Indian Car Sales Figures and Analysis

RX135 · 9th February 2009, 14:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by phamilyman

Amazing. A Fiat car is the segment leader - unbelievable had someone said something similar a couple of years back.

Kudos to Fiat for managing it well
/lovely ad

Actually Fiat car leading its segment (Linea in this case) is quite misleading. For all practical purposes, Linea belongs to a segment below where Honda is selling 3 times as much as Linea.

Nevertheless, it's a good show by Fiat. They need to sustain it for at least first 6 months.

vasudeva · 9th February 2009, 14:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by RX135

Actually Fiat car leading its segment (Linea in this case) is quite misleading. For all practical purposes, Linea belongs to a segment below where Honda is selling 3 times as much as Linea.

Nevertheless, it's a good show by Fiat. They need to sustain it for at least first 6 months.

With all due respects, in size terms, Fiat competes with Civic and Corolla. By your measure, Fabia should compete with Optra, City, SX4, Fiesta, etc.???

vnabhi · 9th February 2009, 15:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by vasudeva

With all due respects, in size terms, Fiat competes with Civic and Corolla. By your measure, Fabia should compete with Optra, City, SX4, Fiesta, etc.???

Vasudeva, you are correct in size terms. But classification by size terms does not seem to be proper when viewed segment-vise. In all fairness, a Linea should be compared with the ANHC, Fiesta, Verna, Aveo and SX4

vasudeva · 9th February 2009, 15:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Vasudeva, you are correct in size terms. But classification by size terms does not seem to be proper when viewed segment-vise. In all fairness, a Linea should be compared with the ANHC, Fiesta, Verna, Aveo and SX4

By this measure, ANHC (+8 lakhs) should not be competing against Aveo (6 lakhs), Fiesta (petrol at 6), Verna and lower versions of SX4. Totally confusing for the manufacturer to find out what it is competing against.

vinaydas · 9th February 2009, 15:43

finally fiat can see some good numbers

SkyWalker · 9th February 2009, 20:14

FIAT should bring in the 1.6 MJD VGT 120 bhp (hopefully not detuned), and then this car can even get buyers from the upper segment. I doubt if anything happens on that anytime soon, considering the current market scenario.

GTO · 9th February 2009, 22:52

Some observations:

• Some respite for the 800. Rising consumer confidence in the terribly price sensitive market? SBI getting liberal with loans?

• Palio & Fabia : Agreed with Vasudeva. Dud & dead. Best for their respective manufacturers to stop production and relegate these models to history.

• Bad days for GM. The Aveo as well as the Optra are officially sales disasters now.

• Maruti, Hyundai & Tata are pretty much around the same Y-O-Y plane as they were at this stage last year. This, despite the fresh launches of the past year.

• Only the hatch segment has managed to come within a hairs breadth of its Jan 2008 performance. Absolute bloodbath in the C segment, with everyone registering massive declines. The only gainers? Yup, Maruti & Tata. The former thanks to the Dzire.

• New Honda City is off to a fantastic start at 4,500 cars. Lets see how long it maintains the momentum. However, it is one of the safest buys in the segment (annoying cost-cutting measures notwithstanding).

• Good show by the Fiat Linea as well. Fiat India must have had their sales registers ringing so loud after a looooooooong time. I hope the Linea is able to keep a reasonable amount of momentum going. If the market looks beyond the Fiat brand, there is an honest diesel sedan right there.

• Skoda in bad shape. The Laura & Octavia combined manage only 294 cars! The humble Accord outsold both of these cars combined, irrespective of price & no diesel option. Guess the market catches up with you when your corporate structure lacks ethics.

• Surprisingly, the heart-appealing Civic outsells the Mr. Practical Altis! Whats up here?

• Sonata getting "transformed" with its best ever performance in a year? Well, still at a lacklustre 62 cars though.

• BMW slam dunks against Mercedes. The 3 series resurges! And overtakes the Mercedes C-Class in a 2:1 match. The 5 series outsells the E Class 6:1. And the 7 alongwith the S are at a paltry 5 cars each. Woefully down on the S Class peak of 101 cars a month. I-bankers & corporate CEOs left without their annual bonuses perhaps. Or maybe its just not politically correct to arrive at your office in a flashy new luxo-barge right now....even if you have the moolah!

srishiva · 9th February 2009, 23:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by vasudeva

By this measure, ANHC (+8 lakhs) should not be competing against Aveo (6 lakhs), Fiesta (petrol at 6), Verna and lower versions of SX4. Totally confusing for the manufacturer to find out what it is competing against.

