[libranof1987]

In line with the "What happened to the top 3 manufacturers" topic, here's a as-a-matter-of-factly article :

Volkswagen, Toyota, Ford, Renault, Nissan challenging Maruti, Hyundai, Tata Motors - The Economic Times

[mdsaab]

The Honda City selling well indeed.
As well as the Toyota Etios,
and very close to the Verna too.
I think that's a great achievement.
The recent price cuts and discounts offered have been very effective.
I hope Honda had learnt it's lesson the hard way, and will price their products more competitively heron.

The Vento has been left behind this time around.
and the Vento has the backing of a diesel variant too.
I hope the recent offers on the Vento Petrol do push sales up a notch or two.

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by mdsaab

I hope Honda had learnt it's lesson the hard way, and will price their products more competitively heron.

I wouldn't say Honda has learnt any lesson.

If you look at it objectively, the price cuts were just for stock clearance. The Jazz facelift is coming out soon, City EMT is already sold out in many cities.

So, I don't think Honda has had these price cuts as a part of strategy; they just did it to clear off their stocks.

Whether they have learnt their lesson or not will be clear once the Jazz facelift and rumoured City facelift are out and their pricing is disclosed.

[RemingtonSteele]

Check out this thread for the latest news for proposed additional duties levied on Diesel cars.
The Pertol and Diesel car monthly figures will be very different in the months to come if this gets approved.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...l-engines.html

[Ardy]

Thanks GTO and Team for compiling these figures every month.

Although difficult, could I request you to compile figures for commercial vehicles and two-wheelers as well? It would give a holistic picture of automotive scenario in India.

Cheers,

[torquecurve]

Originally Posted by manishk83

Please don't generalize! In a population of 1.2 bn, as there'd be people who are put off by the high EMI and low FE, there'd also be lots of people who, 5 yrs ago when they purchased a bike, couldn't have afforded a bike but now, with their incomes risen, can!

I feel the reason is closer to what others have mentioned in the thread:

1. Cheap tag!
2. A decent spec'ed Nano which has power steering is too close to an Alto. And with a lower middle-class family, a car is a 7/8-yr purchase. They'd rather pay 20k extra and own a safe Alto than be seen with a cheap Nano.
3. The cars catching fire incidents. And you just have to read the vernacular newspapers to understand how these sporadic incidents have been played up.
4. And because of that, the word-of-mouth hasn't been too good. And the section of people that could be potential Nano customers don't value Individualism as high.

It's ironic that Ratan Tata's dream was to make commuting safer for those travelling with their entire family on two-wheelers; and these same people are shunning away from the car which is cheap. A human mind is such a complex phenomenon.

When you say 'safe' alto, are you talking perception or fact? I agree to what you say here. I was trying to give the additional reasons above the obvious reasons from a financial standpoint (I am a risk analyst BTW - and I suck at that ).

Yes, to add to what you say, most Indians (I am not generalizing now!) buy a car for 'status' rather than a point A to point B commuter. Case in point is the Yam Fazer which still sells a good number though it is essentially a FZ16 with a headlamp job and priced waaay higher.

JMT

[Dr.Suraj]

Was waiting for this!

Eagerly, kept checking every day.

I knew it would be out soon, no doubt.

My special interest was how Vento does now post Verna & slashed ANHC!
Interesting game set up here.

I feel TATA doing steady, though can do MUCH MUCH better, especially the Nano.

The Aria 4x2 is out now. So let's see if that helps.

&
the Manza LE should be out this month (which btw I might be going for, but a full story dedicated to that later)

Thanks Team BHP.

You are the Best !

[himavanth_m]

The hatchback segment has gone down this month. I guess everyone is waiting for the new swift which is impacting car sales from other manufacturers

[hydswift]

Thanks a lot GTO, Technocrat and Zappo for the wonderful new format. Very easy to do analysis.

Well said romeomidhun, yes, we indeed wait for salary at the month end and this report.

Looks like the petrol variant sales is getting tougher. Now we see a balanced competetion from all the manufacturers. Whoever comes to market early with new products and changes their strategy faster will succeed. For example, Fluidic Verna from Hyundai and price cut for the Honda City had a good impact last month by looking at the sales numbers.

