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-   -   Why does Toyota discriminate against buyers in Tier-II/Tier-III cities (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/110189-why-does-toyota-discriminate-against-buyers-tier-ii-tier-iii-cities.html)

I have booked a Toyota Liva in Ludhiana, and I have been given an estimated delivery date in March. Dealer tells me usually the cars come in 3-4 months.

In contrast, people who have booked the car in Mumbai or Delhi region are given delivery dates of November or early december.

A dealer told me that Toyota gives preferences to customers in Metro cities, and buyers from other cities are given low preference in the booking order.

Now this is very strange, since cities like Ludhiana and other smaller towns have very high car density.
They are not exactly villages too that transporting cars there is an issue.
Nor there are other logistical issues involved etc.,

So why the discrimination? Is the practice rampant in other companies too? What I have seen, some preference is given to buyers from the "home" location, eg Gurgaon for Maruti etc., but this type of thing is something I have heard for the first time.

I also cannot fathom much reason, esp since many tier II cities actually generate comparable sale to metros. Only thing could be that decision makers come from bigger towns, and do not think giving equal level service to smaller towns makes any sense.

I think it is true for all brands to a degree. Long deliver dates, poor A$$ (there s often a monopoly), sultry executives, etc. I remember last year when I was looking at an Altis Toyota in Kanpur feigned total ignorance of BS-IV coming (this was in March!).

I think this is prevalent across the industry. In september when we were actively car hunting, the Vento TDI HL was available ready for delivery in VW delhi. This is if you opt for white, black, silver or red colour. If you want blue or beige the SA quoted a wait of 15 days. At the same time the waiting period down south even in metro cities was closer to 4 months for white colour ( which is produced the most). Blue and beige were almost booked for 6 months.

I think the companies need to look at it and make a flexible policy. No doubt that the major sales happen across the Metros so more number of cars will be getting delivered.

Also is it possible that they may feel that a customer in a metro city would be a lot more exposed to all the other car companies and may choose a competitor's car if made to wait long. As compared to a tier 2 or 3 city where they may be willing to wait it out rather then explore uncharted territory.

Yes, its true as far as discrimination goes. When we inquired for Toyota Innova, we were told 6-8 months waiting period. In A'bad its different story with waiting period being around 4 months. We were told almost double waiting period.

And for Fortuner, well waiting period is around 10-12 months in my city. One dealer claims that they are getting only one Fortuner in a month. And very openly we were informed that if we have a letter from a politician, then we can get the car in a month for Innova and in two months for Fortuner.

Its not only Toyota playing spoilsport, things go deeper than that. Its politicians and politics. Apparently many units of Fortuner have gone straight to Delhi due to influence of people. This is true for many cars. Mainly in Delhi and Mumbai these things happen. They have relatively less waiting period then what we face, and those who are in smaller cities like Vadodara, etc. suffer the most. Every dealer, well almost, is out there to cheat. The only respite I have seen in Kiran motors which is not that big a cheater.

There are instances where Hyundai dealers have roughly said that Verna ( the new Fluidic one ) bookings are closed. They wont even ask customer who have come to inquire, to have a seat. That is the high handedness. Honda have actually improved in my city, but Toyota, Hyundai are becoming very bad in smaller cities.

Tanveer,

Its very strange for Toyota to behave like this in the "Merc Capital of India". I really can't believe this.

As per my own experience, I have seen the latest models (most of the brands) first in Ludhiana or Jalandhar before spotting them on NCR roads.

- Irish

Is this actually a fact or just a spin given to you by the dealer? Incompetent dealers are very much capable of killing the brand by such statements. After going through the dealer stories on TBHP, I would actually discount everything a dealer told me unless it was in black and white and signed by him.

So I would suggest we try to find some substantiating evidence before blaming Toyota for this.

In Delhi the period for Fortuner is more like 2-3 months and can be lowered if you haggle with the dealer a bit. During my many recent visits to toyota while buying my altis, I didn't actually spot a lot of Fortuners being delivered. May be the initial hoopla is dying down now.

