In November 2014, Audi launched its A3 Sedan in Pakistan. On the launch of the luxury sedan in a country which desperately needs smaller, more affordable cars many people believed that Audi Pakistan, like the other German automakers in the country, launched yet another luxury car for the top 2% of the country. However, when Audi revealed the prices and specifications of the car, we knew Audi Pakistan is on to something.
An Audi for as low as 3.8 million rupees sounds too good to be true, especially when CLA Class from Mercedes-Benz (an international direct competitor to Audi A3) costs a north of 7.0 million rupees, that too for a used one. With the A3Sedan, Audi is exploring the untapped market of young executives who want to upgrade from their Honda Civics and Toyota Corollas, but are not yet ready to spend more than 1.5 million rupees on top of the price of their existing sedans.
For the extra 1.5 million rupees from the Civics and Corollas, the A3 not only offers more options, but also an unmatched driving pleasure that the locally manufactured cars cannot compete with.
The move from Audi is a clear sign that it is very serious about capturing and leading the unexplored segment of young executives with the newest addition to its luxury car lineup. Overall, it is a very strategic move in the sense that no other automaker has tried to capture this market before. There exists a gap, which Audi is determined to bridge.
However, there are drawbacks of that strategy as well. These German beauties are notorious for their poor resale value. Also, the young executives that Audi is targeting with its A3 tend to get bored very quickly. The chances of these executives keeping a car for more than 2-years seem like a farfetched idea. And when some of them eventually decide to sell their cars to replace them with something better, they would not be offered a decent price for their slightly used vehicles. The market for pre-owned German vehicles in Pakistan is not very good. These cars lose as much as 30% of their value in 2-years’ time. Where the owners of Grande would make a couple of hundred thousand over their used cars, the lone seller of Audi A3 would lose at least 1.0 – 1.2 million rupees on the car, and I am not even exaggerating.
There is no doubt Audi is offering an overall great value for the price, but the drawback of being a German automaker in Pakistan trumps whatever Audi is offering by a huge margin.
Nevertheless, the move is commendable and only time will tell if Audi can retain the leadership position in this affordable-luxury segment or move back to selling high-end luxury vehicles.
Author Bio:
Fahad has been an active member of PakWheels.com from the start. He is a content marketer and sub-editor at the PakWheels Blog. He loves cars, technology, travel and Namkeen Rosh.
Audi drive is great but its maintenance is so expensive
Reviews like this are really useful. Was very happy to read a review on the marketing strategy of a high-end luxury brand like Audi on a local platform. Well done! Fahad Ullah would love to see a similar assessment on my all-time favourite car brand: BMW…
Thank you so much. BMW is going to launch the new 3 Series in November and I will try to do something similar when more details are released.
Fast? You could have at least reviewed the 1.8T model. Even then, the new A3 isn't going to be anything special until they release a 2.0T Quattro model.
This is another aged posting which has been "recycled" but having looked at some BMW interiors lately, the more modest ones do have a surprisingly "low rent" air. In this respect the Audi has some advantages.
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