Point out what you feel is the biggest Blunder made by a manufacturer in last 10 yrs.

[maxbhp]

Dear Fellow Bhpians,

India has been witnessing tremendous amount of growth especially in the automotive sector from 1995 onwards . Many manufacturers have launched many of their products from 1995 till date . Few of them couldnt survive it . Manufacturers have gone right and wrong at judging the market pulse and market needs . Can you point out what you feel is the biggest blunder made by a manufacturer in India ?

• It may be a product launch ,
• It may be a late launch ,
• It may be a wrong JV ,
• It may be late/early product launch
• It may be anything .......... as long as you feel its the reason.

Waiting for your views .

Thanking You,

MaxBhp.

[revharder]

nice thread.

First,
exit of Peugeot from Indian market.
they had the tremendous potential to rock the indian market, but sadly, it didn't worked out.

Second,
sad demise of Daewoo! Cielo was such a fantastic car!

Third,
MUL's then flagship model BALENO, was never ever accepted by masses. though a brilliantly made car, it never got that appeal to attract masses.

Fourth,
FIAT. period!

Fifth,
Honda stopped making OHC VTECs :(

[maxbhp]

CAn you zoom onto one and detail on it covering each aspect of the problem ?

[sidharth_j]

Okay..here goes:-

1. Late Launch :-

The Peugeot 309. Fantastic car; but Indians were wise to the fact that it was a discontinued model in Europe, and elsewhere.

2. Wrong JV :-

The one between Fiat and Premier Automobiles Ltd (PAL). Only fiat trusted PAL while PAL's reputation was in mud following years of swindling Indian customers. Therefore; a car that should have really succeeded here... the Fialt UNO sank without a trace

3. Wrong Product @ Wrong Price

The BMW funduro f650 bike. What a bike!..but god! what a price they launched it at!..5.30 Lakhs!! It signed its own death warrant and BMW ended up with egg on its face.

4. again..Wrong Product

One of the greatest bikes of the 70s/80s..the RD350. What a machine!..alas..it was sacrificed at the altar of mileage

[speedsatya]

Sipani did a big blunder by not providing the right *** for the Rover Montego as a result of which it is not sold anymore inspite of having such a superb engine that would give FE as well as performance ...

the ford escort with a underpowered engine that had a top speed of less than 120 kph ...it was only later that the escort got the zetec engine ...


and the other honours goes to PAL ...for messing up on the Peugot and the Uno...

[maxbhp]

Originally Posted by sidharth_j

Okay..here goes:-

1. Late Launch :-

The Peugeot 309. Fantastic car; but Indians were wise to the fact that it was a discontinued model in Europe, and elsewhere.

2. Wrong JV :-

The one between Fiat and Premier Automobiles Ltd (PAL). Only fiat trusted PAL while PAL's reputation was in mud following years of swindling Indian customers. Therefore; a car that should have really succeeded here... the Fialt UNO sank without a trace

3. Wrong Product @ Wrong Price

The BMW funduro f650 bike. What a bike!..but god! what a price they launched it at!..5.30 Lakhs!! It signed its own death warrant and BMW ended up with egg on its face.

4. again..Wrong Product

One of the greatest bikes of the 70s/80s..the RD350. What a machine!..alas..it was sacrificed at the altar of mileage

Late Launch : What about Tavera ?
Wrong Product : What about Standard (Rover) 2000.

[revharder]

Originally Posted by maxbhp

CAn you zoom onto one and detail on it covering each aspect of the problem ?

well, nothing much left to say for these helping-aliens entering into our country coz everyone knows about them!
same goes for Baleno too!

so what else you want me to zoom onto? and why?
(just wishes, you tells me the reason for asking for such an extremely detailed explanation!)

i guess we all discussed it a lot many times!

[karthik247]

The Daewoo Cielo and the Nexia were the first such premium cars to hit India. Only if the company hadn't run into losses, these cars would have still been in production today. Especially the Nexia which is a really great car, and performance figures are better than the Lancer/Baleno/Ikon and very much on the same page as the OHC (Nexia is about 96bhp). Another issue with those cars was the all important 'mileage'.

