[wordsworth]

Originally Posted by Sheel

Curious, as to why the Yeti sold a measly 6 units? The earlier months have decent sales figure (in relative terms). Facelift?

One of them came in my locality.

There is no news on facelift which would keep the customers away. Sad state of a brilliant car.

[vasanthn21]

Mods: In the manufacturer list depicting market share, Honda and Renault are not placed correctly. It is sorted descending on market share right?
Honda should be above Ford, and Renault should be above Chevrolet.

[apachelongbow]

Originally Posted by Sheel

Curious, as to why the Yeti sold a measly 6 units? The earlier months have decent sales figure (in relative terms). Facelift?

May be with better choices at lower price points (read the XUV , Duster) and better cars at slight premium (read Rexton) people do realise how much they are overpaying for what is essentially so little. Add on Skoda post sales and service horrors, I am not surprised.

Interesting thing regarding Duster is Renault has seen almost a bloom in terms of overall sales. Sales of Koleos too has picked up. So getting a star model does work for overall sales increase. Increase footfalls due to the Star (Duster) and people may well walk out with a Pulse, Scala or a Koleos.

[thoma]

Originally Posted by Sheel

And it sells in the hills. Am just back from Sikkim and all I see is Bolero. That Di engine is a mountain goat. It climbs hills like no other.

Wonder whether the Bolero became a runaway success mostly after stopping the Major?

Is the Invader not available now? If not why could it have been discontinued?

Originally Posted by GTO

We're currently adding the final touches to an official review of a very important car, thus that's where all the energies are.

But please do let us know then what might have happened to the most fuel efficient diesel hatch last month.

[Ksingh544]

My take-aways from the analysis by GTO and team, which i had published on my FB & Twitter (@kundansingh). Great job as usual by the BHP boys and bang on time.

Chevrolet

•Dated models like the Aveo & Aveo-UVA have dwindling sales of 37 & 22 units respectively for the month of October’12. In my opinion both models should be scrapped, they have nothing new to offer to the customer, who is looking for style, convenience
•Similar with the Optra which is essentially a Daewoo re-badged, previous month sold 5 units
•GM got greedy with the Beat and totally overlooked the Spark which pretty much ran the company for years, resulting in sales of 829 units. In comparison the Beat sold 2900 units

Fiat
•The company desperately needs to launch something new for the Indian market, its flagship model the Linea is doing dismal sales; October sales of 37 units

HM-Mitsubishi
•The good old Ambassador continue to churn out of the HM from its plant, consistently selling 200+ units for the last 8 months
•Again HM-Mitsubishi needs new product offerings, the EVO makes no sense at its price point of 20+ lakhs and has resulted in net sales of 0 !!
•The Montero, Outlander and Pajero sport combined have sold 135 units, less than the Ambassador; that’s a story in itself

Honda
•Honda continues to stay afloat thanks to the City and Bro both doing similar numbers around the 3800 unit mark.
•The overpriced Jazz, outdated Civic and overpriced CRV combined haven’t even sold 100 units in the previous month
•All eyes are now on the middle of next year when Honda plans to introduce its diesel offerings and a mid level SUV

Hyundai
•Hyundai holds strong to its no.2 tag in India, their growth has been on the back of 4 models cranking the sales – Eon (7872), i10 (8988), i20 (9058) and Verna(5050)
•Along with this the old workhorse Santo still manages very decent 3500+ units per month
•It’s probably time to retire the old Accent which is mostly now being pushed through CNG sales

Mahindra
•September was an interesting month for M&M because for the first time the XUV500 outsold the Scorpio by 500+ units. But October saw parity being restored with Scorpio selling 300 more units than the XUV500
•The king of their pack remains the Bolero with 11,000 units sold in October, bear in mind this includes all variants of the Bolero; including the rural ones
•Surprisingly the rather odd shaped (read ugly) Quanto has managed to do 2500 units in its opening month
•The upgraded Thar with AC (a personal favorite) managed close to 700 units, not too shabby for a lifestyle vehicle in India

Nissan
•Nissan I believe have messed up their product portfolio by having vehicles like the Teana, Evalia and X-trail; all of which are price heavy and don’t connect with the Indian consumer. The result is that the combined sales of these 3 models are less than 200 units for the month.
•Sunny is the only model doing over 1000 units for Nissan and for them to succeed in India they need more such models. Its affordable, gives a lot of space and isn’t all that bad looking
•2013 will see the Nissan version of Renault Duster being launched, my guess is this will happen towards the end of 2013, since Renault will try and milk as much as it can out of the Duster
•Nissan has also stated that unlike the Scala and Micra which are essentially just re-badged versions of the original the Nissan SUV will be a modified vehicle all together
•I believe a lot of Nissan’s growth in India will be hinged on this mid-size SUV

Renault
•Renault is riding strong on its Duster sales, October saw Duster sell 5400 units; possibly making it the highest selling SUV in its category
•The rest of the Renault portfolio continues to struggle with vehicles such as the Koleos, Fluence not making any impact.
•Its sad for Renault that it shot itself in the foot by launching the Logan first in India, essentially a bread box design. Renault which globally is known for its design and technical superiority went and launched the Logan and scarred its own image
•Scala is doing similar numbers to its cousin the Sunny with close to 800 units

Skoda
•To put it simply – Skoda is in trouble! The Yeti, Superb, Laura and Fabia combined have sold less than 700 units last month.
•Their products are overpriced (consumer heavily perceive this), after sales are genuinely overpriced and designs are now looking dated
•The Yeti is technically one of the best SUV’s or crossover designs in this country but the pricing strategy has killed it; Skoda sold 6 units last month !!
•I know Skoda has its family ties with VW and Audi so on an overall basis the sales may look healthy but as a standalone brand its needs a major overhaul
•The Rapid which is basically a better looking version of the VW Vento is managing 1000 odd numbers but again not enough for a product that’s meant to push the country strategy

