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Abstract:
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Globalization and liberalization, with the entry of many prominent foreign manufacturers,
changed the automobile scenario in India, since early 1990’s. World Leaders in automobile
manufacturing such as Ford, General Motors, Honda, Toyota, Suzuki, Hyundai, Renault,
Mitsubishi, Benz, BMW, Volkswagen and Nissan set up their manufacturing units in India in
joint venture with their Indian counterpart companies, by making use of the Foreign Direct
Investment policy of the Government of India, These manufacturers started capturing the
hearts of Indian car customers with their choice of technological and innovative product
features, with quality and reliability. With the multiplicity of choices available to the Indian
passenger car buyers, it drastically changed the way the car purchase scenario in India and
particularly in the State of Kerala. This transformed the automobile scene from a sellers’
market to buyers’ market. Car customers started developing their own personal preferences
and purchasing patterns, which were hitherto unknown in the Indian automobile segment.
The main purpose of this paper is to develop a model with major variables, which influence
the consumer purchase behaviour of passenger car owners in the State of Kerala.
Though there are innumerable studies conducted in other countries, there are very few thesis
and research work conducted to study the consumer behaviour of the passenger car industry
in India and specifically in the State of Kerala. The results of the research contribute to the
practical knowledge base of the automobile industry, specifically to the passenger car
segment. It has also a great contributory value addition to the manufacturers and dealers for
customizing their marketing plans in the State |