[urajkumar]

Interesting to see Swift so close to Alto, which shows much aware the indian customer is on style, ride quality, stability and value for money. No longer can the manafactures give something shoddy at low cost and expect to sell.

The other suprise is Honda City which shows Petrol will continue to sell irrespective of skewed cost of diesel. I expect the normalization of Diesel in this budget to help Honda get back its winning habits!

[amtak]

First of all, am I the only one who is not able to see images of this wonderful thread? Secondly, proud to say that I am one of those who added to the nano sales this month!

Very good analysis by all. Honda seems to be recovering, Renault + Fiat sinking; guess some europeans have forgotten swimming!

Renault - I am yet to see a big showroom in Mumbai area; have seen the hoardings, where are the showrooms? if you have a small car, you need to have more showrooms. Period.

Fiat - How many people visited Fiat Caffee's in the last month? It is a brilliant concept; make it more common like a CCD/Barista; don't keep it high end, bring it to the masses. Cars are drool worthy, make them buy worthy (quality of plastics), better marketing; sometimes its bad to be good in the market. No offense to the ailing cricketer Yuvi and I wish him a speedy recovery; but look at how Birla insurance is making the most of his illness; where is your marketing team? wasn't your ad something similar?

Tata Aria - I believe it is a very good car; poorly marketed. Tata needs to get its act together; if Sumo Gold can be advertised, why not the Aria? make new ad, just like the safari ads, hit the bulls eye - heart of the family man; no need for foregin models or locations; space is what matters.

[AbhiJ]

One of the 3130 Nissan Sunnys is mine too ... Expecting delivery on Sunday.

100 CRVs? How come the sudden surge in numbers? Is Honda giving discounts on the car (clearing stock for the new model?)

[Zed]

Interesting stats & reviews as always.

While the 'XUV-Innova-Scorpio-Xylo-Aria-Safari' coterie attracts a lot of attention, poorer cousins Bolero-Sumo-Tavera seem to be nothcing up comparable volumes.

If one considers the customer base, the impression is of two distinct sets (with some blurry edges for sure) of customers.

One lot thats in tune with current automotive trends and treat their vehicle as an extension of their personalities - so its got to look the part - very particular about safety features ( I hope!) & quality\service levels, like to have bells and whistles in their rides ...

With the other lot looking for a rugged durable diesel vehicle that can ferry more ppl than an equalent priced 'car' and provide many years of relatively dependable service, with low maintenance costs. Aesthetics, fit and finish & flawless quality take a back seat to VFM.

Like Ive stated earlier the stereotypes will probably not apply across the entire cross section of buyers but at the same time it would apply to a sizeable portion.

To a casual observer the second group of customers seem potentially the ones that are easier to please - given that the vehicle being offered is in the acceptable price bracket (5 - 7lakhs?). The sub-segment seems to have ample growth potential given the fact that smaller cities, town and villages are typically where a many of these are sold. Once can only imagine that in the next 5 - 10 years these small towns & villages will be a significant driver for Automotive demand.

[volkman10]

VE Commercial Vehicle sales up 13% in Feb.

"Auto-maker VE Commercial Vehicles (VECV) today said it recorded a 13.3% jump in its total sales at 4,436 units in February, 2012.

The company, which is a joint venture between the Volvo Group and Eicher Motors, had sold 3,916 units in the same month last year."

VE Commercial Vehicle sales up 13% in Feb

[SafeSteer]

I wonder whether it will help if Fiat closes 'Fiat' brand in India and bring another brand from its family, something like Dodge. Of course, new brand must come with new thinking, attitude, and product line. Isn't GM more successful with Chevy brand than Opel - something similar Fiat can do.

