[shajufx]

Originally Posted by lucifer1881

......The left side ORVM is very important to me. What would it have cost Tata to provide that as an optional extra? At least on the top variant.
There is no glove box. Where are car documents supposed to go? Under the rear seat? .....

Lack of left ORVM and glove box are a big basic let down as I own a sunshine yellow nano and enjoys it to its full. Mirror is compensated with an after market large center mirror.

Originally Posted by mdsaab

.....They are buying their very first car and this is a huge status symbol for them.....

True to an extend but come to think of it, a scooter/bike guy moving to his first car, there is not much to bother than the price part. If you are buying a hatchback for status, I dont think anything less than i20/polo/swift could do some justice. For everyone else, its a utilitarian aspect than the status.

Originally Posted by julupani

.....The only real disadvantages the Nano has are the lack of boot space and its not that comfortable on the highway as the Alto...

It again depends on the regular usage pattern. Its not meant for the highway by any chance considering its fuel tank capacity and light body structure.

I bought my nano for the household purpose within the city. It meets all our needs of occasional movements, weekly shopping, pick up and drop of upto 3 people from the bus/railway/airport, ease of parking, worry-free 4 year maintenance. Owning brand new 2 sedans and 2 hatches in a span of 7 years, this is our 5th car and its going to remain with us as long as it gives a trouble free running.

[Sebring]

Turn the clock back to the day of the launch and it dawns on you that Tata's strategy wasn't wrong. Nano was the most talked about car in recent history. Why just Indians, even the Americans were talking of owning it as a disposable vehicle, something which they can change every year. The Nano had the most enviable launch, where the global press converged to make it a mega event. The anticipation had hit zenith at the time of launch and was fulfilled by this amazing car as well.There wasn't a single bad thing reported on the car.

The fly in the ointment was the delay. Production problems and the wait did it in, not the pricing. The most wanted car was slowly slipping out of grasp. This was nothing short of dreams being shattered, and the Indian consumer responded like they know best, emotionally. The cancellation and rejection of the product was one way to keep their temptation at bay. Tata's should have kept 100, 000 cars ready very close to the launch, and it would have been a runaway hit.

Positioning it as More car per car will not work as Indica has taken that stance. In fact it is very challenging to give it any new positioning. What is needed now is a re-look at the product itself, and come out with V2 without talking price, and hammer home its utility and maintenance friendly nature. This, only road-shows can achieve, in my opinion, not ads or other collateral.

[akshay4587]

lack of glove box is a pain.
but the documents can be stored in the door pocket,tata has provided us with a folder that fits there properly-problem solved,is it
its a great city runbout car,so much that scorpio keeps sitting in garage most of the times.
And yeah people go,when i tell them that it cost 2.1LOTR
they still think its a 1L car.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by julupani

Well, you can probably say that now, in hindsight. But a lot of things become easy in hindsight.

True! And thats why the thread started with a disclaimer, this is not about Nano bashing. The product was such an acheivement, I'm truly proud of it!

Originally Posted by julupani

The only way to salvage is to have a diesel car giving 30+kmpl, and that too only if the govt decides to continue with the subsidies for diesel for private cars.

A friend working in TATA Motors told me about an year back that they are targeting 30kmpl with the diesel variant! That should offer almost half the running costs of the present Nano (and other small cars).

BUT, i still doubt till it be the huge success it deserves to be, because the diesel refinement issues will add to Nano's image woes.

Originally Posted by tejus.s

So far as I am aware, the 1Lac rupee figure was more of a media speculation than Tata's promise. Their only statement was that it was going to be a "common man's car".

In their own words-
Tata's actual statement, he says, was about building a car for "Rs 100,000 or so". The media, however, quickly dubbed it the Rs 1-lakh car and the figure stuck. "Rather than getting distressed (about it), I took it up as a challenge," says Tata

Tata group | Media reports | Tata Sons | Tata's Rs 1 lakh car

[rajess_in]

If people suggest that the effort put on Tata Nano, is not adequate. Just go through this link for the actual one lakh car: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...e-lac-car.html

The failure for Nano to generate numbers is more to do with peoples' over expectations rather than marketing / pricing strategy.