Politics is rampant. Even the dealer cannot help catering to the more powerful people. Thats the way things happen in our country.

I don't think it is the same with every manufacturer. Depends on how the supply chain management of the company is being done - the bargaining powers of the dealers, and a whole lot of other reasons. Add to that the unfair practices followed by the dealers, and it becomes quite a tough case to analyze.

For e.g. it would make more (financial) sense for the manufacturer to deliver a consignment of 6 (random number) cars per truck at a rate of 5 trucks every week to a city like Mumbai than do one (again random number) truck every two week to a tier 2 town. Unfortunately that's what matters the most to most companies.

A friend of mine is planning to do his Swift booking from his hometown (interior Maharashtra) - he expects to get his car in at least 1/3 of the waiting period as compared to Pune (where he's working). I guess it depends on the city too.

I believe the companies do deliver more car to the metros since they have more bookings. Take this from my case of a Swift D, Both Bangy & my home town Kottayam had almost the same waiting period.

OK - to be clearer, Bangy dealers told me a waiting period of 4 months max while AVG Kottayam told me that they can deliver my car in 45 days, but I actually got my car in 4 months after a superb chain of fights leading to the regional office.

I kind of feel that the dealers in metros give a much more realistic wait time as well. Am sure to some extent this has got to do with the competition. But it's not good for a company to take the Tier II cities light.

So if you try calling up the regional office, you might be able to work out a better waiting period.

" A dealer told me that Toyota gives preferences to customers in Metro cities, and buyers from other cities are given low preference in the booking order."


That is true because a customer in Metro will feel free to access another Toyota dealer who promises to deliver the vehicle in quick time. However, a customer in a tier-II or tier-III has limited or no other option but wait for the dealer to deliver the vehicle.

Hence, dealers in Metro tend to lose the customers faster than in tier-II and tier-III regions. As simple as that :)

Market prioritization or step-motherly treatment (depending on your PoV), is rampant in all bike/car manufacturers in India today. Take for instance Royal Enfield- their bikes are available at significantly lesser delivery times in markets in northern India, than in their geographically closer markets in southern India.

Basically the fact remains that Toyota has a limited production capacity. Hence each dealer has an allocation based on the city he is based and past sales track record. Naturally the Metro dealer will have a higher allocation as their sales are higher. To ensure that Dealers from Tier 2/3 cities do not loose out on the customers due to fast deliveries by the Tier 1 Dealers, all customer have to produce the proof of address at the time of booking. Hence a Tier 1 Dealer cannot take a booking of a person having proof of address in a Tier 2/3 location. Such a person has to necessarily book in the City where the Dealership is closest to his Proof of Address.

Cheers

KPS

Are these the latest models being delivered to dealers for immediate deliveries or are these stockyard units which have remained unsold? If the southern region consumes the product faster than the northern region, the north will see a pileup of inventories, resulting in faster delivery times to any potential buyers; probably discounts too.

Point to make is that please don't blame the manufacturer for this unless we know for sure the manufacturer is playing such tricks.

Some of the reasons I can guess are:

1) Greater competition with a large no of brands available in metros.
2) Influence the customers yield. ( In NCR every one knows someone)
3) The customers are more demanding

In Ludhiana (this may be true for whole punjab) the demand for diesel cars is huge. In the last week that i have stayed here, i have not seen one petrol micra! Every maruti swift that i see is Diesel.

People have a lot of money here, i have seen more Jaguars in one week here than i have seen in an year in Delhi and Bangalore (combined).

The dealer in ludhiana will only get his quota of vehicles and then there are people who are not hesitant to pay a little extra to get the vehicle as soon as possible.

I'm sure you can get your car much earlier if you will pay that extra amount.

So there are two problems here i guess, one, the dealer in ludhiana may not get as many cars alloted to him as a dealer in new delhi, on top of that, he may give cars quickly to people who are willing to pay extra.

So again, demand and supply, you pay more or wait longer. I am not trying to defend Toyota, but these things happen in a capitalist society, money can buy you lesser waiting times.