New Corolla to hit Indian roads in August 2008

[swathyd]

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

Civic is still the better looking of the two.... if Honda too decides to take the diesel route ( I am sure they wouldn't like to be left behind toyota) then we can expect the fabulous 2.2 in civic which will be a killer blow.

I think corolla is goodlooking than ciic. Civic doesnt have character and looks while corolla is more imposing and conservative.

[subbarp]

Heard from nandi toyota that the Corolla replacement is about 18 months away.

[vasudeva]

Even though I have bought a Corolla in Mar 07, knowing well that a new generation has arrived, from my research, I knew that new Corolla would not hit India in 2007, and perhaps only in mid-2008. The fact is that Corolla's sales have declined in India for 2 reasons:
Innova launch in 2005 and Civic's launch in July 2006. From Toyota's point of view, as long as Corolla's loss is Innova's gain, they are not unduly worried. With Innova, Toyota is now selling close to 5000 vehicles per month on average, which is close to Honda's overall figures. Will post the exact numbers tomorrow from office.

In fact if you look at monthly sales, both Innova and Civic have expanded the market. But unlike Civic (which is taking away sales from Toyota), Innvova's gain/Corolla's loss may not be a major issue for Toyota. Corolla's first started losing monthly sales when Innova was launched, with many people preferring the Innova. From my own viewpoint, Innova with an automatic would have been irresistible.

Regarding Corolla's worldwide launch, expect it to be slow. Toyota's chairman has said in their annual report that Corolla involves many platforms for many markets, and so it would be slow but sure with stress on getting quality right because of Toyota's philosphy.

In the US, inspite of Civic's launch, Corolla still sells more than Civic, and in fact, its growth in 2006 was higher than Civic's growth. In Japan, Toyota has a 43% share. In Europe, Toyota has a much higher share.

The bottomline is that old Corolla has in fact gained worldwide inspite of new Civic. In India, Corolla has lost around 3000 units annually, but Innova has gained more. Thus overall Toyota has gained. This fact and Toyota's historic rep for being slow but sure makes me think that new Corolla may take some time: in the US by end-2007, and in India by mid/late 2008.

[Ram_NP]

Launch around middle of 2008 seems to be very late. As such Corolla has been loosing ground very fast. Toyota seems to have a similar approach to their B segment car, where no sure dates and the model have been indicated by the company.

[rahul_intlad]

As already indicated on another thread Toyota India has been able to generate some interest back into the corolla even if it meant eroding the luxury car status of the corolla to a certain extent.However there is no doubt toyota india was worried about the corolla sales figures since it reflected badly on the company more than the corolla brand.

Toyota knew they could never beat the honda civic with their old platform but the advertising blitz,the corolla executive variant were all attempts so that there was some respectability in terms of market share.If these had not worked definitely there were back up plans,however they would not have included the new platform in these back-up plans.

Since things have got better for the corolla it does not call for any desperate measures and toyota may stick with their earlier planned time-table of replacing the existing corolla.

For sales figure of march refer:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/405238-post121.html (Indian Car Sales Figures and Analysis)

[BUSA]

By the time the Corolla hits our shore, Honda would be ready with a MMC for the Civic.

[rahul_intlad]

BUt honda will not have a diesel engine,thats were toyota would be at an advantage and can definitely say the new corolla will come with a diesel engine as well.

[BUSA]

Dont be so sure, Honda is planing to launch the 2.2 CTDi on the Civic in the near future.

[vid6639]

Nope don't expect a diesel on any honda car soon. They have already mentioned that the fuel quality in india is not good for their engines.

Honda only has diesel engines in Europe not in any asian countries, where it actually sources it's parts.

Now I'm confused about the corolla whether they will bring the Axio or the other corolla.

[lancer_rit]

Vasudeva,
as far as Corolla and Civic go in the US market, the Civic beat the Corolla in each of the last 5 years as far as I know (in other words, the older Civic had also trumped the current Corolla Altis in India when it was newly launched). See below figures for 2006. Please also realise a significant chunk of Corolla sales is to fleet sales of car rental companies whereas in my limited experience, I did not find a Civic at Avis or Enterprise.

