Anyone in chappals or lungi can be a Mercedes owner
By IANSMonday, May 10, 2010
PANAJI - Wealth generation in India is happening on a massive scale and anyone wearing plain clothes and chappals can be a Mercedes Benz owner, a top official of the luxury car maker said Monday.
Wilfried Aulbur, the auto company’s managing director, said there was no way one could profile a person from his outward appearance as a prospective Mercedes Benz customer.
“In India, persons wearing plain white shirt and pant or lungi and chappals can buy the car (Mercedes Benz),” Aulbur told reporters, inaugurating a dealership near Panaji.
Aulbur also said that smaller cities like Aurangabad, Bhubaneswar, Jaipur and Panaji were the next frontier for the luxury car makers.
“We are looking at a 25 per cent growth in these cities. There is a massive wealth generation happening in India,” he added.
Citing the example of Aurangabad, Aulbur said this Maharashtra city was an example of the changing and expansive lifestyle of smaller cities in India.
“There is an order for 125 Mercedes Benz cars in Aurangabad. This shows the importance of such cities to us.”
He said there were around 250 cars already on the roads in Goa, despite the fact that the state did not have a full-fledged dealership until now.
– Indo Asian News Service
