The turn of the century showered India with an array of achievements and most importantly with the rise in the nation’s economy. As the bubble grew, millions would have hardly imagined of the lengths the Indian economy leaped and jumped to.

As a matter of fact, the mantra for most Indians seemed to be ‘Have money, will buy Mercedes and mobile phone.’ And despite a current global economic downturn, sales of luxury cars are definitely proving an amazingly high consumer demand.
This is evident in the demand for luxury cars with a price tag of more than 20 Lakh Rupees, which has stayed strong despite a slump in the overall car sales.
Car sales in India fell for the third time in four months in October 2008, as high borrowing costs and tighter credit suppressed demand, with firms including top vehicle maker Tata Motors Ltd shutting plants to avoid a build-up in the inventory.
To bear ample testimony to India’s growing demand for luxury cars, Mercedes-Benz reported the achievement of its full-year target in 2008 with sales of 3,141 units in October itself. In 2009 Mercedes saw a 47 per cent increase so far. In addition, BMW's sales have gone up by double this year.
In contrast, Maruti Suzuki Ltd, whose small, fuel-efficient cars are often the choice of first-time buyers, saw a decline of sales by 8% in October 2008. This perhaps has been fuelled by the luxury car buyer's conviction that his purchase is greater, which eventually makes the willingness to buy also greater.
One reason behind the surge in luxury car sales in the growing economy is the ever growing income of the country’s citizens, which is close to double or even triple than what it use to be a decade ago. And the concrete proof to the statement was presented by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini when they stated that India had 123,000 millionaires in 2007.
A leading market analyst group JD Power Associates, has estimated that India's luxury car market is likely to edge past Thailand and may even overtake Singapore's sales of about 10,000 units a year.
Even though the gap between the number of people buying luxury cars and the number of potential buyers is still quite vast, the former has undoubtedly multiplied enormously to unimaginable numbers.
An interesting note one may make is that car buyers the world over may opt for greener options out of concern for the environment, but the Indian populace look like they would much rather have their neighbours turn green with envy.

A latest global study by research firm Synovate revealed that India tops the list of countries where dream cars are more popular than green cars. The report, found 47% Indians voting for luxury vehicles, with just 30% choosing environment friendly cars.

“India is going through an evolving phase where we haven’t seen a whole lot of luxury cars till very recently. People here are ambitious and continue to be aspirational. That makes India a very different market from Europe, which is going in for smaller and greener vehicles,” said Sumit Arora, associate director at Synovate.

Also helping the luxury car market in India is the fact that unlike in the west, which is in the midst of a deep recession, the country’s economy continues to grow.

Part of India’s fascination for luxury cars is the fact that these brands have only recently entered the market.

Researches and studies have certainly thrown in light on the increase of luxury car sales in India, but at the end of the day the phenomenal trend has held up primarily because the ‘aam janta’ is finally able to live their dreams of a good life.