[heman_369]

Superb analysis GTO and team. Kudos for the most comprehensive car sales analysis ever. Just a nitpick, the C segment sales trend has Etios missing.
I am very happy to see Nano sales improving. Overall a great month for Hyundai, Tata amd Toyota

[rahul_sinha]

Super report and graphs GTO and Jalsa777. Deserve 10 star, but giving only 5 as per the system rules.

Interestingly the car sales have increased (and not marginally) if you compare Oct sales with Nov. Quite contrary to what was reported by Economic Times a while ago, or did people get some late bonus in Nov ?

[Superleggera]

Thanks for the Chart and Analysis GTO. Honda is having a real bad time.
They are just 700 odds cars ahead of Fiat !!!

[ACM]

Originally Posted by Rock 'n' rollz

I disagree on this. It is the after sales service. TASS prefers servicing TATA cars and hence Fiat owners tend to get step-motherly treatment. They sometime behave as if they were doing us a favor by servicing a Fiat car. Not sure if they have been told about the JV stuff yet.

There are no dedicated service bays for Fiat cars as claimed. Forget about the bays, there are no dedicated Fiat experts in the workforce. Result: Tata Technician doing a jugaad on a Fiat car

Actually it is now a complete different set of persons for FIAT right from sales persons to Service Advisors to dedicated Fiat areas in both showroom and service centres where TATA cars and branding cannot even be placed. So TASS isn't really the problem.

But the Brand image and perceived TASS issues are indeed a problem. While I say that am referring to specific service centers that I am aware of an all sales outlets, there could still be some service centres where the problem does persist as mentioned by you. But the mandate already is to have distinct persons and areas (as in distinct Fiat SA Desk etc.) so that should soon stop.

[akshay380]

Thanks for an awesome analysis.
I feel very bad for Honda. Wish they recover soon. Regarding Ford Figo they are doing good. Just another 1k to catch HMs i20 New Fiesta? Future looks grim unless repositioned asap.

[samarjitdhar]

Once again another fabulous analysis by fabulous GTO. Rated 5 stars.

A suggestion. Can we break up the C segment into two parts? Could be B+ and C or C- and C. With so many models straddling this category the graph looks a bit cluttered. Two separate categories showing the performance like the one in the C+ segment will help a lot.
Also do the manufacturers ever publish breakups between diesel and petrol variants of a model? It would have been really helpful as I suspect the diesel variants outsell the petrol ones by 8 to 2 if both the options are available in a specific model.

Now for my take on the C segment specially for the New Fiesta, Verna, Vento + Rapid, Linea and City. To me these are the ones in the same segment (C) as they are priced about 8 lacs OTR upwards for their base models, hence my suggestion if we could break up the C segment.

Honda had it really bad this month with the floods wiping out their production capacity in Thailand. The direct result being in my view a lot of Honda customers opted for Toyota Etios (Japanese reliability). After the price cut, the entry level City models were at par at the high end Etios. Hence unavailability of City probably helped Etios a lot to add numbers, given it oodles of space, diesel heart option and the Toyota brand.

Verna continues to hold the top position as expected. In my recent trip to the North East I was surprised to see the large no. of Vernas on the roads of Guwahati, clearly its the most popular car in the C segment out there. The Ford Figo rules the roost in this region in the B segment from what I had observed. A large no. of Vernas are visible in my city too now.

The launch of the Rapid will definitely help get Skoda's nos. up and I suspect it will start eating into the Vento prospects given the middle variant option (available only in Rapid). One has to wonder very hard what is VW up to with their entry level variant and their brainless Breeze branding (I have seen only one breeze branded Polo on the roads till now, no Vento yet). The worst part being the ad campaign for the Breeze with a half human and a half ape sputtering nonsense. Fire the ad agency and spend that money to get a middle variant or making airbags and ABS as accessories at an affordable price to the entry variant. Customers buying sedans in this category always plan for some highway runs in a month and absence of airbags and ABS is killing the entry variant. I am sure those options can easily add another 500-800 units to the Vento specially when City is not even selling 1000 a month given Honda's situation. Sometimes I feel the half human and the half ape in the ads are the marketing heads at VW .

The siblings of the half human and half ape in the marketing department of VW work in the product planning and strategy department at Ford . The new Fiesta sells as if its a C+ segment car while the old Fiesta sells double nos. but still not in the City/Verna/Vento category because of its dated nature and smallish size in comparison. Maybe they can upgrade the old Fiesta and call it the new Fiesta, sell it at the 10 lac bracket and call the new Fiesta the newer Fiesta with some more bells and whistles and put it in the C+ bracket. Oh well. What is Ford thinking and planning will remain a mystery even to the Almighty.

Much has been said about Fiat and Linea so no point beating the same drums again. Their product planning and strategy department probably doesn't exist at all and they are just happy selling the national engine to Maruti and Tata.

