Mercedes-Benz today launched its new Pre-Owned car brand, ‘Mercedes- Benz Certified’ in India. The launch of the new brand was celebrated by the simultaneous inauguration of 12 new ‘Mercedes-Benz Certified’ outlets across India.
The new brand will provide the pre-owned car customers an experience equivalent to a new car purchase, tailor-made financing options, warranty and service packages.
‘Mercedes-Benz Certified’ will directly connect with the customers ensuring their easy access to the pre-owned cars. The new warranty offerings, a new website, iPad sales software, specially trained staff of over 100 consultants, will ensure a differentiated product buying experience for the customer. All the sales consultants in these outlets would be using ipad equipped with our own isales app.
Mercedes-Benz witnessed 39% growth in 2014 YTD in the pre-owned cars segment.
Simultaneously launched today, the 12 new ‘Mercedes-Benz Certified’ outlets are: Shaman Wheels, Auto Hangar (Mumbai), Sundaram Motors, Akshaya Motors (Bangalore), B.U. Bhandari (Pune), Panjab Motors (Mohali), T&T Motors (West Delhi), T&T Motors (Mathura Road), Joshi Autozone (Chandigarh), Rajasree Motors (Cochin), Transcar (Chennai), Adishwar Motors (Hyderabad). Of these Shaman Wheels, Auto Hangar and Sundaram Motors are stand-alone outlets while the other outlets are shop- in-shops, where an exclusive showroom and display within the existing facility for ‘Mercedes-Benz Certified’.
The cars enlisted under ‘Mercedes-Benz Certified’ will be selected based on quality checks by trained Mercedes-Benz staff. Every car will need to pass the following parameters: the age of the Mercedes-Benz car will need to be less than 5 years, should have run less than 100,000 kilometers, have no accident history and does not have more than 2 owners. The car will then be available for sale to customers under a manufacturer backed warranty of one year or 20,000 kms. Non Mercedes-Benz cars will be sold without warranty. Finance options from Daimler Financial Services will also be available.
‘Mercedes-Benz Certified’ is being launched with a pool of more than 150 pre-owned Mercedes-Benz cars, which will be available at dealerships across India. Beginning with the metros which are currently the bigger markets, ‘Mercedes-Benz Certified’ will spread to tier II and tier III markets. Currently ‘Mercedes-Benz Certified’ has 150+ sales bays in its network and it will be extended to over 250+ bays by the end of 2015.
‘Mercedes-Benz Certified’ will also provide an opportunity for customers to trade-in their non Mercedes-Benz car for a Mercedes-Benz.