Let us be clear, as an entry level low priced car, the Nano never really disappoints. So the reasons for the over kill is never the pricing, it is the perceived value that is missing / absent in the product as whole.

If you expect that a Two Wheeler customer will buy a Nano looking at the price, then:

1. He most probably will not know about cars / driving (assuming it is his first buy). So it puts the emphasize on his learning which he detests on a brand new one!
2. He assumes that the maintenance will be just as his bike. But he will get a shock if he hears the price of some spares in a car!
3. He expects his fuel bills just in the 100s his bike gives (Average bikers run theirs in reserve with barely a litre or two).
4. He assumes parking will be just as easy as his bike (remember most tow their wheelies till their door steps, some even inside!). There is a severe dearth of parking spaces in most households. You can squeeze your bike at some place close by, but a car! Where can I park it?
5. Some have practical issues with status, a car sure lifts your status among the society people. If you are a tenant, it definitely rockets your rent (Nayi Gadi ko toh paise kahan se aaye!). So he deters from upgrading to the car till he buys his own roof over his head.

This is the basic reason why the average two wheeler buyer has shied away from the nano. In case of others who can afford a car, the rationale behind buying decisions is mostly on the word of peers.

[deep_bang]

Well. The "1 lakh" in my opinion is the biggest problem.
It would have been better if it was going to be positioned as an Alto competetor, and then given a fat discount to reduce the price.

It makes the customers feel that they got a great deal for a nice car. I guess no one at TBHP says its a bad car. And if the members on this forum say its not bad, it really must be true. So, how is a common man different from a TBHP member? Common man goes by the brand image, because he just does not know what else to go by.

I mean, most would go with a HP printer, a Xerox copier, Maruti car, Nokia phone. They would not even question - even if the product is not good. With Nano, the cheap tag - it is like advertising that there is a cheap TATA product available. And it is big on the inside, but still small on the outside (makes on feel like its a toy).

[tejus.s]

Hey CrAzY dRiVeR, thanks for correcting me there!

Still, they said Rs 100,000 or so. The "so" part was highly disregarded by the media and prospective customers

[figo_mba]

The difference in the Nanao and its close competitor can be summed as follows

Nano is a 2L car but people look at you like you could not afford anything else..they would say "I asked you buy a car not a Nano you cheapo"

Now but a 2.25L Alto and people around you are like "Wow you got yourself a car. hhm! good".

Apart from that a lower middle class guy said to me once that he would have to pay extra on his EMI and then he would get less mileage. More than that even in a poor neighborhood people consider Nano really cheap. Not because all of them can afford one but Nano has been cast as a cheap car in their minds.

[HammerHead]

The biggest set back for Nano was when Tata announced it as Rs. 1 lakh car while in real it was priced way above Rs. 1 lakh.

While I absolutely love Nano, conventional boot space at the current price could have helped pulling up more customers then what it is pulling right now.

Still, I don't think its game over for Nano, diesel Nano if priced sensibly can take the sales figures to next level.

[gshanky]

May be the marketing strategy killed NANO in India or in the hindsight the product is doomed to fail irrespective of the pricing and marketing strategy. Indian market is unique in that way. NANO in fact has a twin brother in terms of another great VFM car failure in India. It was called LOGAN. Coming back to the topic of NANO, I feel that TATA failed to understand that the majority of Indian public are status conscious than utility conscious and so some of the factors like

1) relatively unrefined interiors
2) the exhaust note
3) TATA's inability to hit the iron when it was hot (due to singur factory issue I guess)
4) etc.

caused the indian customers especially in the segment to loose interest in NANO sooner. And all those fire incidents didn't help the matter at all.

Nevertheless NANO is really a world car and imo NANO has better chances overseas (especially Europe and South America) than in India.

[tejus.s]

On a serious note though, Tata did face some genuine problems in the form of factory closures, strikes etc.

Just look at how Maruti was affected a couple of months back and scale it up to what the Nano had to go through. Even now it's not available in all dealerships! All these delays gave more time and scope for the rumors to ruin the product IMO.

[kaks15]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

True! And thats why the thread started with a disclaimer, this is not about Nano bashing. The product was such an acheivement, I'm truly proud of it!

