[witwiky]

The shipment figures of Ciaz (25,000) in last 6 months are just half of the claimed retail sales of 50,000 by MUL. Thats about 25K customers waiting for their deliveries. Interesting.

[rockporiom]

The ciaz has been thrown off the top 20 list quiet surprising. Even though its not a comparison to the city in the petrol but the diesel is quiet a good engine in terms of NVH levels and power delivery.

Also, the 4 speed AT though antique is also quiet good in terms of outright power delivery and fuel efficiency in the city when compared to the city CVT(rubber band effect)

The ciaz is also well priced comes loaded with features. Only if Maruti could improve the fit and finish they could see considerable improvement in the numbers. Also, the sales staff needs to be trained better.

The showrooms(mostly the older ones) are in horrible condition, poorly maintained some feeling like old government offices.

Ciaz for the first time has cash discount this month which is not a good sign considering its chief competitor the city has no discount even 1.5-2 years after launch.

Maruti please open your eyes, the ciaz is a good product please pay attention to it.

[deathucider]

Originally Posted by vivekz

Recently I have seen a lot of Dzires in Uber and Ola in Mumbai. Assuming that given the lack of service network by competition, Dzire would be the primary choice as a taxi vehicle in smaller cities.

I remember reading somewhere or hearing it from someone (Can't remember the exact source) that Uber is giving a special loan(read as lower interest rate) to their drivers who buy the Dzire. I suppose this is a BIG addition considering the expansion Uber is undergoing in India.

[rsidd]

Kevin Flynn, Fiat India's MD, seems to have a clue.

In India, car companies measure wholesale as sales. It is not. It is only a sale when the customer has taken delivery. When I came to India, our dealers had far too much stock. You cannot just keep filling dealers with cars. We stopped wholesaling vehicles. We are helping dealers to clear stocks and reach a point where the speed of turnover from delivery to a customer is quicker, consumes less money and is more viable. We have been guilty of expanding our network ahead of commercial viability. You end up with a dealership at every corner, without a car in it.

And this is indeed a persistent misconception about these "sales figures": these are not sales and the thread should probably be relabelled to clear this up. I suspect this is one reason for the drop in Fiat numbers in 2015 (which are slowly picking up again). Certainly I have only noticed Evos and Avventuras regularly on the road since May or so, while there are lots of old-model Puntos with recent registrations. Massive stock-clearance must have been going on at the dealer end. And through all this Fiat India has stayed profitable, since 2011 or so (thanks partly to exports and engine sales to Maruti).

There is more interesting stuff in the interview, and Flynn doesn't sugarcoat the problems. Worth a read.

[PrasannaDhana]

It is not the Ciaz alone that is a hit. The king of C segment is also hit by 3000 units. Where are the proud Germans? The capable Italian and the great handling American? Even the fully capable Korean doesn't match up to the top two. Ciaz IS a success for Maruti that neither Baleno nor SX4 enjoyed. You just need to wait more before you can write off a capable car. People do that with the zest, ciaz and now the aspire. Even now in the used car market, there is reverence for all past flop sedans from MSIL. Their products were never the reason for failure, their lack of marketing skills and sane pricing was!

For heavens sake, these cars (except aspire) aren't even 1 year old in the market.

[balajisv]

Has Tata entered the Top 20 list after a long long time? Indica+Vista combine sales of 3118 gain entry to Top 20 list.

Bolt sales (or lack of it) is understandable. Zest continues to fall. I wonder why? Zest will complete an year after its launch in August 2014. The ride has been pretty rough so far. I guess the face lift version should bring in more customers.

Next Gen Nano AMT should be doing decent numbers. 2K copies is not that bad of a performance by Nano!

With Hexa and Kite upcoming, hopefully Tata will reach 15-18K copies monthly and overtake Toyota, Mahindra and Honda to capture third position!

[volkman10]

Great thread but seeing it now as was engrossed in the new launches (an anti climax though)

1. Commendable for Maruti to have 6 out of the top ten. Most cars have improved on its MOM sales figures. Celerio is hovering over the 7K mark due to its frugal Diesel engine!
Ciaz is having a drop as Maruti customers were not sure of S Cross. Now Ciaz numbers will improve in August for sure. S Cross with its pricing will hover in the 2500 band. Holds on to its 50% Market share.

2. Hyundai: Great show by the 'Perfect' SUV Creta, a car largely for the masses. All cars except for Santa Fe has a drop in sales on MOM.

3. Honda: Again dop in City sales due to the SUV/CUV releases. Cross shopping between Jazz seems to have its effect on City, Mobilio and Amaze ? Jazz figures would ultimately stabilize behind Polo in the 2k range.

4. Mahindra loses the 3rd spot and need to catch up with the release of Scorpio AT and maybe XUV AT too( 2016 ?). TUV's etc if priced rightly could generate the needed volumes.

5. Nissan-Renault -Datsun: The idea of reviving the Datsun brand seem a bad strategy . GO and GO+ combined sells a mere 1377 cars.
Renault's Duster hits a all time low, but could improve as revealed by the pricing of S Cross.
Nissan should have a good marketing strategy and bring in new models different from Renault.

6. Toyota: Etios brings in decent numbers due to the taxi segment. Another company that needs new products - flawed marketing strategy

7. Fiat: I guess no much faith in this brand, a few here and there launches cannot sustain a brand. Fiat's top boss needs to consolidate with Suzuki and is the right time since arbitration of VW-Suzuki seems done.