So it is the exterior dimensions that made them move a segment higher? That should be some news to Fiat. I hope Fiat knows where they are placed and who their competitors are.

vasudeva · 10th February 2009, 09:46

Also see that finally French dumpers are finally getting their just desserts. Remember Peugeot.

Second if price was the criterion, then Linea should be competing with Swift diesel, i20, etc. I wonder why people are so keen to not see that Linea has got some early success, and that importantly, more competition inevitably is good for both the makers and consumers. However, knowing Fiat, there could be a sense of history repeating itself with the same story that could play out in the future. Hope Fiat realises and grabs this early success with all the money it's got and reduces the fear of potential buyers.

As predicted, the base effect for GM is now in full force.

See column BF, rows 85 to 99. Only BMW and Maruti have posted yoy increases. Tata is also creditable with only a 5% yoy decline. For volume players, the biggest declines for Toyota, Honda, Ford, GM, M&M, Hyundai. In fact, Maruti's share has improved from around low 40s in earl-mid-2008 to 49-50% now.

All of the money spent by Skoda in winning itself year-end awards has resulted in sales declining by 160 units over 12/08 and 953 units over 1/09. If only that money had been spent on keeping the customers happy and his wallet safe.

rrsteer · 10th February 2009, 11:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by TeddyBear

Tata motors back on track.

Indica Sales 11,433 nos up from 6,749 nos for Dec 08

Source: Tata Motors - Media Centre

The old Indica alone did more than 11,433 in January 08.
Either the old Indica sales has suffered with the launch of Vista or the new Vista is doing poorly. There goes all the talk of Vista usurping Swift's position.

sridharps · 11th February 2009, 08:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by vasudeva

Second if price was the criterion, then Linea should be competing with Swift diesel, i20, etc.

Vasudeva, agreed that segmentation in India is a bit hazy. Since Linea is a sedan, it should be compared with other sedans in that price range - also agree this range is very broad and hence some talk about a C and C+.

Commonsensically though, a buyer in the market for a Linea would be looking at SX4,ANHC,Fiesta etc as the alternatives and hence it makes sense to bracket Linea along with these.

d3adlythegame · 11th February 2009, 09:32

How come theres no Audi/VW? on these stats?

palioman · 11th February 2009, 10:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by devarshi84

I read about the same kind of news during palio's launch.

Let them continue the trend 3 months onwards.

Exactly !
I witnessed the hype and hoopla when the Palio was newly launched and felt mighty pleased with it being in the news and winning car of the year and all that stuff, because I bought one of the very first Palios in September 2001.( Car was fine and it still was when I decided to reluctantly sell a year back). But then it all went turkey from there on and nobody could salvage Fiat. I will give it six months to a year to check on their A.S.S. and then I will commit..or Honda/Toyota here I come.

palioman · 11th February 2009, 10:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by phamilyman

Amazing. A Fiat car is the segment leader - unbelievable had someone said something similar a couple of years back.

Kudos to Fiat for managing it well
/lovely ad

Yes that ad is beautiful, doesn't it touch a chord in all of us.
As against the tacky Honda City ad and those silly Maruti ads.
Fiat endears...come on Fiat, make yourselves a force to be reckoned with.

vasudeva · 11th February 2009, 12:30

Going through the production and sales figure for 1/2009 indicates that for some vehicles, sales were a lot more than production indicating sale of 2008 stock. These include: (first figure prodn, 2nd figure sales)

800: 3367,5571
Aveo: 99, 184
City: 3912, 4902
Dzire/sx4: 6092,6590
Indigo: 393,3973 !!!
Optra: 6, 53 !!!
accord: 5, 248!!!

On the other hand, there were some cars where production in 1/09 exceeded sales. These include:

Accent/verna: 2843, 1687
Octavia: 575, 294
Spark/UVA: 3354, 2959
E Class: 62,28
S-Class 66, 5!!!!

UV and MPV is more or less balanced.

