[civic-sense]

Originally Posted by needforspeed88

Diesel is the way to go for auto manufacturers. 75% of total Swift sales come from diesel variants. Although the news of deregulation of diesel is doing the rounds it is highly unlikely that diesel used for automobiles will be deregulated completely as it will have a cascading effect on the prices of all commodities. Just imagine if Maruti launch the Wagon R/ Alto with a three cylinder 1 liter diesel motor, their sales will go through the roof. Hyundai i10 kappa2 will be one product which will take the maximum hit from Swift's sales as it does not have a diesel option while all the leading manufacturers have a diesel option in the segment.

The increase in diesel cars and consequent consumption of diesel as fuel is alarming. Crude, when refined yields approximately 50% petrol and 25% diesel. If more and more cars switch to diesel, soon oil cos would have unused petrol stocks. Hopefully, the govt would increase diesel taxes, then.

[Nilesh5417]

Agree with GTO. The extent of fall in Alto's numbers is massive! Such a massive shift can not be explained by change in preferences alone. There has to be an explanation that can throw some light on what caused such drastic drop in just one month.

[man_and_machine]

Waiting for the April Month sales figure to answer this riddle. Nano to Eon might also be the reason. Looking at Swift v/s Alto might not be the answer, but Alto v/s competition. Eon, Beat D, Nano would be worth watching. Looking at the previous month sales of Nano, I somehow feel this could also be one reason. Even though they are not in the same league, its difficult to understand market sentiments in one month.

There were no news of production bottle necks (atleast not to public knowledge), so not sure if that was the reason.

But then, I am really waiting for the April month sales figures. Guys, bring it on.

[CARDEEP]

^^ Nano has managed little over 8K units in the last month. Probably Eon can be another reason, but, I feel that it is the excess shipments which could be the main reason.

Guess MS could have used the capacity judiciously rather than creating record with Alto numbers in a fiscal.

[shortbread]

My guess is Maruti must have focussed on pumping out as many 800s as possible in its last month. Dealers might not mind stocking up on 800s as there might be demand even after stoppage of production.

[dkaile]

It's more of an aberration rather than a norm. Sanity will return to the market next month and Alto will be back at No. 1 slot. And if the diesel price hike comes in, as the PM has hinted, then...

[Aroy]

It is not so much the Swift sales rising as the Alto falling to half of what it was doing in the past few months.

In my opinion, this is a temporary phenomenon, and Alto will limb back to 25k+ numbers. The case with 800 was slightly different as both 800 and Alto were priced close and Alto had much better AC, but they were same size. Swift is at least twice as expensive and a much bigger vehicle. If you take the diesel version it is retailing for nearly thrice the price of the mid range Alto, and in my opinion the customers of Alto at 2.5-3.5L will rarely upgrade to 6L+ even for diesel.

What is interesting is that the numbers - the decline of Alto sales in April, is more than many manufacturers monthly sale.

[Nitrous Power]

Originally Posted by rajeev k

Another reason for the decline in sales of Alto is the increased market share of Hyundai's Eon. In fact Swift sales figures dropped from March 2012.

I don't think Eon's sales increased by around 10k. This is not Eon effect but looks like more of a pre-budget hype and may be some production lines getting diverted to accommodate other Maruti models. We really have to analyze few months of data before coming ton conclusion. As we have seen past, Alto took a hit in 1 or 2 mints and came back stronger than before.

[nurni76]

Originally Posted by man_and_machine

Waiting for the April Month sales figure to answer this riddle. Nano to Eon might also be the reason. Looking at Swift v/s Alto might not be the answer, but Alto v/s competition. Eon, Beat D, Nano would be worth watching. Looking at the previous month sales of Nano, I somehow feel this could also be one reason. Even though they are not in the same league, its difficult to understand market sentiments in one month.

There were no news of production bottle necks (atleast not to public knowledge), so not sure if that was the reason.

But then, I am really waiting for the April month sales figures. Guys, bring it on.

I think it is more of an internal Maruti issue than effect of a Nano or eon. Competition cannot cause such a drastic fall in a matter of 1 Month. such competitive effects happen over a period of time.

Nano sales is 8028 in April, (source: http://www.moneycontrol.com/news_htm...2_23020512.pdf).

[Turbokick]

Looks like MS now has got the comfort of pricing Swift even higher than it has done in last 5 months :-D
Forget about the alto vs swift competition,
Think of Swift vs its actually competition.
Its sheer monopoly and Swift is doing numbers almost equivalent to sum of all its competitors !

What is wrong other cars ?

[romeomidhun]

I heard Ertiga is manufactured in Gurgaon plant, where Alto also is manufactured. Is that the reason?

Another point: Hyundai also don't have a great month compared to March 2012 - their hatch car sales (i10, i20, Santro, Eon combined) is just around 25K.

[Ashley2]

Here its only a sales drop of Alto has pushed Swift up, as the numbers for Swift was in the same level last month, only Alto has come down from 30K.
This will be tallied in the next month sales I guess.

[CoolFire]

Originally Posted by nkrishnap

Nevertheless, swift+Dzire will almost match the Alto in numbers.

Remember, Alto figures itself is the sum of the regular Alto + K10. So it is not much unfair to compare that to Swift + Dzire.

[ghodlur]

I read in Hindustan Times yesterday about Swift edging the Alto to become the highest grosser for the first time in 7 years or something. Is the Swift cannibalising its own siblings - the Alto, Dzire.

Desperately waiting for GTO's April month sales thread.

[volkman10]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

I read in Hindustan Times yesterday about Swift edging the Alto to become the highest grosser for the first time in 7 years or something. Is the Swift cannibalising its own siblings - the Alto, Dzire.

Could be many reasons for the drop in April sales for Alto but could be attributed to many reasons having hit production. A car doing consistently well month on month can't reach a slump suddenly.

Let us await the figures for the next few months to give Swift the coveted position.

Cheers!