The Three Pointed Star launches a new Pre-Owned car brand in India: ‘Mercedes-Benz Certified’ Celebrates the launch with the inauguration of a record 12 new pre-owned outlets in a single day

Mumbai: 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. ‘Mercedes-Benz Certified’ will provide customers a new destination for taking home a Mercedes-Benz car. The new brand will provide the pre-owned car customers an experience equivalent to a new car purchase, offering class leading facilities, infrastructure, tailor-made financing options, exciting warranty and service packages.

Eberhard Kern, Managing Director and CEO, Mercedes-Benz India, commented on the occasion, “We are delighted at launching this new brand which is designed specifically for the Indian market. There has been an increased demand for the pre-owned Mercedes-Benz products due to their superior build quality, tested reliability, and impeccable craftsmanship, leading to their high re-sale value. Mercedes-Benz enjoys a strong equity in the market and with ‘Mercedes-Benz Certified’ we will cater to this growing demand and delight the customers with excellence, which is synonymous with the Three Pointed Star. This has been a successful year for us and we are happy to end it on a high with this launch.”

‘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; which is an interactive, innovative and intelligent tool to ensure a pleasant and unique sales experience to the customers in all the showrooms across India. Also the new certification procedures along with the technical equipment for more accurate evaluation of vehicles and data management software will ensure complete peace of mind for the customers.

“We have launched 12 new ‘Mercedes-Benz Certified’ outlets today. This makes us the luxury manufacturer with the densest network, in the pre-owned segment as well. With ‘Mercedes-Benz Certified’ we aim to further organize the pre-owned car market and offer our customers an experience, similar to the new car customers. There is immense potential in this segment and it will be a key to future growth of the auto industry. Mercedes-Benz witnessed 39% growth in 2014 YTD in the pre-owned cars segment. With attractive trade-in and financing options and complete peace of mind on offer from ‘Mercedes-Benz Certified’, we anticipate this segment to grow further driving the sales of new cars as well.” Mr. Kern further added.

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 provides the best customer experience with ‘Mercedes-Benz Certified’. These shop-in-shop outlets will also be upgraded into standalone facilities for ‘Mercedes-Benz Certified’ when required, based on the business volumes.

The cars enlisted under ‘Mercedes-Benz Certified’ will be selected based on quality checks by trained Mercedes-Benz staff and follow stringent global standards. 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.

Every pre-owned car customer has different expectations and different needs. ‘Mercedes-Benz Certified’ offers fascinating product to the customer which fulfills all of their needs, including finance options from Daimler Financial Services, at very attractive rates and with hassle free paperwork.

‘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 which are emerging 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. We have also introduced the ‘Mercedes-Benz Certified’ website. The website is interactive and provides a host of benefits to the customers: it helps in searching for vehicles of their choice, helps in calculating finances, allows trade in facilities and caters to the online enquiries. It also provides customers the opportunity to give their feedback so that the requisite steps can be taken.

‘Mercedes-Benz Certified’ will also provide an opportunity for customers to trade-in their non Mercedes-Benz car for a Mercedes-Benz, from the brand’s fantastic range of sedans, SUVs and AMGs. The customer will also be assured of the right price for their pre-owned car through transparent evaluation and complete peace of mind with hassle free documentation.

With ‘Mercedes-Benz Certified’, pre-owned luxury car customers will have the opportunity of accessing the best services facility which is synonymous with the Three Pointed Star. With warranty and unique service packages the customers will not only have a competitive total cost of ownership but a complete peace of mind.