Gauging what more damage the falling rupee will have on the economy is impossible but for the car industry it is another car price hike that is in waiting. Soon, Toyota Etios, Etios Liva and Chevrolet Beat could witness a slight price rise similar to others. Japanese car maker Toyota and American car brand GM could be the first to go for car price hike followed by Maruti India and Hyundai. All the car makers say that they cannot bear the bulging import bill amount and thus had to pass the burden on to the car buyers. Auto industry experts believe that if things do not get right and as petrol car sales are already down, and if there is further car price hike, the overall growth of the industry will be hampered greatly this fiscal.

Notably, this would be the third major car price rise this year. The first was in January when car prices rose by up to 3 percent and the major blow came in immediately after the Union Budget when there was an unprecedented increase of upto 5 percent and consequently car prices rose by as high Rs 5 lakh for some luxury cars in India. The already slowing car sales got further jolt when petrol price was increased by up to Rs 7.50 per litre recently. If not complete brakes, there is a major slow down in the petrol car sales in India and even the biggies in sales such as Maruti Alto witness slowing demand as per recent trends.

Now that dark clouds of car price hike hover the car industry, car buyers seem to defer their car buying plans to Diwali as then there will be some offers from the car makers. Meanwhile, car makers have shifted to damage control mode and are currently offering cash discounts on petrol cars such as Maruti Alto, Tata cars and Hyundai Eon as well as on other cars so that petrol car sales could be boosted for the time being.