Dealers of leading car manufacturers, including Maruti Udyog [Get Quote], Hyundai, Ford, Fiat and Tata Motors [Get Quote], are tying up with used-car owners to liquidate old stocks of car models that have been phased out or replaced by upgraded models.

The popular models in the market include the Hyundai Sonata (replaced by the Embera in August 2005), the Maruti Baleno (replaced by the SX4 in December 2006) and the Hyundai Accent Viva (production of which has stopped), among others (see table).

Prices of premium models like the Honda Accord and the Toyota Corolla were also expected to fall once the company launched upgrades, people in the know said.

"I have been contacted by car company dealers across the country to help dispose of their line of stock generated ever since car manufacturers phased out the older models.

The dealers are ready to offer huge discounts for the vehicles," confirmed Aarif Fazulbhoy, director, Fazulbhoy Motors, one of the largest car dealers in the city.

Due to restrictions imposed by car makers, dealers cannot advertise on their own for either discount offers or freebies on phased-out models that are hard to sell. The dealers then have no option but to sell these models through used-car outlets.

'Old' models get new discount:

Car names	Replaced by	Dealer price (Rs lakh	Discounted price (Rs lakh)	Discount in % (approx)
Hyundai Sonata	Embera	15	11-12	27
Ford Ikon 1.6	Prodn halted	6.3	5	23
Maruti Baleno	SX4	8	5.5	31
Maruti Vitara	New Model	14	10-11	29
Opel Corsa Sail [Get Quote]	Phased out	5	3.5	30
Hyundai Elantra	New model due	11	9	18
Mitsubishi Lancer*	Cedia	8.5-9	5-6	41
Fiat Palio	Palio Stile	4.5-5	2.8-3	38
Hyundai Viva	Phased out	6.75-7	4.5-5	33
Tata Indica	Indica Xeta	4-4.3	3	30
*Although the company still makes the old Lancer, the Lancer Cedia has dented sales of the older model

 "Offers start to come in from all over the country as soon as a car maker launches an upgraded version of a model," said another reputed used car dealer. Such used car dealers generally get offers from cities like Delhi, Lucknow, Bangalore, Pune, Ahmedabad, and states like Rajasthan and Haryana.

Generally, the commission charged by a used-car dealer varies between 10 and 15 per cent of the total cost of the car.