[dkaile]

- Predictable slump in the new Fiesta sales but never expected such a poor run. Need price cuts to pump life into the product.
- VW needs to get its act together if they want to attain the No. 1 slot in the world that they aim. A good product and pricing mix is needed instead of them just banking on its 'brand name'. Auto AC needs to be put into the Jetta immediately for a 20L priced car.
- Honda needs to re-work its pricing of its 'premium' products too to survive. Surprised to see a 100 mark againt the CRV from the dismal figure in the previous months. Clerical Error?
- Nissan looking good with both its products.
- Tata is disappointing with its lack of vision.
- Toyota needs to rework the interiors of its Etios brands to take a lead position. Fortuner/Corolla/Innova going strong but Toyota really needs to work more on its face-lifts.

PS - Eagerly awaiting the New Sonata and the New Camry

[MAS]

Excellent report and Kudos to the team to bring it out immediately after the end of the month.

Maruti seems to be on a roll. 4 out of the top 5 cars are from MSIL. The waiting time for Swift and Dzire seems to have already come down. Last week, when i visited a Maruti Suzuki showroom, they quoted a 3 month waiting period for the cars.
Honda is back with a Bang. I am actually surprised at the 6000+ despatches of the City. I guess, this was the order bag log that was cleared.
Almost all models from Toyota are at the top of their segment.
All New Fiesta is a big flop - Sad for such a brilliant car.
HM could as well shut shop. Very poor efforts from the company to turn around. Even Premier is trying hard to make a come back. Mitsubishi is in wrong hands and has to take a decision. Heck, Fiat has more guts than Mitsubishi.

OT: It is amazing to see the number of cars sold. I wonder where the old cars end up, with no organized dump yards for cars in India.

[arup.misra]

Great work GTO & Jalsa. The passion & commitment reflects.

The big bang from Honda might just be one off (I hope not. It's the best petrol car to drive in the sub-10 lakh segment). The deliveries may just be clearance of back log orders. Brio sure doesn't look like a flash in the pan. It would keep up this run rate for some more time. Jazz numbers looks very surprising even after a price cut.

Ford is ruining the "Fiesta" brand with its atrocious pricing. The fact that the old Fiesta sells more than the newer one should set the alarm off amongst the Ford Mgt. Just hope they take corrective action else Ecosport (in future) too would face such a deadlock despite being a good looking car.

GTO congrats on the new Caar. Looking forward to reading your ownership report soon.

[sridhar-v]

Great data as always.

The success of the XUV500 shows that there is a large SUV market in the 10-15L range waiting to be tapped properly. When will the likes of Maruti, Toyoya & Hyundai wake up?

100 units of CRV were sold. Was there any one time price discount?

[needforspeed88]

Does anybody get else get the feeling that people have started to perceive i10 as a tad expensive ? It is a very good product no doubt but the way it is priced , it ends up being bang in the middle of a plethora of cars like Beat, Figo, Wagon R, Brio, and the Ritz. Eon has cannibalized a couple of thousand units of i10. I don't know Hyundai have to be very careful cos their money spinning car is under the gun. Indian market is extremely price sensitive and manufacturers have to be on their toes all the time. i10 is a great product and the auto variant is a great move. Hyundai Verna is perceived to be value for money in its segment and i hope Hyundai do the necessary price correction on i10 to make it even more enticing. Now the problem they face is that Eon is priced so close to the i10 that if they go any lower with i10's pricing they end up in Eon's pricing range. The problem here is Eon being price the way it is , has not given Hyundai any room with respect to playing around with i10's prices.

[rajeev k]

Maruti surges ahead and as their ad-line said earlier, the competition is nowhere to be seen.
Swift and Dezire are turning out to be the super performers and soon, if the trend continues Swift would be the best selling small hatch in India.

[maheshramaling]

Thanks Jalsa & GTO for this amazing analysis. Just few observations;

• C1 segment is fast catching up with B1...interesting trend.
• Does XUV 5OO fall under D1? IMHO it should be under Utility segment if Xylo is in Utility category?
• What happened to Endeavour in Feb - sudden drop?
• Good to see 800 and Ambassador numbers - going decent even it being decades old.

[Marlon]

Thanks GTO & Jalsa.

Seeing Trend over the past year. Looks like Oct is the worst month where all the cars took a big hit. Not sure of the exact reason. May be people waiting for Nov/ Dec - Festive & Clearance Sale ?

[jessie007]

I would like to add to the statistics with figures for segment-wise market share over a period of last month, 3 months and 6 months. These numbers give a fair picture of each vehicles market share within its own segment. Segmentation might not be perfect but I have done it to the best of my knowledge. I have left out vehicles (Prius, 370Z) as they have negligible impact in overall market share. Hope this is helpful.

[GTO]

OT but related : Guys, the Sunny Diesel has not been delivered yet. Once it is, and I put in atleast 2,000 kms on the car, you'll have a detailed ownership review with inputs from all family members

Cheers.

[ajmat]

India’s largest car maker does have its share of permanent laggards. Namely, the A-Star, Estilo, Grand Vitara and Kizashi which don’t appear to benefit from the trust in the brand or the wide distribution network at all.

Premium positioning a budget rand does not work. The Kizashi ticks all the boxes for me but I am a bit of a snob!

For a 15 year old hatchback, and Hyundai’s first car in India, the Santro finds a commendable ~6,000 homes. Watch out for the snazzy new Sonata which starts shipments in March. Hyundai is waiting for the budget before announcing prices.

