Re: July 2016 : Indian Car Sales Figures & Analysis This month instead of the usual praising or criticizing brands for their performances, let me be a bit more pragmatic and say that everything is where its supposed to be.. there are many brands and limited sales (which itself is too high for a tiny country like ours), hence there has to be a first place and a last place.
As always, a brand which provides the best service and ownership experience will succeed in India and keeping on track with that Suzuki and Hyundai are at the top. Let me look into a few models instead of brands and analyse why they are & what they should be :
1) Skoda Rapid : Many tempting offers and discounts and this one hasn't come close to its competition.. not even by a mile. Good proof that they screwed up when it came to customer satisfaction during service and that has become a shadow for them casting darkness all the way. As a product this indeed is better than a "Ciaz" or "City". 2) Nissan Micra : An average car for this age as its been carried over for far too long. Build quality is nothing to write about and with its dated interiors it can never be successful as a mainstream buyer choice, that's a big reason why OLA is buying plenty of it.
3) Fiat Punto : Its always a bad time to be a Fiat fan, because it'll hurt that competent, above average products are ignored for lesser ones. However if Fiat truly cared they'd not stick to decade long product cycles. Completely new models are the urgent need of the hour else they're just destroying the faith of their loyalists and also ruining the earning potential of dealerships which are shutting down left right and centre. 4) Hyundai i20 : Demand has shown time and again that Elite i20 is ruling the charts of the premium hatchback segment, however if they want to retain the sales they need to lower prices of the petrol 1.2 at the very least, before the automatic is introduced. I think this model is overpriced by Rs.30-40k and that's including the current price hike. I don't think a 1.2 petrol engine in a car with a low feature count (as far as Hyundai goes) needs to be this expensive. 5) Hyundai Creta : In my first test-drive at launch itself, I'd said that it drives well, it has a supple yet pliant suspension and is ideal for city conditions not to mention its sophisticated styling which is a true deal-maker. It's not a fun car but its no-nonsense and tough enough to survive the country roads all day long. Its engines are the pièce-de-résistance and such free-revving engines having torque in all bands are a rare find today. Its stance ensures good grip and ride quality in all conditions, not the least bit shaky at all. I for one think its not overpriced, specially when the City is about 13.5L/14.5L(auto) on road and sub-4m cars almost touching 10L mark with diesel. 6) Ford Aspire/Figo : They did everything wrong with these 2, starting with the pre-launch teasers 6 months before release, and then not advertising it 2 days prior to release. I have to be transparent here, their petrol engines aren't quite the best, both the manual 1.2 and auto 1.5. The suspension didn't feel like that of a 9 lakh rupee car and the dual-clutch gearbox is a disaster of the ages. I know this by personal driving experience as I had briefly considered Aspire automatic during the time of launch. The steering was precise but very poorly weighted at low speeds. People of India understand quality now, be it space, interiors or drivability and Ford nailed none of it with these 2. Result as expected.
7) Fiat Linea : Again a good sedan bogged down by terrible engines and a shaky service experience. Its one of the longest cars externally yet perceptions are that its not nearly as spacious as cars a few inches shorter than it. Time for a model change now, if not yesterday. 8) Renault Kwid : They are making the money out of the love shown by the buyers for their new entry level car Kwid, unfortunately they've not shown the same love to the public by compromising the car severely. Of course I'm not sure if its any worse than an Alto, or even perhaps better than the Alto but the fact that they had to revise the car build 2 times since launch and also because they've built a South-American variant over 130 kilos heavier, shows that they've resorted to cutting corners but do not wish to be caught admitting it hence the patchwork. Nearly 10k units, but I don't see that they respect this market enough.
There is no good performance or bad performance this month, things are pretty much consistent as always. Proactive companies change to suit the country dynamics and improve sales whereas those that don't will fill the bottom lines of the sales charts as always.
Last edited by dark.knight : 9th August 2016 at 00:27.
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