This rise needn't get you down...

OK, so we all expected the price-ups. It's now the turn of the Santro Xing (XE) and the Accent to cost more (again?). Each of them will now be dearer by Rs. 8000. But experts insist that this is something that neither the car-makers or the customer need worry about. Thanks to some borrower-friendly finance schemes and the inevitable freebies that continue to get thrown in, the hiked up prices are not likely to affect either the automaker's volumes or the customer's EMI. Manufacturers also insist that the rise in prices are due mainly to the addition of new features: what may have once been an add-on is now being included as a standard part of that car.