Planning to buy a two-wheeler? The next two days before the weekend may be the best time to do so. As BS 3 vehicles will be banned from 1st April after Supreme Court order. Two-wheeler dealers stuck with BS3 stock have been offering discounts ranging from 10-15% since mid-March but those are expected to go up sharply in the next two days as dealers and companies rush to liquidate BS3 stock.

Although most companies remained tight-lipped about their BS3 stock strategy, dealers and officials spoke about ‘customer benefits’ going up to 20-25% particularly on slow moving models. “In the commuter segment alone the discounts for the past two weeks have been in the range of Rs 4,000-5,000 in some models, brands and geographies,” said a senior official with a two-wheeler financing firm.

“The discounts will be higher in higher priced models but even mopeds are fetching around Rs 1,000-2,000 discount in some geographies.”

Sources say in some higher-priced models in the Rs 1 lakh and above range, discounts are in the range of Rs 15,000-20,000. For example the Honda CBR250R and CBR150R are fetching cash discount of Rs 15,000 in some dealerships and geographies while the rest of the range, including scooters, get Rs 7,500 off in those sectors.

But many two-wheeler dealers, anticipating a crush-like scenario towards the month-end, had kicked off promotional activities by the middle of the month. “What helped is that this is Navratra and with Gudi Pawa also thrown in, it is traditionally a high-sales month,” said a two-wheeler marketer. Even market leader Hero Motocorp, which had declared close to 3,00,000 unsold stock as on March 20 (comprising 40% of the total two-wheeler unsold inventory of 6.71 lakh) had managed to liquidate nearly 2,00,000 units in the last nine days, say sources. “The last few days of March are high-retail days and sales can be as high as even 30,000 units a day,” said a dealer source.