[adimicra]

Originally Posted by PCS

Dude the Corolla Diesel 1.4 D-4D engine is not that bad or underpowered to talk about

My relatives also felt the same before buying, but today he feels that he has made the best decision in buying this

He travels frequently Bangalore - Cochin and cruises at 140 easily and still achieves a mileage of 19.1 kmpl

He says the car is awesome to drive.

Infact i have heard dealers appreciating the 1.4 D-4D engine of late now.

Once again TOYOTA can never go wrong with such an engine. they def think twice before launching the same.

even i have driven his car and it just feels adequate.

Do you think you really need 150 PS ?

Once again please dont forget that " TOYOTA MAKES CARS WHICH ARE PRACTICAL AND THIS IS WHAT REQUIRED FOR INDIA"

Well, underpowered is a relative and subjective term..it might be adequate to many but the sales clearly show that people in general have not taken a liking to it...which is good.
You are basically implying that Toyota can never go wrong..this is just blind faith and I am happy not many Indians are showing that.

[DicKy]

Originally Posted by PCS

He travels frequently Bangalore - Cochin and cruises at 140 easily and still achieves a mileage of 19.1 kmpl
.....................Infact i have heard dealers appreciating the 1.4 D-4D engine of late now.
Once again please dont forget that " TOYOTA MAKES CARS WHICH ARE PRACTICAL AND THIS IS WHAT REQUIRED FOR INDIA"

, the engine maybe sluggish and a pain to use in city traffic, but other than that the power is sufficient for everyday use,(unless for someone whose everyday use may mean revving to the limit)
And there are the other virtues of the car vis-a-vis the Cruze like space,ride comfort and ergonomics, but Toyota seem to have gone wrong in either pricing or equipment level,either of which can be rectified.

[FireBug]

Honda City : 2802

Wow, Honda City is back with a bang !!. The price cut has definitely worked wonders. i always believed that its not Vento or SX4 or even the mighty good looks of the new kid Verna Fluidic that is pulling down the sales of City. For me there are two factors : the first being the stingy attitude of Honda India who never understood the meaning of VFM (the buzz word of every indian) and secondly the ever increasing cost of Petrol. Take these factors out and City would still have topped the chart until the next city comes out. Hope they come out with a diesel variant soon !

Food for thought : Imagine Jazz a lac less than its current price ? It would make quite a few sales toppers sweat and pant.

[bajwasingh]

well any one who has driven a corolla altis diesel knows that it is underpowered ,it is the only car which after the introduction of a diesel is selling in less number

[carboy]

Originally Posted by FireBug

Honda City : 2802

Wow, Honda City is back with a bang !!. The price cut has definitely worked wonders.

Back, sure - but not with a bang. I think the City was selling around 4000-5000+ earlier.

[anu21v]

Originally Posted by opendro

You may not know that most car buyers decide on the car model and next thing they do is fuel type depending on the break-even-price calculation. Very few people decide on the fuel type first.

And My understanding was that customer first decides its budget range. Then look for cars within that budget range and then decides on whether the running cost is important or brand before finalizing on the particular cars which can maximize in fulfilling his needs.

[ghodlur]

Just read in the papers today that Toyota Etios has dethroned the Segment leader MS Dzire by a huge margin atleast for the month of June. Dzire sold around 2500 whereas Etios sold twice the number. Will the trend continue or MS will bounce back with the usual figures?

[samm]

Originally Posted by bansal98

I am quite surprised by the Verna's sales being much higher than that of Vento.
....
Another negative point against VW is their sparse dealer and service network. A relative of mine opted for Hyundai (i20 over Polo) for this factor alone.

Most car buying decisions are made from the heart and better half influences rather than hard core technical & logical thinking! Vento may be the best in terms of engineering and handling, but the City and Verna arent way too behind, either. Again as you said, the sales network of VW has a long long way to reach anywhere near the Hyundai.
The heart doesnt need anything else to take over, right? Unless your need is purely executive (office) use, its unlikely that many will go for Vento. City and Verna are way ahead in terms of looks (atleast for me, and many of my friends!) , and no one has Vento in their list, even after test driving all of these. Two have already booked Verna and expecting it in another 2 weeks.

[designersf]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Just read in the papers today that Toyota Etios has dethroned the Segment leader MS Dzire by a huge margin atleast for the month of June. Dzire sold around 2500 whereas Etios sold twice the number. Will the trend continue or MS will bounce back with the usual figures?

It is due to the worker's strike and routine maintenance at their plant. They lost 16 days of production because of the above factors. Their figures should be back to normal levels next month.

Originally Posted by DicKy

, the engine maybe sluggish and a pain to use in city traffic, but other than that the power is sufficient for everyday use,(unless for someone whose everyday use may mean revving to the limit)
And there are the other virtues of the car vis-a-vis the Cruze like space,ride comfort and ergonomics, but Toyota seem to have gone wrong in either pricing or equipment level,either of which can be rectified.

+1. 150bhp looks great on paper for the Cruze but how many actually use it fully? Cruze also has other factors going for it like good styling. 90bhp is not underpowered but will do the job. Its like the 68bhp mill on the Fiesta classic. Not all that powerful but will do the job well.

Fluence has gotten off to a good start. I guess majority of deliveries will be the diesel model.

[opendro]

Originally Posted by anu21v

And My understanding was that customer first decides its budget range. Then look for cars within that budget range and then decides on whether the running cost is important or brand before finalizing on the particular cars which can maximize in fulfilling his needs.

Sorry for dragging this off-topic for too long. This is how a typical car buying decision takes place in India.