9th February 2009, 15:43	#1475
vinaydas BANNED Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Bengaluru Posts: 1,399 Thanked: 148 Times	finally fiat can see some good numbers
	() Thanks

9th February 2009, 20:14	#1476
SkyWalker Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Bangalore Posts: 1,528 Thanked: 136 Times	FIAT should bring in the 1.6 MJD VGT 120 bhp (hopefully not detuned), and then this car can even get buyers from the upper segment. I doubt if anything happens on that anytime soon, considering the current market scenario.
	() Thanks

9th February 2009, 22:52	#1477
GTO Team-BHP Support Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Bombay Posts: 71,897 Thanked: 323,279 Times View My Garage	Some observations: • Some respite for the 800. Rising consumer confidence in the terribly price sensitive market? SBI getting liberal with loans? • Palio & Fabia : Agreed with Vasudeva. Dud & dead. Best for their respective manufacturers to stop production and relegate these models to history. • Bad days for GM. The Aveo as well as the Optra are officially sales disasters now. • Maruti, Hyundai & Tata are pretty much around the same Y-O-Y plane as they were at this stage last year. This, despite the fresh launches of the past year. • Only the hatch segment has managed to come within a hairs breadth of its Jan 2008 performance. Absolute bloodbath in the C segment, with everyone registering massive declines. The only gainers? Yup, Maruti & Tata. The former thanks to the Dzire. • New Honda City is off to a fantastic start at 4,500 cars. Lets see how long it maintains the momentum. However, it is one of the safest buys in the segment (annoying cost-cutting measures notwithstanding). • Good show by the Fiat Linea as well. Fiat India must have had their sales registers ringing so loud after a looooooooong time. I hope the Linea is able to keep a reasonable amount of momentum going. If the market looks beyond the Fiat brand, there is an honest diesel sedan right there. • Skoda in bad shape. The Laura & Octavia combined manage only 294 cars! The humble Accord outsold both of these cars combined, irrespective of price & no diesel option. Guess the market catches up with you when your corporate structure lacks ethics. • Surprisingly, the heart-appealing Civic outsells the Mr. Practical Altis! Whats up here? • Sonata getting "transformed" with its best ever performance in a year? Well, still at a lacklustre 62 cars though. • BMW slam dunks against Mercedes. The 3 series resurges! And overtakes the Mercedes C-Class in a 2:1 match. The 5 series outsells the E Class 6:1. And the 7 alongwith the S are at a paltry 5 cars each. Woefully down on the S Class peak of 101 cars a month. I-bankers & corporate CEOs left without their annual bonuses perhaps. Or maybe its just not politically correct to arrive at your office in a flashy new luxo-barge right now....even if you have the moolah!
	() Thanks

10th February 2009, 09:46	#1479
vasudeva Senior - BHPian Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Delhi Posts: 2,221 Thanked: 212 Times	Also see that finally French dumpers are finally getting their just desserts. Remember Peugeot. Second if price was the criterion, then Linea should be competing with Swift diesel, i20, etc. I wonder why people are so keen to not see that Linea has got some early success, and that importantly, more competition inevitably is good for both the makers and consumers. However, knowing Fiat, there could be a sense of history repeating itself with the same story that could play out in the future. Hope Fiat realises and grabs this early success with all the money it's got and reduces the fear of potential buyers. As predicted, the base effect for GM is now in full force. See column BF, rows 85 to 99. Only BMW and Maruti have posted yoy increases. Tata is also creditable with only a 5% yoy decline. For volume players, the biggest declines for Toyota, Honda, Ford, GM, M&M, Hyundai. In fact, Maruti's share has improved from around low 40s in earl-mid-2008 to 49-50% now. All of the money spent by Skoda in winning itself year-end awards has resulted in sales declining by 160 units over 12/08 and 953 units over 1/09. If only that money had been spent on keeping the customers happy and his wallet safe. Last edited by Technocrat : 10th February 2009 at 12:39.
	() Thanks

11th February 2009, 09:32	#1482
d3adlythegame BHPian Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: new delhi Posts: 89 Thanked: Once	How come theres no Audi/VW? on these stats?
	() Thanks

11th February 2009, 12:30	#1485
vasudeva Senior - BHPian Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Delhi Posts: 2,221 Thanked: 212 Times	Going through the production and sales figure for 1/2009 indicates that for some vehicles, sales were a lot more than production indicating sale of 2008 stock. These include: (first figure prodn, 2nd figure sales) 800: 3367,5571 Aveo: 99, 184 City: 3912, 4902 Dzire/sx4: 6092,6590 Indigo: 393,3973 !!! Optra: 6, 53 !!! accord: 5, 248!!! On the other hand, there were some cars where production in 1/09 exceeded sales. These include: Accent/verna: 2843, 1687 Octavia: 575, 294 Spark/UVA: 3354, 2959 E Class: 62,28 S-Class 66, 5!!!! UV and MPV is more or less balanced.
	() Thanks