[fuel_addict]

Originally Posted by RemingtonSteele

Check out this thread for the latest news for proposed additional duties levied on Diesel cars.
The Pertol and Diesel car monthly figures will be very different in the months to come if this gets approved.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...l-engines.html

And then the Finance Minister also announces that subsidy on diesel prices will not be allowed for diesel cars. Only heavy vehicles would qualify for the subsidy. Even if this is implemented, diesel prices would rise by about Rs 7/litre, still substantially lower than the decontrolled petrol prices.

[srikrishna717]

Thanks GTO for the stats.
I wonder if Fiat should adapt the same strategy as Honda to cut prices on their T-jet , which is a great product to help improve the numbers.
I agree, it is too good a brand to be having such low numbers.

Also, it would be interesting to see how these figures would look in the eventuality of Mr Pranab mukherjee having his way on either increasing the diesel prices for car owners or introducing some new taxes for the Diesel cars

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by torquecurve

When you say 'safe' alto, are you talking perception or fact? I agree to what you say here. I was trying to give the additional reasons above the obvious reasons from a financial standpoint (I am a risk analyst BTW - and I suck at that ).

Yes, to add to what you say, most Indians (I am not generalizing now!) buy a car for 'status' rather than a point A to point B commuter. Case in point is the Yam Fazer which still sells a good number though it is essentially a FZ16 with a headlamp job and priced waaay higher.

JMT

I think he means perception; may be people think it is safer to be seen in an Alto than a nano! The way "cheap transportation for the masses" was dinned in to our heads may have had a negative effect. When a person buys a car, he believes he has risen above the tag 'masses". He may not want a product that identifies him as one.

The Alto may be a mass market car now, but when it was introduced, it was not. It started way up the value chain and has gradually moved down, so the former perceptions about it may be sticking on. AFAIK the price of Alto LXi has more or less remained constant for the past 7 - 8 years, around 3.00 - 3.20 lakhs on road. This price, during 2003 - 2004 could hardly have been termed as mass market.

IMO the biggest drawback for nano is the "du-du-du-du" sound it makes. I expect an autorickshaw or my bike to sound like this, not my car. If the nano too purrs like the Alto, perceptions may change. Besides, the price difference between the largest selling commuter bikes (Rs 50 - 70K) and the nano is about three times and too big a leap for the intended customer.

[Abhi_Automobile]

I am really interested to kn ow if VW is able to work on full capacity or is it still stuck with a capacity constraint.

In mean, given a chance to be taken off the shelf, will Vento be able to stack up similar or higher numbers than Verna? Also, as GTO said, the POLO is also selling in average numbers. I don't think Polo has a as much potential as Vento has courtesy two average 3 pot engines. VW needs to push Vento even more. Where is the 'upgrade' to interiors guys? After a couple of guys spotted it on the road, there seems to be no news of it.

BTW, I think that Maruti and Hyundai are the smartest and most quick acting companies in India. They know the pulse of the market. Hyundai cars may not be my personal favourite, but I give them complete credit for constant improvement in product quality. No wonder Toyota is worried.

[raj_5004]

* In the SUV/MUV segment, scorpio & innova still leads at 4308 & 4816 units respectively. Safari trails far behind at 823 units. It is indeed surprising that scorpio is still catching up with innova in terms of sales inspite of many innovas being sold to the taxi market.

* Who bought 15 phaetons in march???

* Demand of fortuner at 1060 units still seem to be good.

* Aria at 328 units is a poor performer. I guess its a flop. Lets see what the 4x2 version can do for it.

* I never expected the Nano to break any sales records & that is what i see.

* What happened to the swift? from 11353 to 348 units? is it the effect of the new swift coming in? I guess some dealers have even closed bookings, right?

* Bolero, as every month, is the largest selling MUV in India!

* Good to see the Verito selling in decent numbers.

* The new Verna has done wonders for Hyundai.

* This month, Punto has sold more than the Swift, LOL! I can see that Jazz has always sold lesser than the Punto... If only it had a diesel engine...

* Infact, Punto is selling much more than the Linea. But FIAT seems to be in trouble. Just two products & both are not doing well, inspite of being great products. Is their Indian operations profitable for them? I am only considering the sales of their cars.

[vivekparmar]

Any specific reason why cruze lost out to altis this month? Sounds very strange to me.