[sudheeshnairs]

Originally Posted by altius

These days, I am seeing more and more Etios on the road as Taxi's. I guess the Toyota reliability factor may draw more taxi operators to buy Etios, but which may put off individual's buying it.

In Bangalore almost every Etios now I see is a Taxi. A major chunk of the 2000 number addition to Airport Taxis are Etios cars.

Apart from reliability factor of Toyota, ETIOS is definity built to cost and looks cheap.

[drmohitg]

It is extremely unfortunate to see such a capable car like the Vento fare so poorly in its segment. Most of the months its not even close to the second position and is trumped by the petrol only Honda City. Given that the car and the brand enjoyed so much success right at the time of the launch should make VW start thinking seriously. Right now they really need to take some corrective action in terms of improving the Dealership experience, the cost of the car and probably adding some more gadgets across the range.

[ramesh]

Originally Posted by Sheel

If Mahindra were to provide nos as to which state sells the most Bolero, I would bet it is Bihar.

Any color, model, one laps it. Why? May be it has established itself as a brand.

What must be the reason for below points

1. Why Mahindra not completely modernise the Bolero , kind of Full Model Change. I believe after selling more than half million or so numbers it should be possible to any manufacturer to go for Full Model Change. Should we take it that Mahindra themselves are not confident enough that they can come out with a better vehicle and sell more too ?

2. Why other domestic players do not adopt similar product offering especially TATA and Force ? , Have they completely missed to understand the USPs of Bolero ?

[wordsworth]

Obtaining and publishing details from major companies bang on day 1 of the is a study in itself .. Thanks to GTO and team-bhp for an informative beginning to the month ..

[SDP]

Originally Posted by ramesh

What must be the reason for below points

1. Why Mahindra not completely modernise the Bolero , kind of Full Model Change. I believe after selling more than half million or so numbers it should be possible to any manufacturer to go for Full Model Change. Should we take it that Mahindra themselves are not confident enough that they can come out with a better vehicle and sell more too ?
...

Why fix it if it is not broken? With the current version going great-guns month after month, year after year, there is no incentive fro M&M to refresh the model.

[apachelongbow]

Note from Mod: There are several spelling & grammatical errors in your posts. This negatively affects the board experience for other readers.

Kindly ensure that you proof-read your posts prior to submission. Also, it would be a good idea to use spell-checkers.

GTO: Can you provide how many Force Ones are sold in July? Also how many Premier RiOs please?

[wordsworth]

Eon is clearly eating into the sales of the santro .. Can any of the jap/ americans or europeon launch an alto beater ?

Read in TOI yesterday that Renault is working on a entry level hatch 2804

Given the Dacia expertise and the initial success of the Duster, think Renault could still be a major player in this segment.

[parsh]

Awesome analysis once again. Alto even if still holding the top spot, has fallen to aging and to more options due to stiff competition that has emerged and has shown gradual decline coming to about half of Jan and earlier sales, may also got to do with people's broadened outlook of first/small car. But still feel Eon maynot have done much to contribute to the same. Toyota getting some kickback on the Etios and Liva with their dismal treatment of customers as against competition , they got to improvise on the customer delight soon and on useful aspects and not just offer TRD kits I guess.

I was also looking specifically for Thar numbers this time. But why are they missing from analysis? I do know quite a few ones used for regular office commute as well, they make quite a statement.

Way to go XUV500 although Innova continues to climb northwards seemlessly inspite of additional premium price with so little to offer in terms of customer delight.

When is Storme going to lift Safari out of slumber or is it too late altogether?

[kiransri_bng]

Thanks for bringing out this wonderful report every month. I am surprised with the increase in Honda products especially when the petrol prices are going north. Any idea on the sudden increase in their sales chart?

[joslicx]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

It is extremely unfortunate to see such a capable car like the Vento fare so poorly in its segment. Most of the months its not even close to the second position and is trumped by the petrol only Honda City. Given that the car and the brand enjoyed so much success right at the time of the launch should make VW start thinking seriously. Right now they really need to take some corrective action in terms of improving the Dealership experience, the cost of the car and probably adding some more gadgets across the range.

The fall this month could be Duster effect. All C segment sedans have taken some beating (compared to last month). Since for the same price Duster is available, there should be some cross shopping I believe.