The Matiz was like the best small car/hatch when it was around. And those insane mileage figs of like arnd 18-20 plus kmpl.

Not that Daewoo is such a great company, but remember they make some really good cars which include todays Optra, with a different badge..

[GTO]

IMHO, the biggest blunders have been by the biggest player : Maruti. From the market position they have enjoyed in the mid-nineties, modern diesel engines and a newer generation product range could have done wonders to where they stand today.

They are strong today. But could have been much more dominating.

GTO

[sumitkalindi]

1. Hinduatan Motors. They continued too long with AMBY. While they should have upgraded at regular interval. Same goes with Lancer. Not enogh VFM.

2. Peugot. Shrinked there hands at the first instance of heat. They had to ride it out, maybe the next model with a good after sales would have worked.

3. Fiat. with their gem of a After sales they were doomed.

4. GM. Right product late timing. No one can beat them in this department. About the rebadging?? Hmmm I can live with any badge if the car does it duty, it is supposed to do.

5. Yamaha. We buy yamaha for its performance dude not FE. A standing ovation guys, this is a company that managed to kill its reputation, which every company tries to achive.

[sumitkalindi]

Originally Posted by GTO

IMHO, the biggest blunders have been by the biggest player : Maruti. From the market position they have enjoyed in the mid-nineties, modern diesel engines and a newer generation product range could have done wonders to where they stand today.

They are strong today. But could have been much more dominating.

GTO

I agree, but then again look at the circumstances. Even in recent past we all were made to understand that the price difference between Petrol and Diesel would go away. So we can not say they made a blunder.

They make fine petrol engines, about diesel??? I would wait for atleast a year after a original suzuki diesel is launched, before I decide anything about it.

[revharder]

some more such blunders:

MITSUBISHI.
they too has got fantastic line-up, which is good for our conditions, but they never bothered to give us anything nice except Lancer and Pajero!

MARUTI VERSA,
this Van has got nice space and performance. but then again due to negligible faults, it never ever picked up on sales.
heard that maruti even sold 3-5 versas in some package deal kind of scheme! and that costed versa at much lesser than half of its price, don't know what is the truth actually!

[sidharth_j]

Originally Posted by maxbhp

Late Launch : What about Tavera ?
Wrong Product : What about Standard (Rover) 2000.

Okay Max....2 good points.

The Tavera....hmmmmmm....debatable, cos it is selling decent number of units monthly. It could have been brought in while the qualis ruled the roost. but wasn't...any one here know why?

The Standard 2000 failed cos of the problems with the Standard Motor company and the Indian Govt. Also; it was overpriced...i think it sold for 2-3 lakhs at a time the M800 sold for Rs.70,000

[rangaraj]

Undoubtably the combination of PAL and HM. Between them, they had India's market and they took it for granted. Continued to flog obsolete cars and in the day and age of people travelling and communication, people figured out that the old communistic model of we know what the people should have did not work. If they had remorphed themselves and had the right tie-ups, investment into R&D, the right restructuring of manufacturing, distribution, marketing and support, they could very well have not given any scope for other manufacturers to come into the country.. They had in their plate and lost it. They did not see the inflection point coming. I guess they should have followed the HP model of obsolete your product first before your competition does it for you.

[Boom Shiva]

The reigning champ of big blunders IMO is Mitsubishi.

1. They aligned themselves with HM.

2. They originally started out so well with the Lancer and have almost died out since then. In the process they have killed their Mitubishi and Lancer brand names, which are so well respected worldwide.

3. Despite having the cars and the technology to take the market by storm, they are wallowing with outdated offerings. Cedia is alright, but I feel it's too little to turn things around. When everyone's offering Vtec, VVTi and VTVT, where the hell is MIVEC?

4. They could have launched a 12-15 lakh rupee SUV ages ago and given the CRV some competition. Instead, Honda's run away with the ball.

5. Oh yeah, they aligned themselves with HM.