         !" ! " ! © Copyright by the authors - Licensee IPA- Under Creative Commons license 3.0 Research Article ISSN 2229 – 3795      83 Volume 3 Issue 1, 2012 Dominant partial least square factors of consumer purchase behaviour of passenger cars Balakrishnan Menon 1 , Jagathy Raj V.P 2 1- Research Scholar, Department of Management, Karpagam University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu – 641 021, India and Professor, DC School of Management and Technology, Idukki, Kerala – 685 503, India 2- Professor, School of Management Studies, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Cochin, Kerala – 682 022, India bkmenon@dcschool.net ABSTRACT Globalization and liberalization, with the entry of many prominent foreign manufacturers, changed the automobile scenario in India, since early 1990’s. World Leaders in automobile manufacturing such as Ford, General Motors, Honda, Toyota, Suzuki, Hyundai, Renault, Mitsubishi, Benz, BMW, Volkswagen and Nissan set up their manufacturing units in India in joint venture with their Indian counterpart companies, by making use of the Foreign Direct Investment policy of the Government of India, These manufacturers started capturing the hearts of Indian car customers with their choice of technological and innovative product features, with quality and reliability. With the multiplicity of choices available to the Indian passenger car buyers, it drastically changed the way the car purchase scenario in India and particularly in the State of Kerala. This transformed the automobile scene from a sellers’ market to buyers’ market. Car customers started developing their own personal preferences and purchasing patterns, which were hitherto unknown in the Indian automobile segment. The main purpose of this paper is to develop a model with major variables, which influence the consumer purchase behaviour of passenger car owners in the State of Kerala. Though there are innumerable studies conducted in other countries, there are very few thesis and research work conducted to study the consumer behaviour of the passenger car industry in India and specifically in the State of Kerala. The results of the research contribute to the practical knowledge base of the automobile industry, specifically to the passenger car segment. It has also a great contributory value addition to the manufacturers and dealers for customizing their marketing plans in the State. Keywords: Consumer behaviour, passenger cars, security features, external influence, comfort factors. 1. Introduction Though till early eighties, consumers had very limited options for passenger cars, the Automobile Industry has been in the booming phase for the past 15 years, on the strength of the Indian Government’s liberalized economy policy and freedom from the License Raj. The Government of India allowed Foreign Direct Investment in Automobile Industry and encouraged Foreign Joint Ventures with Indian Automobile manufacturing industry since early 1990, with a view to make available a wider choice for customers. This was intended to