Hi,
TATA sells vehicles because they are cheap and they have wide service network. But do they actually make quality product??? I sincerely doubt it. Take example of Indica. It has gone through various changes has improved a lot over the years but still is it a quality product? No I do not think so. Only diesel Indica sells in numbers where there is no competition but the petrol version constitutes a small percentage of total Indica sales.
They will certainly sell this new car but on the sole reason of price. And it is not because of TATA brand either. I bet if Bajaj/TVS or even Kinetic launches a similar product in the market, it would sell like hot cake. Lets accept it that Indian market is very sensitive to price; quality etc. takes back-seat. The picture of 1 Lakh car shows a good effort went into the design but even if they had shaped it liked ACE then also it would sell in numbers.
It is a pity that government of India has not set any sensible mandatory safety norms. Mahindra Scorpio had not underwent any crash testing when it is a substantially bigger and faster vehicle (at least this is what the scene was nearly a year ago; don't know if they have actually carried out any crash testing yet)! I suspect if there is any government defined mandatory rating system that a car company must abide to. In my opinion the government should make collapsible steering and ABS mandatory on all vehicles. Even if it pushes the price up a couple of thousands; people who want to buy a car will certainly buy ... even at a slight premium which would ensure increased safety. I own a Santro and till recently was aware that new Santro Xing has ABS as on option. But now Hyundai too has dropped ABS as an option with Santro. It is a real pity seeing credible manufacturers making such a move.
Now here is the interesting point ... Maruti has not stopped production of 800 model. Wonder why? Because when the TATA 1 Lakh car would be launched, immediately within a day or maybe the same day of TATA's launch, Maruti would launch a stripped down version of 800 at a price which would be a little more than TATA's car. I am damn sure about this. Such a move from Maruti would certainly influence prospective buyers. And with M800 being such a proven vehicle, it would make a strong case for itself. I bet as with all TATA vehicles, the 1 Lakh vehicle will take more than a year to iron out engineering glitches.
Finally my say is that TATA 1 Lakh car will sell but it will share market with M800 in that segment. One segment of Automotive industry would certainly be very vey happy with TATAs launch ... spurious/fake parts manufacturers and auto-workshops