No nonsense utility = Rs, the amortised costs etc means the contribution this car brings in is significant. Only regulation requirements might kill such cars off. if only Fiat managed the Palio properly

On the flip side, flagship product Aria is going nowhere until Tata brings in serious price corrections across the range. The last two years have shown us a fair share of overpriced products and they have all bombed. More power to the customer, I say!

Overprice once and the memory stays!

The next-gen Camry launch is just around the corner. It will be interesting to see how the CKD pricing affects its “fortunes”. Sadly, there is no news of a diesel Camry being launched.

Surprisingly all the rivals in the segment are petrol - the diesel options are overpriced. The Camry might have a chance, picking up Innova owners upgrading (Innova is due to a change so those owners might be looking ahead). The Superb had oodles of features and class. The Accord has A.S.S and reliability. What will the Camry have?

The Cruze, like a lot of other D1 segment sedans, is facing a lot of heat. Whenever it has faced such a situation before, GM always resorts to price-cuts.

Price is compelling, I persuaded a friend of mine to go for this over a Jetta. All it needs are more classy trimming

The Spark is slowly drifting away into no-mans land. Unless GM brings in corrective measures, this once-a-solid-3,000-monthly car will sink away into oblivion. I still think the Spark is one heck of a package for the money and deserves to do better.

THey need to bring it in the radar of the Santro buyer. We all forget about the GM cars for some reason

After a dreadful January that marked Honda’s lowest point ever, February brought some respite in terms of production & part supplies. The Brio – a well priced Honda hatchback – is gaining traction and closes Feb at 2,000 shipments. The City is back with a bang, bringing home a stunning 6,000+ sales. The Jazz has a lot of potential with its repositioning, albeit we have yet to see any effect of the price cuts. The CRV has a pretty good run with a 100 imports.

I cannot figure out why the CRV sells still. The Brio shows what good design flair can do. Civic and Accord don't float my boat. Saying that five years ago, I did aspire to the Civic and the previous Accord from my Vtec but the germans have spoilt it for me!

The Figo has now established itself as a consistent performer, closing February with a tally of 6,500 units. The ol' Fiesta is also bringing in ~1,400 sales quite regularly. However, there is not much else to cheer about at Ford. Probable inventory backlog at the dealer level means the 2011 Fiesta saw a mere 77 factory dispatches. How an over-priced product can ruin your market penetration strategy

.

Ford may not be too bothered since they get good contribution. They will wake up when the volumes dry up.

VW knew things just got tougher for the Vento. 400 shipments is a nice February for the Jetta, and the car is still working through the 2.5 month booking backlog. Importantly, the Jetta outsold the Laura.

Lots of tit for tat going on. Am surprised that the Jetta outsells the Laura considering it is overpriced and most variants are the top end model

1 car of the 3,130 tally is mine . Yep, we just booked the Sunny Diesel as I think it’s the perfect chauffeur-driven family car. The Micra has a superb month as well, crossing over the 2K mark for the first time in nearly a year. But the reason for the Sunny outselling the cheaper Micra is this

:

Herzt sent me a Sunny taxi yesterday and the quality, space equation is compelling.

.

Renaults India strategy still appears to be much too confused, and only time will tell if & when the brand is able to penetrate deeper into the market.

They need to stop showing pictures and "bose"ting.They need to highlight the Fluence's features and competitivie value. I drove one and was quite impressed with what it had to offer.

[shivasuma]

Originally Posted by ajmat

Price is compelling, I persuaded a friend of mine to go for this over a Jetta. All it needs are more classy trimming

I am actually surprised that the Jetta is selling 400+ cars. I think it is atleast overpriced by 2L. Imagine a 18L car with no ACC, USB, electric folding mirrors etc. I guess brand only matters at that price point.

Ford dealers have too many New fiestas in their yards I guess, and hence the low 77 dispatches. Don't know if the price correction is going to help. They should have got the price correct when they launched it.

[deetjohn]

Thanks for exemplary analysis and presentation Jalsa777 & GTO. The only thing missing are the Germans.

Knew the new Swift will break the 20K barrier soon. But 35K units from both Swift & DZire in a month is incredible. I am sure no other market gobbles up the Swift like we do. And as a gratitude, MSIL should bring out the new Swift Sport in India. Let them take a hit on the margin, but the country No.1 will do well to bring it here as a limited edition.

The Nissan Sunny D is perfect recipe for success in our market. And so far, in Kerala at least, the long Jap is a big hit. Great come back by City and I am really confused to see the Jazz numbers. What is happening there?

Looking at all the charts, it is easy to judge that having a Diesel motor saves more than half the trouble. But I do hope the manufacturers do not give up on petrol without a fight. They all should work on increasing the power and efficiency of the motor by adding superior tech like variable valve timing for both intake & exhaust valves, turbo charging, auto start stop, intelligent AC etc.

Petrol really need its common rail moment after MPFi. Maybe Fiat can start a new chapter by bringing in the MultiAir.

[volkman10]

Nice figures from Suzuki. Would get better with Ertiga release.
Impact of the coming budget ( Diesel vehicles) would be seen inthe April sales figures.

Renault is not going anyway even with the release of Pulse.

Cheers!

[#win]

Thanks GTO for the wonderful presentation.
Just wondering if the Rio was ever sold, or is it that you dont have the numbers.
I am guessing they would have sold atleast a couple of hundreds in not more