[man_and_machine]

City has moved from its 4 -5 K mark to 6K with the new 2012 model. It has got back its "if you need a petrol sedan look no further" position. The nano seems to be getting close to the eon numbers meaning the car is getting acceptable into the Indian families, so the attack from the bottom is working. The only reason why I would not buy it is that it does not come with the power steering, wifey said a clear "NO" as she would need to strain herself to reverse it into the slot!
Investing into a D engine (from a production line) perspective would take a long term investment plan from Honda, will it pay well, not sure (unless they buy the 1.3 or the 1.5) from competition, but then it would not be a true Honda.
New Tavera not doing great! It has the potential to take on the xylo but lack of safety features even in the top end is a sure sore for the urban user. The new Innova has the potential to sell more, I would expect a small correction in price (discount) if the new xylo does well.
A Caaar in the GTO stable, misfit :-) ? Hope you cover the 2K early, want your take on the caaar!

[VWdriver]

It seems VW-Chakan is running full capacity (attachment). My simplistic estimate of capcity utlization at the plant is obtained by first summing up monthly sales of Fabia, Polo, Rapid and Vento, multiplying the result by 12 and dividing it by 110000 - the plant capacity. A Bengali newspaper reports today that VW is looking to set up a 200-acre plant in WB and another plant in TN possibly to keep up with demand.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by amtak

First of all, am I the only one who is not able to see images of this wonderful thread?

Issue has been sorted for the few of you who were facing a problem . Please drop me a PM and confirm that you can view the charts now.

Thanks for the heads up.

[vijay_rodie]

Originally Posted by 220kmph

Thank you, indeed, GTO, for these statistics. Do you have any figures for Force One sales? Kindly put them up, in case available. Thanks again.

I was about ask same question.
Last week I had taken TD of Force One, I was very impressed by the overall space inside the vehicle.
Curious to know their sales figure.

[rajneeesh]

Let us see what the budger holds for the car buyers esp for Diesel Variants. Any significant increase in excise duty on Diesel cars may well change the list of top selling cars.

Has MSIL started getting the DDIS engine from FIAT? It may well power ahead to stratospheric levels with sales of the Swift and the Dzire if the Diesel Engine supply is not a constraint.

Hopefully the FM will not spoil the party. Diesel engines being inherently more fuel efficient save a lot of foreign exchange for the country when crude is at $123/barrel.

[kaush666]

Its indeed a great sight to see the Honda City crossing 6000 units the previous month without an oil burner under its hood. Exceptional to say the least! Shows the faith Indian's have on Honda's reliability.

On the other hand FIAT seems to be sinking down as usual and in the hatchback section products which were duds a year ago are still duds. Unfortunate. Renault India also needs to get back on track. They seriously need to hold it together. Instead of the Pulse had they brought something like the Modus I am pretty sure they would have garnered more sales. Lets wait and see.

Cheers,
Kaushik

[anumod]

Excellent collation and reporting GTO and Jalsa.

I am seriously surprised with Fiesta numbers. They are giving huge discounts now also (Petrol they are still giving 1L cash discount). With these much price reduction, if the product is not being taken by customers, so one thing is clear. The current selling cars might be from the stockyard of the showroom guys.

Another thing which Ford might be thinking, they were saying that this is a premium Sedan form Ford and indeed the numbers really reveals that

[karty_83]

Great Analysis GTO, thanks for sharing ! Looks like a good month overall for all the car makers.
City is right back on track for Honda and doing good numbers once again. I would have loved to see Jazz do better, its such a brilliant car. New Fiesta is an absolute shocker. Come on Ford do something about it, 77 is just dismal. Good to see Nissan heading in the right direction.

[carwatcher]

Though it has been clarified many times before but I must say that without the break-up of Petrol/Diesel and Indica/Vista and Indigo/Manza in the way as Ford Fiesta classic/new Fiesta nos. are given this analysis is not a perfect one. In India we have a tendency to maintain secrecy in each and everything whether necessary or not. See the case of MNP, did the sky fall down after it was allowed after delaying for so long.
Anyway we T-Bhpians can only analyze what is served before us by the manufacturers.