Team-BHP - New Altis Launch 16th June !!! New Liva Launch 27th June

Actually that is a very valid question, and I feel that they should not even introduce the Liva unless then get the Etios queue in control.

Since both Etios and Liva would both be manufactured on the same line and are very similar except for the boot, there is not likely to be a major difference in the time for manufacture of each.

What though is possible is that they have multiple lines and they plan to dedicate one to Liva and one to Etios and they plan to give priority to Etios customers for the Liva incase they wish to switch. This may suite them for the long term as they are likely to get a similar or even better order book for the Liva

Yes, the backlog issue seems to be ending in hurry. Probably now Liva will have also 6 months of waiting period.

Even Maruti has not been able to solve it after full two years of launch of dezire. By design or by chance is beyond me.

As a customer, this is humiliating and irritating. Toyota could have planned it better with such an aggressively priced product which was sure to be a hit.

End of the day, its all about the capacity of the plant. And I guess no manufacturer will invest into a new plant unless they have that kind of demand! Probably with these two launches, Toyota will make sure to invest into new plants as well.

Indian customers will continue to feel humiliated because we really dont have too many manufacturers who give us good cars at good prices. If all the models have had atleast 2 proper competition, there would not have been the so called "waiting period" !

Read earlier that Toyota have plans to produce more Liva's than Etios in their manufacturing facility which has a capacity of 70,000 annually.
If Etios customers are given priority for Liva delivery in case they wish to switch, then there might be people who go on to book the Etios just to get their hands on Liva early. This will lead to even more clogging/'delay in promised delivery' of genuine Etios customers.
Toyota which got their product right, unfortunately did not get their planning in place. :(

Quote:

Originally Posted by camchennai (Post 2207827)

Question:-

When they are unable to ramp up production of Etios how will they be able to deliver Liva??

I could be wrong but this seems to be an effort to make the numbers look good.

The queue for Etios is just growing and soon people could just end up cancelling their orders. (Like the initial dyas of Nano)

So, to ensure they retain the customers (for whatever) car, they must've planned to bring in Liva to ease the pressure on Etios.

Instead of having a 6 month waiting period for Etios, they would rather prefer a 3 month period for both Etios and Liva.

Again, you never know the backroom strategising.

more than not getting their planning in place, they seem to have under-estimated the demand that the Toyota marque would generate - at least here in India.

And from what I hear/read, they are in general more comfortable with a full order book and the consequent "waiting period" rather than supply against "ready inventory".

I think that consumers who really want a Toyota at entry level either Liva or Etios, would mostly be prepared to wait for it rather than walk out of the queue.

Frankly on one note, 3-4 months of waiting period for Polo and Figo during launch is acceptable to an extent.
But for heaven's sake the waiting period should not go to 7 months. This is absolutely absurd. Imagine waiting for ones promotion would be happening quicker than waiting for getting a car.
This madness has to end somehow, why cant people just think of some other brands at all, that they are ready to wait for 7 months for a car cheaper to come with the T badge.

In fact, cant the consumer forums come into play and stop car manufacturers from this madness, I am sure whatever the manufacturers should not go to the extent of taking bookings with 7 months waiting period.

Now they want to launch Liva with so much backlog in place. God save India and its madness. Same was the case with Fortuner, I was assuming that is initial euphoria and things will get streamlined later on, this cant be going forever.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shankar.balan (Post 2208055)

Agree. Toyota are known for 'made to order' cars instead of piling up inventories. Underestimating demand is also points to planning issues. They should have learnt from having to close booking for their SUV more than once.

From what I heard, the waiting period for Figo, was not more than 2 months and Figo was a runaway success too. Forum members can correct me if this is not correct.

Toyota were consistently saying that they preferred to launch Etios first and tweak any issues with the sedan so that everything is perfect for the hatchback launch. With the major grouse being delivery schedule, wonder how they are going to tweak that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by swiftnfurious (Post 2207895)

I don't know if "humiliated" is the the right word here... Our excise duty is so high that the manufacturers are unable to give us better prices when compared to other countries. Competition has been really healthy in the the car segments below 10 lakhs, and it keeps getting better (look at the models releasing next year).

Some manufacturers are better at managing the waiting period, like Ford Figo which has seen decent delivery periods despite large initial demand.

Looks like the demand is so much higher than the supply for new models that many customers don't mind waiting out the waiting period. Vento D is a good example of that.

Just my humble opinion.

I am not sure if this is their best solution. If the sedan has touched 18,500 nos within 45 days of launch , then imagine the wait period for the hatch!! And how many would actually want to shift to a Etios hatch and wait months for it too!! But for the Toyota brand ,i think most of them would not cancel their booking too soon.

I do understand that they are gearing up their second plant to meet this demand. With India being amongst the more important "emerging markets" or "rapid-development markets" for most manufacturers from cellphones to cars, I can well believe that once Toyota gets going, they will easily be able to satisfy our increasing demand.

Let the games begin! for the next 10 years at least!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaushikr (Post 2208149)

Toyota were consistently saying that they preferred to launch Etios first and tweak any issues with the sedan so that everything is perfect for the hatchback launch. With the major grouse being delivery schedule, wonder how they are going to tweak that.

As an general observation, it appears that everything Toyota launches, no matter what segment, it turns out to be a hot seller.
Be it the 20L Fortuner or the low-mid Sedan Etios.
Same story for the Liva I guess. It is going to spell big trouble for Tata/Hyundai/Maruti.

As for the waiting period, well if your bookings are more than your production, you will have waiting period. I am sure no manufacturer will hoard vehicles in their godowns just to create a scarcity.
So while we can question Toyota on the logic of having lower production, its not deliberate. Probably they underestimated the demand, or maybe they do not have the resources to justify a very quick production ramp up.

Note from Mod : GTO's Liva test-drive report has been uploaded at this link. Please continue the discussion on the review thread.

Why couldn't it be like this - The vendors would have been asked to set up capacity based on the allocation for the sedan only (parts specific to sedan version). So ramping up would be a big issue. However, the hatchback will use different parts (Liva specific parts) to that of the sedan.

Eg - assuming 10,000 Etios family production capacity per month (5,000 each for Etios sedan and Liva), vendors would be ready to only supply 5,000 sedan-specific parts per month. So adding the hatch will mean increasing the production to 10,000. This way, they can reduce waiting period.

But the demand for the Live remains to be seen. That is one massive problem for Toyota.