Wrt car sales, in Mar'07, Autocar says Innova and City sales both top 5000 (Innova being slightly higher) ...
Regards,

2006 Top 10
[FONT=arial][SIZE=2] 1. Ford F-Series [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=arial][SIZE=2] 796,039 [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=arial][SIZE=2] 2. Chevrolet Silverado [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=arial][SIZE=2] 636,069 [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=arial][SIZE=2] 3. Toyota Camry [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=arial][SIZE=2] 448,445 [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=arial][SIZE=2] 4. Dodge Ram [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=arial][SIZE=2] 364,177 [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=arial][SIZE=2] 5. Honda Accord [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=arial][SIZE=2] 354,441 [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=arial][SIZE=2] 6. Honda Civic [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=arial][SIZE=2] 316,638 [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=arial][SIZE=2] 7. Chevrolet Impala [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=arial][SIZE=2] 289,868 [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=arial][SIZE=2] 8. Toyota Corolla [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=arial][SIZE=2] 272,327 [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=arial][SIZE=2] 9. Nissan Altima [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=arial][SIZE=2] 232,457 [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=arial][SIZE=2] 10. Chevrolet Cobalt [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=arial][SIZE=2] 211,449[/SIZE][/FONT]

[MaserQ]

By the time the new Corolla makes it to our shores, the Civic would have had its first face lift...

[theMAG]

Originally Posted by vid6639

Now I'm confused about the corolla whether they will bring the Axio or the other corolla.

If Toyota has indeed learnt their Indian lesson - and the hard way I might add, I would bet on the all-new Corolla successor being considered for their Indian replenishment

[sajo]

Even I agree. By the time the new-corolla comes here, we would have the facelifted New Honda Civic (NHCiv) here. Which would, ofcourse, be even a greater hit that the current one.

[HSV]

Hope the facelifted Civic has leather interiors and a sun-roof. It'd be complete then!

[vasudeva]

[quote=lancer_rit;425151]Vasudeva,
as far as Corolla and Civic go in the US market, the Civic beat the Corolla in each of the last 5 years as far as I know (in other words, the older Civic had also trumped the current Corolla Altis in India when it was newly launched). See below figures for 2006. Please also realise a significant chunk of Corolla sales is to fleet sales of car rental companies whereas in my limited experience, I did not find a Civic at Avis or Enterprise.

Wrt car sales, in Mar'07, Autocar says Innova and City sales both top 5000 (Innova being slightly higher) ...
Regards,

The link you have posted is for top 10 cars not top selling cars. The top selling car in US is Camry. The assertion was made on figures from Ward's Automotive, and Automotive News (our company subscribes to both+ConsumerReports which by the way gives higher sales, FE, and muchhigher reliability than Civic (JD Power also gives higher 3-year dependabilty and quality rank to Corolla which might be the reason that Civic may not be seen at Avis/Enterprise!) and based on that I had made the assertion that Corolla sells more. Perhaps you might have a different source of info, which you might like to share.

Wna to know how much Innova sells in India. In Apr05-Mar 06, Corolla sold 9988 and Innova sold 32260. In April 06-Mar07, Corolla sold 8866, and Innova sold 36688.

Here are quarterly avges for 4 cars-City, Civic, Corolla, and Innova for last 4 quarts: Apr-Jun06, Jul-Sep06, Oct-Dec06, and Jan-Mar07: (this is total sold in quarter)

City: 10563,10014,8950,10937
Civic: 0, 6285, 4533,5443
Corolla: 1747,1592,1520,1924
Innova: 10712,10678,10299,11870

These are SIAM figures. Two more things: do not compare growth for Mar and sep months for any model because cars sell the max in those months. Cars sell the least in Dec, Apr, Feb (figure it out). For example, City sold 2156 in feb 07 but 5164 in Mar07; innova sold 2365 in feb07, but 5433 in mar07; civic sold 1122 and 2545; corolla sold 207,1083. Second, get some accurate figures to back your statements; and third, car sales are expected to slowdown in next few months because of interest rates. Car sales were growing by around 18-20% till dec06, but have slowed down in 2007.