in 2002 following its inability to clear debts of about Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) to the principal lenders, ICICI Bank, IDBI and EXIM Bank. This followed the bankruptcy of the parent company in November 2000.
Triumph Motors is providing a warranty of one year and is helping customers arrange finance from nationalised banks.