- Budget, as you suggested.
- Hatch or Sedan? or which segment? As a given budget fits into different segment these days.
- List the must-have features.
- Once the segment, budget and must-have-features list are decided, check all the available cars within that constraint. Rough price vs feature comparison starts.
- Short list the cars. Weigh in the brand biases.
- Maintenance cost weighs in
- By this time, the car is almost decided.
- Running cost comes in. This is when the fuel type and break even calculation starts. Either spend for petrol later or spend one time diesel engine cost?
- Decide on the model/variant

For many customers, the orders are different. For instance, first and second could be interchanged for few people.

There are exceptions of course. Like me, what speed I can do often in highway, how can it handle, etc. etc.

[anu21v]

Originally Posted by microaubin

I feel Corolla Altis Diesel has only the reliability card going for it. Nobody wants to drive a hugely under powered car(1.3L) after spending more than 12 lacs OTR when the competition is powered by 2.0 L (both Cruze and Laura)

Well even I was thinking the same thing.

But then I saw this news on the web and couldn't help posting it here. Looks like Cruze vs Corolla vs Civic story is getting repeated even in US market where traditionally Corolla/Civic/Camry are the best seller cars. Reading the article i was surprised to see Cruze being the best selling car in US beating almost everyone except two pickups.

From Google News
Chevy Cruze is best-selling car in USA

Matt's Blog
Best Selling Cars – Matt's blog » USA June 2011: Chevrolet Cruze #3, best-selling passenger car!


Mind it we indians got a chance to drive this car about a year in advance compared to US where it got launched only in Q4 of 2010. In US it is only petrol engine cars for both corolla and cruze.

Now I am no more surprised that Cruze with just diesel engine in India is outselling corolla even with diesel and petrol engines.

[microaubin]

Originally Posted by onesomeone

The diesel engine is 1.4L not 1.3L if I may correct you.

Sorry, my bad. 1364 cm3 (cc) to be exact which is in fact 1.4 L

[anu21v]

Originally Posted by opendro

Sorry for dragging this off-topic for too long. This is how a typical car buying decision takes place in India.

- Budget, as you suggested.
- Hatch or Sedan? or which segment? As a given budget fits into different segment these days.
- List the must-have features.
- Once the segment, budget and must-have-features list are decided, check all the available cars within that constraint. Rough price vs feature comparison starts.
- Short list the cars. Weigh in the brand biases.
- Maintenance cost weighs in
- By this time, the car is almost decided.
- Running cost comes in. This is when the fuel type and break even calculation starts. Either spend for petrol later or spend one time diesel engine cost?
- Decide on the model/variant

For many customers, the orders are different. For instance, first and second could be interchanged for few people.

There are exceptions of course. Like me, what speed I can do often in highway, how can it handle, etc. etc.

I think it was true a few years ago. But with annual fuel bills getting higher and higher due to increase fuel prices has surely pushed up cost of running much above the brand and maintenance cost. Sample This, even for the car of the size say alto. Lets say for an average annual Running of 15000 Kms with a Mileage of 16 KMPL, and at Petrol Price 69 Rs Per lit (Noida)

Car Price ------------------- Rs 2.8 Lakh
Maintenance Cost------------ Rs 6-7 thousand annum
Annual Fuel Cost ------------- Rs 65,000 Per annum.

Just have a look on 'Cost to Own' vs 'Annual Cost to Run' ratio = 26%. Of this running cost, biggest cost is fuel bill at 90%.

So I don't agree the cost of maintenance is the bigger concern here unless someone is deciding in mercs and BMWs where fuel bills may be lower than annual maintenance costs.

The type of fuel and annual running bills are definitely the biggest criteria and rank above the maintenance cost. In Fact looking at maruti advertising, its clear that fuel efficiency (and implicitely fuel types, since focus is on cost saving) is the Biggest Criterian for Indians which in quite a few cases might even outweigh the brands.

[sameer_tangri]

It's great to see that inspite of the rough market conditions, the Cruze has overtaken Corolla and Laura.
This could also be sue to the aggressive ADs they are running. Even while using Android applications on my mobile, I have seen ADs for Cruze and Spark on the screen. Clicking them takes you to a page for booking a TD.
Spark with the huge discounts seems to be working steadily and well.



The Cruze is an absolute VFM car and owning one for last 6 months has been sheer joy for me! :-)

Maruti has a lot to worry about...although they are way ahead, the competition is very high.

[microaubin]

Originally Posted by PCS

Dude the Corolla Diesel 1.4 D-4D engine is not that bad or underpowered to talk about

My relatives also felt the same before buying, but today he feels that he has made the best decision in buying this

He travels frequently Bangalore - Cochin and cruises at 140 easily and still achieves a mileage of 19.1 kmpl

He says the car is awesome to drive.

Infact i have heard dealers appreciating the 1.4 D-4D engine of late now.

Once again TOYOTA can never go wrong with such an engine. they def think twice before launching the same.

even i have driven his car and it just feels adequate.

Do you think you really need 150 PS ?

Once again please dont forget that " TOYOTA MAKES CARS WHICH ARE PRACTICAL AND THIS IS WHAT REQUIRED FOR INDIA"

Never implied its a bad product but as you said yourself its just adequate.

I'm a huge Toyota fan too. In fact I happen to own a Corolla Petrol and an Innova Diesel and just love them.

Its not about cruising at 140 kmph on the highway(140 kmph is quite scary) but getting from 40 -80 kmph that makes the difference and here the Altis Diesel is sluggish I feel.

On the other hand the Cruze is a diesel rocket and the Laura is like a missile. Drive the Cruze and the Laura then try the Altis Diesel to see the difference.

Corolla has notched up 629 units. No data on the split up between petrol and diesel is available.

Also the fully loaded factor favors the Cruze.