Which city in India has maximum number of Mercedes cars?

Whereas income tax sleuths have been claiming that the industrial town has well over 2,400 Merc owners, the highest in the country, the company says that the figure is overstated by almost six times.

''There are about 450 Mercs in Ludhiana. That the town has 2,400 such vehicles is absolutely wrong,'' asserts Mr Manjit Singh Bala, Managing Director, Tai-Pan Traders, dealer for the German car.

According to Mr Bala, it is Delhi that tops the sales charts, followed by Mumbai and then, Punjab. ''There are roughly some 1,500 Mercs in Punjab,'' he says, adding, ''in this state, yes, it is Ludhiana that tops the list and it is followed by Jalandhar, where the number is 150''.

In terms of average annual sales, while Delhi records nearly 400 Mercs, the number ranges between 150 and 200 in the case of Punjab.

Aiming to track high networth individuals by keeping an eye on high-value transactions, the Income Tax officials in this region even conducted some surveys in the showrooms of Mercedes and other high-value products.

IT officials suspect that among the Merc owners, only around half had declared their income to be above Rs 10 lakh. It was claimed that income levels in this part of the country were rising, one of the key proofs being high sale of Mercedes cars. However, asserting that the claim is false, Mr Bala says: ''We record the highest sale in Delhi as that is where you have the maximum number of high networth individuals ranging from industrialists to corporates and officials of embassies etc''.

About Punjab, Mr Bala says the company is happy with the growing culture of car buyers upgrading to Mercedes and not any other car and having more than one Merc in a family. ''It is all happening due to the rising income levels and also easy finance schemes. Besides, the price of a luxury car introduced by other companies touches the starting price range of Mercedes. Since it is a status symbol to have a car with the three-pointed star, people opt for it in comparison to some other high end car".

Not only is Ludhiana nowhere near the highest number, even in terms of the purchasing pattern, it is C-class Mercedes that is more popular in the city unlike other places where E-class rules the roost.

First answer by Praveen.madhusudhan. Last edit by Praveen.madhusudhan. Contributor trust: 0 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 1 [recommend question].