8. VW: Good to see Polo numbers are holding consistently.Overall good but need new products in the CUV/SUV space as volume drivers.
VW's Compact sedan is the only interesting forthcoming car all the rest is pushed to 2017/18.

9: Tata: Needs to restart in a different brand? The much capable Zest and the overpriced Bolt can be considered duds now. What next?

[arvi86]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

14 units of the Fiesta. I hope this is because they are prioritizing production of the Aspire.

Don't hope so. The Fiesta is made in Ford's Chennai plant while the Aspire rolls out of the spanking new Sanand facility. It's sad but a great-looking, superb-driving, well-priced car sells only that much in India.

Originally Posted by balajisv

Has Tata entered the Top 20 list after a long long time? Indica+Vista combine sales of 3118 gain entry to Top 20 list.

At one point of time, the Indica was a constant fixture in the Top 5 along with three Marutis and a Hyundai. They've had a free fall, haven't they?

Originally Posted by balajisv

With Hexa and Kite upcoming, hopefully Tata will reach 15-18K copies monthly and overtake Toyota, Mahindra and Honda to capture third position!

I'll be happy if that happens but, given the response a genuinely good product like Zest has managed, I would keep my hopes very low. Tata needs to keep churning out good products one after the other (The Zest followed by Nano AMT is a good start) and hope the public perception improves. With the Hexa, there is a good chance Tata might turn greedy as Renault, Hyundai and Maruti-Suzuki have all priced their SUVs/Crossovers at a premium. The Kite should do well though.

[vinair]

Originally Posted by arvi86

It's sad but a great-looking, superb-driving, well-priced car sells only that much in India

It does indeed talk about the heard mentality of us Indians when it comes to purchasing a commodity. It's sad to see a not so good looking, average performing car making it to the top in terms of sales.

[arvi86]

Originally Posted by vinair

It does indeed talk about the heard mentality of us Indians when it comes to purchasing a commodity. It's sad to see a not so good looking, average performing car making it to the top in terms of sales.

Dzire is a good car no doubt but I honestly feel the Xcent in petrol and the Amaze and Zest in diesel are better choices. A relative of mine was in the market recently with a budget of around INR 8 Lakhs. No amount of convincing from my side was enough to make him look out of Maruti stable. He has been a highly-satisfied Maruti 800 customer for more than a decade and half and he bought the Dzire eyes closed. No test drives, no competitors checked out, nothing! Think of it, there are thousands and thousands of Indians like him. I'm not surprised the Dzire is the king of the sales charts.

[nkghai]

Originally Posted by Lij

And talking of Creta they are number 1 in C2 segment in the launch month itself with 6783 units, whereas S-Cross is lagging at 1510 units and with the pricing out seeems S-Cross wil remain a laggard.
Duster too bites the dust this month due to the S-Cross and Creta.
With a waiting period of around 8 months as someone said in the Creta thread, looks like it could de-throne City in C2 segment, although one is (projected as) an SUV and the other is a sedan.

I think it is too early to read into these numbers of this segment.
Creta I feel has the first mover advantage over S Cross, and the pricing of Cross will not help much either.
I am quite sure that sustaining a figure of 4000 per month for Cross will be a very uphill task. With 1510 S-Cross shipped to 35 dealer with a little bit of up/down, each dealer should have 30 to 70 vehicles depending on location and booking pattern. Now how fast they fly off the shelf and in what configuration will be interesting to see. I am sure Maruti will be not in a hurry to order more 1.6 engines as they already have 3000 in kitty and with this pricing it will take a lot of time to reduce the inventory.
Duster is a proven product and with an interior face lift, it has the ability to really bounce back with good numbers so Renault has its work cut out.
Terrano is the only one with no face lift whatsoever since its launch. Nissan, i fail to understand has a better looking and better feel product still manages to reduce it to also-ran kind.
Coming back to Creta , coupling this months figures with last months, 8000 Creta should be with dealers and if they ship over 5000 every month, the waiting period should not be as quoted by dealers. Maybe for specific model , but majority waiting period should reduce to 1/1.5 months.
So interesting times ahead in this segment

[Contrapunto]

Originally Posted by arvi86

Don't hope so. The Fiesta is made in Ford's Chennai plant while the Aspire rolls out of the spanking new Sanand facility. It's sad but a great-looking, superb-driving, well-priced car sells only that much in India.

Probably OT for this thread, but with this kind of trend, are we surprised that manufacturers resort to "under-the-skin" cost-cutting / compromises and compensate with chrome ? And see it succeed !!

[bulletboy76]

Dzire continues to dominate the market, absolutely no doubt in that, and full credit goes to MSIL; however I am curious to know how many of those numbers are coming from Commercial (read 'Taxi use') sales vs personal use vehicles.

It is painful to see Zest selling less that 1500 a month, but as far as I know, Zest is not sold for 'Taxi use'. I.e. all the sales are coming from individual buyers.

[volkman10]

Originally Posted by bulletboy76

however I am curious to know how many of those numbers are coming from Commercial (read 'Taxi use') sales vs personal use vehicles.

Dzire Tour ( taxi segment) sells 3370 in July.

[rajeshsundaram]

Originally Posted by balajisv

Bolt sales (or lack of it) is understandable. Zest continues to fall. I wonder why? Zest will complete an year after its launch in August 2014. The ride has been pretty rough so far. I guess the face lift version should bring in more customers.

+1

Until Tata launches a completely new design, any evolution of the Vista & Manza (Bolt & Zest) is bound to fail. Aam janta instantly recognize Bold and Zest as Vista and Manza. Blame the egg-shell design which was retained to cut costs.