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Karnataka CM taken in by Hyundai Sonata

Fakir Chand in Bangalore

Karnataka's IT-savvy chief minister S M Krishna has turned out to be the 'lucky' first customer in the state to have bought Sonata, the super luxury sedan from the stable of Hyundai Motor India Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the $15-billion Korean automobile giant.

What's more, as many as six other chief ministers across the country have expressed their desire to go for the Rs 1.3-million Gold model of Sonata, declared Hyundai Motor India president A P Gandhi to rediff.com in Bangalore on Friday, on the occasion of the launch of its D-segment models in Karnataka.

Gandhi, however, declined to name neither the six chief ministers nor the states they represent, claiming customer's confidentiality. "You will know when the sedans are delivered to them," he quipped.

Krishna, however, was not available for comment on going for such a luxury, which he seems to have bought it in his personal capacity.

"The car was delivered at his official residence by no less than subsidiary's managing director Y S Kim earlier in the day."

According to sources, this is also the first time the flamboyant chief minister, who was once a Fulbright scholar in the US during the Kennedy days in the sixties, had opted to buy such a luxury car though he drives around the city in official car, the good-old Ambassador or Contessa, which are from the Hindustan Motors' stable.

Incidentally, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, was the first customer in Bombay to have bought the same on Thursday, while Union Minister of State for SSI Vasundhara Raje became the first customer in Delhi to have picked the car.

Contrary to reports appearing in a section of the media, Gandhi clarified neither Shah Rukh Khan nor Amitabh Bachchan have been roped in yet to do promos for Sonata, though Shah Rukh Khan figured in the company's ad campaign for its mid-size car Santro, couple of years ago.

Allaying fears over the impact of the ongoing slow down in the economy on the sale of Sonata, Gandhi said the pre-launch survey had revealed that there was a good potential for its market as there was no such model in the D-segment until recently, when Honda Motors of Japan launched its Accord model early this month.

"We are targeting a sale of 1,500-2,000 sedans during the current fiscal year (2001-02), averaging about 250-300 cars per month in the near future. Survey of our valued customers of Santro and Accent has shown that around 25-30 per cent of them are willing to go for an upgrade to move from C segment to D segment. We expect maximum sales to come from them," Gandhi claimed.

Launched in India within six months of its introduction in Korea and two months ago in the US market, the sixth generation model of Sonata comes in two variants, GLS, costing around Rs 1.88 million and Gold for around Rs 1.3 million. As of now, the sedan boasts of about 40 per cent indigenisation, with the rest imported from its parent company in Korea.

"The benchmarks Hyundai have set for the sedan redefines the concept of luxury. It almost amounts to rediscovering luxury, all over again," Kim said.

Since the launch of its first model Santro in October 1998, the subsidiary had sold over 200,000 cars, including around 75,000 Accent models till date.

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