Team-BHP - October 2011 : Indian Car Sales & Analysis

Had a chat with sales manager of one of the Toyota Car showroom. The Etios and Liva are selling quite well with a monthly average of around 70-80 units a month. The introduction of diesel has pushed the numbers a bit higher. They manage to sell one petrol vehicle for every 2 diesel sold. I feel its definitely not bad consider there are very few takers for the petrol vehicles.

The sales manager has the statistics and tells that there is still a market for the Petrol cars in Bangalore.

Quite interesting. I could not spend more time with him to extract more details. Though one thing is very sure, there is immense pressure from the car makers on the dealers to rake up numbers. But the manager wholeheartedly agrees that the coming months is going to be real tough for the dealers.

Time to extract the best discounts on the petrol cars.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTX007 (Post 2574856)

Today I gave my Linea for service at Concorde, Cochin and I enquired about Fiats sales for last month. They say that they sell 35 Fiats a month on an average. Then whats going wrong with Fiat?

I don't think Cochin is a good indicator for Fiat sales. Anyone visiting Cochin would probably get the idea that Punto is one of the best selling cars in the country. And I guess that's true for most of Kerala as well. I think Fiat sells well in only certain cities - mainly in the south and west. Like GTO mentioned, the north of India accounts 35% of the vehicle sales and I think Fiat sales up north are dismal.

Now we get to the part that is a little bit worrying. As most companies forecast the yearly sales to set up manufacturing cycles earlier in the year (or at times last year itself), there is a strong possibility of companies shutting down production for the rest of the year to try and save up on costs that arise due to missed forecast.

Proof of Theory - A friend of mine ordered a White Polo 1.2 Trendline (petrol) during the last week of October, after much hassles - VW showroom confirms that the production has been stopped and the only option is to go for a breeze model or choose another color (the only other option is red).

It becomes more clear that Breeze edition of VW polo was introduced to try and clear up stocks as soon as possible - BUT - i think the VW missed their calculations once again this year and this is surely going to upset quite a few folks.

Personally, I forecast quite a few unhappy VW prospect customers (and TBHPians) in the next few weeks. And something tells me my forecast is sure to be more accurate than VW's :)

Note from Mod : November Sales have been added at this link. The discussion can continue on the new thread. Thread closed.

Very insightful information. Now I don't have to rely on auto magazines for the monthly sales figures. I also do my own analysis, based on the top ten sales and for the first time Maruti's market share has fallen below 40%* for the years 2010 & 2011. Very interested in seeing the Eon effect on Maruti and for how long can they flog the 10+ years old Alto. Also, Indica/Vista combine in top three for the first time, albeit a result of strike at Maruti plant. But nonetheless a good showing by Hyundai and Tata – capitalizing on the constraints faced by Maruti.

*(not on total vehicle sales by a manufacturer, but based on vehicles figuring in top ten sales chart by the top three manufacturers)