A friend working in TATA Motors told me about an year back that they are targeting 30kmpl with the diesel variant! That should offer almost half the running costs of the present Nano (and other small cars).

BUT, i still doubt till it be the huge success it deserves to be, because the diesel refinement issues will add to Nano's image woes.

In their own words-
Tata's actual statement, he says, was about building a car for "Rs 100,000 or so". The media, however, quickly dubbed it the Rs 1-lakh car and the figure stuck. "Rather than getting distressed (about it), I took it up as a challenge," says Tata

Tata group | Media reports | Tata Sons | Tata's Rs 1 lakh car

Somebody told me they are actually targeting 40 KMPL!!! Now that would be a miracle ! Also power steering Nano is in planning phase too.

As a separate fact the customers really don't desire certain features still ask for them if they are not present. I remember my friend asking the skoda guys whether they had sunroof on laura or not and on getting a negative taunted them Civic AT does. Finally he bought a Civic AT without sunroof.

Bottomline is we want everything in the car whether 1lakh or 10 lakhs, but we rarely do require those things, and with NANO Tata have done an excellent job of putting the things actually required.

I am a firm believer Nano will rise as a phoenix.

[ashphil]

I think Mr. Ratan Tata was right in calling it the 1 lac car. He was not eyeing the Alto marketshare when he said that. He was looking at converting the huge market two wheeler users who would/could become the Nano's potential customers.
The fact that the basic model is not anywhere near the 1 lac price which he talked about a few years ago is not his fault.
I for one will never give up on the Tatas. They have pesevered in the car market and they have prevailed. With time better models will emerge and the Nano will prevail . The diesel, if priced right when it hits the market will set right their present woes!
Regards,
Ashok

[Hayek]

The one lakh car concept was brilliant in getting Tata Motors publicity in the global media. It created an image of frugal engineering capability which certainly has helped the company raise it's international profile, and may even help in designing future cars that make money. This would have never ever happened if Tata Motors tried to make a better Alto.

But the Nano was never going to be a material contributor to Tata Motors bottom-line. Even if they sold a million cars a year, and made a 10% EBITDA margin (both of which are best case assumptions), the Nano would have contributed only Rs. 1000 cr. to Tata Motors EBITDA. Seems like a lot of money, but Tata Motors consolidated EBITDA was Rs. 17,800 cr with JLR contributing Rs 11,000 cr. One GBP 70k Range Rover contributes more than 100 Nanos.

The reason no-one has bothered to build Rs 1 lakh cars is because it's not worth the trouble from an economic standpoint. And at today's petrol prices, it does not make sense for just about anyone to buy a Nano or even an Alto. Run the numbers - for someone who does 10,000 km per year, total ownership cost of different cars would be as under:

Nano (OTR price Rs. 2 l)

Depreciation : Rs 20,000 (assuming 50% depreciation in 5 years)
Fuel : 600 litres - Rs. 40,000
Maintenance - Rs. 5,000
Total cost - Rs. 65,000

Alto (OTR price Rs. 3 l)

Depreciation : Rs 30,000 (assuming 50% depreciation in 5 years)
Fuel : 650 litres - Rs. 44,000
Maintenance - Rs. 5,000
Total cost - Rs. 79,000

Indica (OTR price Rs 3.5 l)

Depreciation : Rs 40,000 (assuming 50% depreciation in 5 years)
Fuel : 650 litres - Rs. 44,000
Maintenance - Rs. 6,000
Total cost - Rs. 90,000

Bikes (OTR price Rs 50k)

Depreciation : Rs 5,000 (assuming 50% depreciation in 5 years)
Fuel : 200 litres - Rs. 13,500
Maintenance - Rs. 2,500
Total cost - Rs. 21,000


The Wagon R cost of ownership may be 40% more than the Nano but the Nano is 3x the cost of ownership of a bike. And as GTO says, for someone on a budget, a second hand Swift probably makes a lot more sense than a Nano.

Hayek

[simplyself]

Though the announcement that Tata will make a one-lakh car generated hype, it was accompanied by too many expectations about the features and specifications. That was a hindrance.

Also, the one-lakh car tag associated with it didnt really help the matters as many people believed it would be infra-dig in perception of others if they go for one.