By Shilpa Damija and Raksha Hegde, CNBC-TV18

It seems Mercedes and BMW are taking the road less traveled. The luxury car brands are speeding into new markets like Kolhapur, Nagpur and Pune and setting up new milestones.

Utkarsh Munot, an executive director at ZF Steering gear in Pune, has waited long to drive a BMW on his home turf. Even though the luxury car brand entered the Indian markets in 2006. Munot chose to wait for a showroom to open in the city, to purchase his choice of a luxury car.

Utkarsh Munot, ED, ZF Steering Gear said, "Had I bought a BMW earlier, there would be no service stations available. If there was a scratch on the car, I would have to send my car to Mumbai to get rid of the scratch and it is not worth sending the car till there as it would work out to be very expensive"

To meet the demands of potential customers like Munot, luxury car brands are hitting the Indian market with aggressive dealership. For example,Audi opened 4 new showrooms in the last four months in Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Pune and Chandigarh.

Kapil Pashankar, MD, Audi Pune Dealership said  "Pune is not our only market, we also  cater to agricultural cities like Nagpur, Nashik and Kolhapur. With developing cities around Pune and Pune itself expanding day by day, there is a lot potential."

With a figure of 3300 luxury cars sold in 2006, the sales soared up by 38 percent in 2007 This number is expected to see a hundred percent growth in 2008, despite the economic slow down.

Some of the luxury car brands in the Indian market have set high targets this year. Mercedes which is hoping to sell 3000 units by the end of this year has already sold almost 2000 cars and Audi has sold 43 units in Pune alone.

As of now, these three brands, together, have already accomplished 33% percent of their total target, in the first financial quarter.