Price protection may be ineffective, especially among India’s price-conscious car consumers. With multiple booking cancellations, the Kia Carens could become a victim of this.
Kia’s Carens MPV has recently had a slew of cancellations. The explanation for this is straightforward. Customers are required to pay the whole sum at the time of delivery, as per Kia’s policy. However, with a significant price increase between the time of booking and the time of delivery, consumers are dissatisfied.
Many consumers who had reserved the Carens have resorted to social media to express their dissatisfaction with Kia’s price increase. The gist of these posts is that they booked the Carens in consideration of their finances. People obviously plan their vehicles based on the amount of money they have available. However, after 50,000 reservations, Kia raised the price of the Carens. This is a common practise among carmakers, in which promotional rates are raised after a specific number of bookings have been made. The issue, however, is that consumers who booked their automobiles at introductory prices must likewise pay at the time of delivery according to the more recent costs.
As one can expect, this is a major issue. Some of these people were correct to complain, claiming that it wasn’t their fault that the vehicle delivery took so long. They had made a reservation for the Carens from the start, and the price protection policy had to be in place. One individual put it into perspective by recognising that a Rs 66,000 price increase on a Rs 13 lakh automobile is excessive. Many additional social media users have also reported abandoning their reservations due to price increases of above Rs 1 lakh for many versions. There is a 5-10% increase due to no fault of the individual. Naturally, people are going to raise their voices against this and as a result, many people have already cancelled their bookings.
People have expressed their opinions, and Kia has been reminded that Indians are responsible for making Kia the fastest carmaker to surpass 3 lakh sales in India. They could potentially halt the process by cancelling the reservations. We hope Kia corrects this policy flaw so that the situation does not grow too unfair to potential customers.
