If wishes were horses, Delhi would Bond with best
6 Dec 2012 12:56 AM GMT
Thirty-five-year-old Deepak Singh had just parked his BMW at the GK I M-Block market, and was reluctantly preparing to follow his wife on one of her shopping sprees last Saturday when the evening was transformed for him.
Parked next to his vehicle was a brand new black Aston Martin sports car. ‘I am not sure what model it was, but it was black and sleek and so much like the car in the latest James Bond movie Skyfall. It was obviously brand new, because the car didn’t even have a license plate and only carried an ‘applied for’ plate,’ he says.
Shopping forgotten, Deepak hung around the area, waiting for the mean machine to come to life. ‘It belonged to two very young guys. They must have been in their twenties. When they started the car everyone gawked. The boys enjoyed the attention of course, for they drove around the market twice before zooming off,’ Deepak recalls, adding, ‘till that point I was very happy with the BMW that I bought only a few months back. But the Aston Martin paled my car to insignificance.
Officials at the Capital’s only Aston Martin outlet agree the Bond film has increased awareness and interest in the high-end car. The only other outlet in the country is in Mumbai. ‘We can’t share figures, but the numbers of enquiries have definitely gone up after the release of Skyfall. There is interest especially now in the older vintage models like the DB5 that is shown in the film and we have been receiving lots of sales enquiries for the new modes as well,’ confirms Saurabh Dewan, manager marketing, Aston Martin, New Delhi.
At present the showroom has two models of the car – a DB9 and Virage. Priced upward of Rs 1.8 crores, an Aston Martin on the roads can probably have competition only from a Rolls Royce. ‘We have been in India for two years now and growth has been steady and as per budgeted expectation.
The customer profile is high net worth businessmen and industrialists. But there is no age divide when it comes to passion for car. There are people in their mid-forties who have bought an Aston Martin and there are people in the age group of 25-30 who have purchased a car from us,’ explains Dewan.
The only hitch that the brand has experienced in their two-year run in the country is that of the economic downturn. ‘Business has been as per budgeted expectation, but due to the high import costs and depreciating rupee, the cars have now become more expensive which has slowed growth,’ he says. Now, Bond change that for good!
Parked next to his vehicle was a brand new black Aston Martin sports car. ‘I am not sure what model it was, but it was black and sleek and so much like the car in the latest James Bond movie Skyfall. It was obviously brand new, because the car didn’t even have a license plate and only carried an ‘applied for’ plate,’ he says.
Shopping forgotten, Deepak hung around the area, waiting for the mean machine to come to life. ‘It belonged to two very young guys. They must have been in their twenties. When they started the car everyone gawked. The boys enjoyed the attention of course, for they drove around the market twice before zooming off,’ Deepak recalls, adding, ‘till that point I was very happy with the BMW that I bought only a few months back. But the Aston Martin paled my car to insignificance.
Officials at the Capital’s only Aston Martin outlet agree the Bond film has increased awareness and interest in the high-end car. The only other outlet in the country is in Mumbai. ‘We can’t share figures, but the numbers of enquiries have definitely gone up after the release of Skyfall. There is interest especially now in the older vintage models like the DB5 that is shown in the film and we have been receiving lots of sales enquiries for the new modes as well,’ confirms Saurabh Dewan, manager marketing, Aston Martin, New Delhi.
At present the showroom has two models of the car – a DB9 and Virage. Priced upward of Rs 1.8 crores, an Aston Martin on the roads can probably have competition only from a Rolls Royce. ‘We have been in India for two years now and growth has been steady and as per budgeted expectation.
The customer profile is high net worth businessmen and industrialists. But there is no age divide when it comes to passion for car. There are people in their mid-forties who have bought an Aston Martin and there are people in the age group of 25-30 who have purchased a car from us,’ explains Dewan.
The only hitch that the brand has experienced in their two-year run in the country is that of the economic downturn. ‘Business has been as per budgeted expectation, but due to the high import costs and depreciating rupee, the cars have now become more expensive which has slowed growth,’ he says. Now, Bond change that for good!
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