[sahakar]

I think consumers just have to put their foot down and do away will all these unscrupulous activities. This fee is nothing but another type of a bribe.

I cannot but berate the gall of these Honda dealerships.

Cheers

[puchoo]

It is a bribe , i agree completely , and i doubt whether any waiting period will get me to submit , or do something like this but never hurts to know the true picture in the market.

Originally Posted by sahakar

I think consumers just have to put their foot down and do away will all these unscrupulous activities. This fee is nothing but another type of a bribe.

I cannot but berate the gall of these Honda dealerships.

Cheers

[DeepChat]

Originally Posted by sahakar

I think consumers just have to put their foot down and do away will all these unscrupulous activities. This fee is nothing but another type of a bribe.

I cannot but berate the gall of these Honda dealerships.

Cheers

Agreed. Its put me off Honda completely now. Looks like I have to look at a different car now

[puchoo]

Maybe thats a bit too extreme , this could be local dealer level nonsense and nothing to do with Honda - the best solution would be to find a more ethical dealer for those who find this upsetting.

Originally Posted by DeepChat

Agreed. Its put me off Honda completely now. Looks like I have to look at a different car now

[Coolman]

Hi GTO,

Thanks for the report.

Q1. I understand that the 7000 odd Eons (Hyundai) are factory shipment to dealers. So is that case generally for all cars? Do the numbers in the report indicate Sales to Customers OR dispatch to dealers?

Q2. SX4 (Maruti) has posted the lowest sales numbers of < 200 in September down from 1800+ in August. Is that due to the ongoing strike OR is something else wrong?

Thanks,
C_

[asaraf]

After looking through the database provided by GTO, it is evident that the total no. of vehicles sold in India keeps on fluctuating and also there is decent amount of recent launches to various segment. Hence a good comparison could be made only by comparing the market share of each model in its segment and share of each segment in the total car sales. Keeping it in mind I have plotted chart in % share as below with my comments. Also it gives us a fair idea of where the sales of a particular model is heading in the current scenario and when a corrective action is required.



The total no. of vehicles sold is about 200,000 per month. Indian car market is all about first three letters, A, B & C. It is clearly seen that the inclination of people has been towards B segment cars and there was a sudden surge in segment C with a correction after petrol price hike and rising inflation. With recent launch of vehicles in B segment, even A category people have migrated to B. The share of UVs has increased a little bit for their practicality. The share of others is more or less constant.




The segment A has started shaking with the advent of a new member in Hyundai family, Eon. If the above trend is to be believed then in Q3 we will have a new market leader in segment A.




With the above graph one can easily estimate the complexity of segment B which also the most hot and happening for Indian market. Swift after its new avatar is eager to regain its position. The rising petrol prices has compelled the Indian buyer to be more practical thereby moving towards Wagon R in spite of luxurious i10. The share of rest of the cars is saturated.




The entry level sedan segment is for people who want more VFM and hence Dzire and Indigo+Manza continue to be at top with an upward trend.




3 ups (Corolla, Cruze & Jetta) and 3 downs (Laura, Civic & Fluence). That’s the entire story here. The decline of Laura continues.




Decent performance by Accord in Q1+Q2.




In this section I have taken brand instead of models. Toyota due to its model Fortuner has almost captured 50% of the market till now. But clearly the pressure is seen due to Aria and XUV500. A price correction for Fortuner is timely needed else it will lose to XUV500 which has been received by Indian consumer and reviewer with great applaud.




There is only one stable model whose trend is just the opposite as expected and that is M&M Bolero. With decent looks, good engine and very good pricing there is hardly anything left for rural Indian customer to decide. Eeco and Omni both seems to be hit by petrol prices.

[mallumowgli]

Those are very useful graphs.

There is a funny negative correlation between utility vehicles and B segment in the first chart - a freak coincidence?

Too many shades of blue makes it a bit difficult to identify the brands/segments

[rrsteer]

BMW sold 972 cars in September.

5 Series outsold the X1 & 3 series

[manasmadaan]

Originally Posted by Coolman

Hi GTO,

Thanks for the report.

Q1. I understand that the 7000 odd Eons (Hyundai) are factory shipment to dealers. So is that case generally for all cars? Do the numbers in the report indicate Sales to Customers OR dispatch to dealers?
C_

Yes, all the sales figures are primary dispatches from the company to the dealers which again depend on the demand of that particular vehicle in the market.

[chethan25]

The report is just to great to understand the current car sales. For some reason i feel sad for the Fiat cars as these are capable of being close to 4 to 5k cars a month but just because of not having their own facility they are taking a beating(beating is an understatement) . Come on look at Polo and Vento they are doing much better than the Punto or Lienia

[skdking]

Superk analysis, GTO. Well done and keep it up.

Please count me too among your legion of fans.

All this adulation must be getting embarassing but let it not distract you.

[carboy]

Originally Posted by chethan25

The report is just to great to understand the current car sales. For some reason i feel sad for the Fiat cars as these are capable of being close to 4 to 5k cars a month but just because of not having their own facility they are taking a beating(beating is an understatement) . Come on look at Polo and Vento they are doing much better than the Punto or Lienia

Didn't they take a beating when they had their own facility & that's why they tied up with Tata Motors to improve the situation?

[puchoo]

I did manage to speak to 2 finally and neither provided me any option ,maybe my rapport with them is not good enough at this point for them to risk it.

Originally Posted by puchoo

Thats news to me and i think many others here , have not read any other post suggesting that there is a possibility like this existing. Will try and check with some Delhi dealers , but if they were doing it i am surprised that they did not mention it to me outright.

[chethan25]

Originally Posted by carboy

Didn't they take a beating when they had their own facility & that's why they tied up with Tata Motors to improve the situation?

Yeap i totaly agree on that, their failure in the past may be due to the cars manufactured then or thier service. But my point now is these 2 are the best cars manufactured by FIAT so far( as per my understanding) and they will do still better sales if they had a own FIAT service center

[neoonwheels]

Originally Posted by chethan25

Yeap i totaly agree on that, their failure in the past may be due to the cars manufactured then or thier service. But my point now is these 2 are the best cars manufactured by FIAT so far( as per my understanding) and they will do still better sales if they had a own FIAT service center

Its always been the A** that is Achilles's heal for FIAT. Neither of their cars was below par with competition at any given time. Uno and Palio was kind of ahead of their time. Punto and Linea was launched so late but these came with all the bells and whistles.

TATA network was used (???) to reach out to masses but unfortunately, so called "Smart" management people in FIAT never saw that TATA cars also compete in the same range as FIAT has or rather below than FIATs, and with the almost SAME features, that too under the same roof. Current state of FIAT is really due to their stupid management than the cars.

I hope a day would come in my FIAT ownership when FIAT would sell descent no of cars. FIAT cars really deserve good sales than the current state.