Premier Rio registers over 2000 bookings

Premier Automobiles Limited, the company that faded into oblivion after the good old Padmini and 118NE went out of production, was back with the Premier Rio last year and they have so far registered 2000 bookings. This is impressive considering Premier’s tiny dealer network (34 dealers in 34 cities) and the Rio which is actually a rebadged Zoyte assembled at Premier’s factory. The Zoyte is itself a 1997 Daihatsu Terios for which they bought the manufacturing rights and tooling.

The Rio is imported as CKD into India and Premier fits their 1.5L Peugeot TU D5 diesel engine and sells them in the Indian market. The Rio is priced at Rs 5.25-5.95 lakhs Ex-Showroom, which is a bit overpriced considering its potential but nevertheless, a 2000 strong booking by customers does show its appeal. When a senior official was contacted, this is what he had to say – We will begin the vehicle’s delivery shortly. The company is also planning to start dealerships in North India soon, starting with Delhi. He also added, “We are starting dealers in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerela, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Goa in a month’s time. We are now also looking at cities in North India as we have been getting very positive response from them through this expo, and Delhi would be the first city to get one.” He concluded by saying that the company had kept a fixed amount of Rs. 5,000 for booking of Rio in all the dealerships across India.

The Rio comes with a 65bhp Peugeot diesel engine downsized to under 1500cc to meet the small car norms. Premier claims a fuel efficiency of 16km/l for the Rio. Zoyte sells close to 100,000 of this vehicle each year. The Rio is available in a choice of 5 colours – red, white, silver, black and blue and features list include power steering, front power windows, central locking and CD/MP3 player. Moreover, the base model does not get AC. Top end model gets ABS, airbags and alloy wheels as well. It is available in 3 variants – Ex, Dx and Lx priced at Rs 5.25, 5.50 and 5.95 lakhs respectively.

The Company currently has 34 dealers and is expanding to 100 in the next 6 months thereby creating an all India network. Premier is beefing up its sales and service support and will be offering a 3 year warranty for the Rio.

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