By Park Jin-hai
Mercedes-Benz Financial Services has been offering zero-interest car loans to buyers since last month.
Nine out of the 11 Mercedes official dealers, with the exception of Star Motor and Han Sung Motor, have joined Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, providing zero-interest car loans for small and mid-sized cars to woo younger customers.
The massive no-interest car loan promotion is the first since Mercedes-Benz did something similar in 2012.
The models affected are A-Class, CLA-Class and GLA-Class cars.
When the car is paid off in 24-month installment plans, customers must pay 30 percent of the car’s price in a lump sum and then pay the rest interest-free over the remaining months. In the case of a 36-month installment plan, the initial payment must be 40 percent of the total car price.
Dealers say they will decide whether to continue the sales policy after reviewing sales reports and customer reactions accepted until the end of this month.
When other imported luxury car makers, including BMW and Volkswagen, have competitively offered zero-interest loans to expand the market, Mercedes has shunned the practice. Due to this, some say that Mercedes has a superior attitude when it comes to sales.
The industry believes its change of attitude came as the German luxury carmaker tries to make its cars more attractive to younger buyers who have emerged as main customer base for the imported car industry.
“As the competition in the compact segment has heated up here, it seems that Mercedes dealers seem to have adopted the sales policy,” said an industry insider.
According to the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributers Association, among the customers of imported vehicles in the first half of this year, people in their 20s and 30s accounted for 44.7 percent.
The unprecedented promotion is helping Mercedes sales.
Mercedes in June came in third after BMW and Volkswagen in sales, but it has recovered the best-selling imported car title in July, the month it started the sales promotion.