Nissan's caaaaaaaaar takes up so much space in the road that I have seen only one till now. Its not a bad car as understood from the TBHP review, affordable too. Probably the petrol only option, limited visibility of the brand and sparse dealerships result in the low numbers. Change the ad campaign and make it more intense and frequent to gain visibility would be perhaps the medicine for Nissan if its looking at volumes.

My $0.02. Once again excellent thread.

[LastActionHero]

Originally Posted by suhaas307

It's sad to see Honda slump to an all new low, despite the entry of the Brio. Sales have more than just halved. The Jazz has seen a steady decline over the last few months, and so has the Civic. But what shocked me the most is the huge drop in the sales of the City! From a consistent 3k-5k units, the Honda has fallen to a miserable 600 units!

This could be attributed to the massive natural calamity that hit Thailand. Not to mention soaring fuel prices, and competition that keeps getting stronger and better with diesel engines.

Now is a good time for that 1.6 diesel lump, Honda. Is anybody listening?

Well the City is down because of
1) Thailand
2) Petrol Engine
3) The new city is coming for sure and production has most likely stopped for the old City to clear inventory.

[vinya_jag]

Originally Posted by GTO

My Analysis

Meanwhile, the Safari trundles along at its monthly average.

We Indians somehow tend to like rounded designs.
Just look at the Safari sales. Had the old cute Zen been around, it would still have sold close to 3K per month.

Despite its size, age, the Zen can still be a strong contender. Pleasing on the eye is what we want.

There are some designs that stick. Take the Fiat 500, or the beetle, the Mini when it comes to the international market.

And the Zen, old M800, Safari, Dolphin here. Is it not time to revive these classics? [Ill buy the Dolphin]

[ganesc]

@GTO

Awesome read, looks really well put especially those colourful bars and graphs instead of just numbers; speaks for itself!

Safari against Scorpio, hmmmm. Badly calling for the Merlin (May be at the same price too) Tata cant do the same mistake as they did on Aria. They will have to learn from Mahindra's XUV 5 oh oh!

Is that a co-incidence that Mahindra's better looking and ugly looking matched the score?

Ford for sure did not learn a thing or two from past while pricing New Fiesta and they are paying. Over confidence(?!)

Awaiting your take on Tata Nano 2012 with those beautiful pictures.

[isodope]

Has VW stopped selling the Touareg? Or does that fall under the premium German manufacturer segment and that is why it isn't mentioned here?

[Simhi]

Originally Posted by rahul_sinha

Super report and graphs GTO and Jalsa777. Deserve 10 star, but giving only 5 as per the system rules.

Interestingly the car sales have increased (and not marginally) if you compare Oct sales with Nov. Quite contrary to what was reported by Economic Times a while ago, or did people get some late bonus in Nov ?

Interest rates are up, inflation are high, but manufactured cars are high - Only reason I can see is that manufacturers want to stock the dealers up for the usual year end sales wherein they offer discounts.

[RajaTaurus]

One sure thing I expected the wash-out of Outlander by XUV500 and it just happened. Next month analysis will have the item out of the chart. Sad truth for Mitsubishi.

[Maverick79]

Thanks to GTO and jalsa777. This is the best analysis I can see across the media till now, other than the CRM reports of OEMs.

Gives a very clear picture about our Indian Car Industry's performance.

Originally Posted by Turbokick

- Why is it like Tata always gives the combined figures for indica+vista and indigo+manza ? Aren't they the one who want brand differentiation ? This itself shows the reason why vista and manza didn't exactly click with the families. Thanks to the taxi image associated with the original brand. I am sure the TDi version of Vista,which is quite popular with the taxi fleet is churning the real numbers.

The Vista TDI with along with its two trims is around 3k. While the Vx QJT a Single trim alone is more than 3K. So it seems the sale increase is not only due to Taxi segment.

[Rock 'n' rollz]

Originally Posted by ACM

Actually it is now a complete different set of persons for FIAT right from sales persons to Service Advisors to dedicated Fiat areas in both showroom and service centres where TATA cars and branding cannot even be placed. So TASS isn't really the problem.

Fortune Thane doesn't have separate SAs for Fiat for sure, nor do they have a dedicated Sales area for Fiat.

Would you be kind enough to name a few dealerships in Mumbai that have a dedicated Fiat setup at TASS please? That would really help.

I have had enough at Fortune Cars, Thane recently. The SA, I had very good relationship with, has left and now I am an "invisible man" for initial half an hour when I visit them.

[RGK]

Thanks GTO and Jalsa777 for the detailed analysis. The individual graphs are not that much easy to read especially in the crowded B and C segment. A slight different type of representation would make better.

No doubt Alto is the best A-segment petrol car and the data proves it again.

GM has to do something very soon and cannot live only on Beat sales. Seems Fiat do not care anything as long as their diesel power plant sells well.