Quote:
Originally Posted by DHABHAR.BEHRAM But, we cannot forget that everything will revolve around cost! This is the pitfall that must be strategically overcome, if at all anything has to happen, because India market runs on cost and cost alone. |
Dear
Behram-sir
Having worked in the same industry / department as yours for the past 10 years or so, I completely understand your point on cost and how such meetings go on with PPTs and Excel sheets.
I have no clear idea what you are attempting to do right now. But if you are working on the Sumo, I have a few suggestions (as a long-term fan of the vehicle) which you may consider only as requests. More importantly, they won't cost much money either. So the accountants should not frown at you!
As I am not a 4x4 / off-road enthusiast (yet), I will restrict my requests to other areas only.
Aesthetics:
I am sure I am not the only person who used to like the looks of the very first generation Sumo. It was simple and clean, though a bit crude and unfinished.
Over the years, trying to keep up with the times, I feel that Tata Motors has progressively (!) worsened the looks of the vehicle - be it the Spacio with the round headlamps, the Victa / Gold with the larger headlamp / tail lamps and I am not even mentioning the Grande / Movus here.
Can we have the first generation grill, bumper and lights combo back? May be with clear lens to keep them looking fresh? I hope those can still meet the latest CMVR (if at all it has been revised in the past many years - which I doubt).
Avoiding graphics and multi-tone paint job will improve the looks substantially (along with some masculine / Jeep-like colours - you know where I am going with this). Also, I echo your opinion on deleting the side and rear foot-steps. Keep the bumpers, door handles, mirrors and grill in black colour to avoid the 'dipped in a bucketful of paint' look.
Kindly avoid beige interiors. OEMs should have stopped offering them at least 5 years ago.
Finally, please provide a wheel-tyre combo which gives a good stance to the vehicle (bare steel wheels from existing TML parts shelf should suffice - please don't let anyone fix plastic wheel caps in the name of 'premiumness').
Even the VA-VE department chap should be happy with these - just deleting a whole lot of stuff and reusing parts from the inventory! He is going to love you for it.
A totally unpractical request with regards to looks which I am sure 99% of the people will not agree with - can we have an unbeatable combo of a tail-gate mounted spare wheel which does not cause any rattles? That alone should take the Sumo up a few notches in the SUV good looks department.
Creature comforts:
I think the top-end Sumo already comes with a decent feature-list. Please retain at least the same - rear wipe-wash and demister, power steering, power windows, internally adjustable mirrors, central locking with remote, HVAC (including rear aircon as it is a huge vehicle with large glass area). My only request for an addition will be arm rests for the front seats. I think it is a major comfort factor on long drives which is overlooked by many OEMs.
May be you can eliminate a music system and speakers and just provide the wiring for users to fix what they want.
Safety:
Since driver airbag is going to be mandatory soon, I am sure you have this in mind already. May be borrow the steering from the Safari, right? I really doubt the accountants will let you fix a passenger side airbag since it calls for an all-new dashboard design, though I really hope they do!
Also, while we still await the necessary legislation, can you please ask the friendly chaps from Bosch, Pune how much efforts will be needed to adapt the ABS from the Xenon to the Sumo? May be if you can convince the right person in TML to offer it as standard, the purchase cost might also be lower due to the higher volumes.
QC:
Although I know this is not something which can be done model-wise, before you sign off anything new, may be you can ensure that the design engineer has not left much tolerance for the component supplier or the assembly shop fellow to bring in quality issues.
Oh, and lastly, please don't let any of those marketing chaps add any fancy tags to the name (Gold, + etc). Tata Sumo is a great name. And don't let them put in any BS4 / VX / Dicor / 3.0L / CR4 decals or emblems either while you are at it.
Sincerely hope to drive
your Sumo someday. All the very best!
Best Regards
Viju