Another reason for Vento's gradual fall could be the atrociously high price. Since the Tdi HL model has gone upwards of 10L ex-showroom, at lot of places this has meant extra road tax as well. The CL and TL models are hardly appealing (except for the engine).

Originally Posted by kiransri_bng

Thanks for bringing out this wonderful report every month. I am surprised with the increase in Honda products especially when the petrol prices are going north. Any idea on the sudden increase in their sales chart?

There is no such increase. Last month was an abnormally low month for Honda (might be their all time lowest during "normal" times). They could not have gone down any further for sure!

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by joslicx

The fall this month could be Duster effect. All C segment sedans have taken some beating (compared to last month). Since for the same price Duster is available, there should be some cross shopping I believe.

The Vento has been a backbencher since quite a few months now. The number 1 sedan in the segment has clearly been the Verna followed by the Honda City in the second position for most of the months. I am not considering the Nissan Sunny in this segment to make things simpler. Its very surprising that even though the Vento being a good package, has the famed european built and the premium VW tag, it still doesn't match the sales numbers of the City which comes in an only petrol avatar. Also a thing to note here is that the city doesn't come with too much of gadgets and features like the Verna. Hence its really odd that VW is finding it difficult to sell the diesel Vento in comparison to the petrol City. I think the only thing that can save them from this slump is to cut down the prices to a more realistic level.

[Coolman]

Originally Posted by GTO

How come the Maruti 800 is still selling close to 1500 units per month for the last few months? It had been announced in April 2012 that, April would be the last month for manufacturing the 800.

Thanks,
C_

[KL01BE]

Thanks GTO, for the excellent report. This report, I believe, will be useful to not just us Bhpians but also the research guys in the automobile industry.
Being a sympathizer of Honda, I am happy to note the sales of City increasing, but at the same time sad that it does not reach its earlier volume. Yes, the lack of the diesel mill shows in the sales, but lack of enthusiasm from the management to promote the sales also is to blame.
If one has a good product, he should be convinced about it and try to market it aggressively. The differentiation in terms of the product (manufacturer wise) is not much and one has to shout out loud to market one’s product. Lack of this is showing in the sales of Brio and Jazz.
In a month, most manufacturers find one or more reason for a display mela or an offer based sale for their models. But not Honda.
Come on Honda, wake up.

[samarjitdhar]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

The Vento has been a backbencher since quite a few months now. The number 1 sedan in the segment has clearly been the Verna followed by the Honda City in the second position for most of the months. I am not considering the Nissan Sunny in this segment to make things simpler. Its very surprising that even though the Vento being a good package, has the famed european built and the premium VW tag, it still doesn't match the sales numbers of the City which comes in an only petrol avatar. Also a thing to note here is that the city doesn't come with too much of gadgets and features like the Verna. Hence its really odd that VW is finding it difficult to sell the diesel Vento in comparison to the petrol City. I think the only thing that can save them from this slump is to cut down the prices to a more realistic level.

I think many of the Honda City sales number lie in the mid level trims which provides a large price differential with the Vento for the OTR amount. Remember even the corporate trim of the City comes with ABS and airbags. The S trim comes with alloy and only misses the fogs but still is a whopping 2 lakhs lesser than the Vento TDI HL and this is before discounts. The OTR price differential easily comes to almost 3 lakhs. At that price differential the petrol City becomes a very VFM buy even for folks who drive 800-1000 kms per month. VW seriously needs to look at a price correction through better localization.

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

Its very surprising that even though the Vento being a good package, has the famed european built and the premium VW tag, it still doesn't match the sales numbers of the City which comes in an only petrol avatar. Also a thing to note here is that the city doesn't come with too much of gadgets and features like the Verna. Hence its really odd that VW is finding it difficult to sell the diesel Vento in comparison to the petrol City.

I think City is still the choice of the public when it comes to petrol sedans. The petrol Vento was never a serious threat to the petrol city. Vento used to clock higher numbers due to the diesel variant sales.

I think Verna is now taking the bulk of the diesel sedan sales in its segment, going by the consistent 5000+ sales it is clocking. The Rapid is also eating into the Vento's market. Then there's definitely the Sunny. Don't under-estimate the effect of the Ertiga as well. And Duster's arrival surely will not make it any easier for Vento to climb up the charts again.