Impact of rising petrol prices on private car owners in Pune city (An empirical study based on demographic and psychographic traits)

In the contemporary phase of competition there is growing inquisitiveness to learn more and more about consumer behaviors. At the same time, with the inflationary pressures setting in, understanding consumer behavior is becoming bit complex. This paper makes an attempt to highlight one of the social issues existing due to inflationary pressures that is the impact of fuel price hike on vehicle owners. To quote, today be consumers are more mobile than they were earlier. The reasons for commuting are many. With more and more disposable income, consumers are tilting in favor of private vehicles. In India private vehicle owners are used to petrol as a primary fuel. With petrol prices moving northward there seems to be lot of anxiety and anger among the private vehicle owners. Considering the fact, an attempt is made here to understand the impact of rising petrol prices on different demographic segments (Gender, age, occupation etc) of vehicle owners. Relevant analysis has been done to find out association between findings and different psychographic and demographic traits. The research puts forward that the impact of fuel price hike is clearly evident and the vehicle owners confirm in different degrees about changes in their life style, adoption of coping strategy to mitigate the impact of inflationary pressure.