And the Rest
•VW - is keeping its head above the water thanks to the Polo (3400 units) and Vento (1894), but just about. Major discounts are being offered to push sales
•Toyota – Innova continues to be the king of the MUV market with almost 6000 units, amazing performance by a 8 year old design. Fortuner also holding strong with 1000+ units for a D2 segment vehicle. The Etios & Liva combined doing 5000+ units is average performance for its segment
•TATA – the dynamic (but now old) duo of the Indica and Manza in their million variants continue to power the TATA stable ahead, all variants combined sales of 12,000+ units. Yes a lot of these are taxis, cabs etc but credit where due to the truck manufacturers. The story to watch out for is the Nano which has bounced back with a bang, thank to smart marketing and is doing 4000+ units. The upgraded Safari storme was launched in October and should easily do 2000 units next month
•Maruti – best for the last – what do you say about a company which has 8 out of its 14 product offering selling more than 5000 units a month, this after suffering its worst labor unrest in its history. The Alto which has safely taken over the mantel from the Maruti 800 did a mind boggling 26000 units last month, Swift 15000, Dzire 14000 units, units and Wagon R 13000 units. The weak links are the Vitara which hasn’t sold a single unit in the 3 previous months, the overpriced Kizashi (35 units) and the now aging SX4 (695 units).

[rajshenoy]

Not sure if this query has been answered before, but i wanted to know if these figures capture the typical rural models of Tata and M&M

Tata has this Magic, Iris etc which are based on that ACE platform
M&M too has their matching versions and likes of genio etc.

Are they not counted in this statistics ? i am sure Tata and M&M have pretty good numbers in that segment

[safari_lover]

Originally Posted by rajshenoy

Not sure if this query has been answered before, but i wanted to know if these figures capture the typical rural models of Tata and M&M

Tata has this Magic, Iris etc which are based on that ACE platform
M&M too has their matching versions and likes of genio etc.

Are they not counted in this statistics ? i am sure Tata and M&M have pretty good numbers in that segment

No. All those vehicles are counted under commercial vehicles category. The statistics presented here are only for passenger vehicles.

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by wordsworth

One of them came in my locality.

There is no news on facelift which would keep the customers away. Sad state of a brilliant car.

We got to find the other 3 . Two landed up in Bihar (both are 4X4 Elegance in silver) and one at your locality.

Originally Posted by apachelongbow

May be with better choices at lower price points (read the XUV , Duster) and better cars at slight premium (read Rexton) people do realise how much they are overpaying for what is essentially so little. Add on Skoda post sales and service horrors, I am not surprised.

Discounting Skoda horror stories which are exaggerated (save for Harish's case) I feel Yeti is a very capable Car and in all honesty the Car you would want for everything. (Save for extreme off-road, luggage/people hauling)

The one who have driven it, admit it to be a very capable vehicle in almost all aspects. Most ownership reports on Team BHP state the same. I am unsure of the Rexton, but the Yeti betters the others by a margin.

And if someone drives it over a significant distance and still does not like it, maybe his/her priorities are very different. To each his own. It isn't aimed at mass market and that is evident.

Originally Posted by thoma

Wonder whether the Bolero became a runaway success mostly after stopping the Major?

Is the Invader not available now? If not why could it have been discontinued?

It was Mahindra Marshal which ruled in this part. Then came Armada which faltered. Bolero didn't initially pick up with the Peugeot engine. The Di came, saw & conquered.

Invader was stopped sometimes back. Made way for Thar I believe.

[niv26]

Originally Posted by Ksingh544

Renault
•Its sad for Renault that it shot itself in the foot by launching the Logan first in India, essentially a bread box design. Renault which globally is known for its design and technical superiority went and launched the Logan and scarred its own image

I don't agree, The reliability word came from logan, whoever is buying Duster, not only for it looks and brand, but the robustness, reliability and low maintenance. Talk to any Meru cab wala, they clocked about 4 lakhs kms without opening engine ( I don't think any engine come close to it except innova engine).
This set their ground and now they are milking from that image.

If we observe, they surpassed VW in total sales, I guess they even cross VW + Skoda together one day.

[rajshenoy]

Originally Posted by safari_lover

No. All those vehicles are counted under commercial vehicles category. The statistics presented here are only for passenger vehicles.

Discounting the Ace, rest are used to stuff people in villages, hence passenger vehicles(they have 4 wheels too!!) . But looking at the numbers of say Venture i dont think it has all these vehicles combined.

Mahindra has been rising ever since they have chosen the caption "Rise" but tata might need to include all these numbers to raise themselves

[Ksingh544]

Originally Posted by niv26

Talk to any Meru cab wala, they clocked about 4 lakhs kms without opening engine ( I don't think any engine come close to it except innova engine).
This set their ground and now they are milking from that image.

If we observe, they surpassed VW in total sales, I guess they even cross VW + Skoda together one day.

i agree with you Niv that the Logan is technically sound and yes Meru is testament to that but apart from being a taxi, the consumer didnt take to it. Which i feel further hampered Renaults prospects with its other vehicles. The Fluence is a lovely vehicle but thanks to doubts placed in the consumers mind by the Logan it hasnt really taken off (of course other factors are also there).
Also im sure Renault didnt plan to have its brand synonymous with a taxi fleet.

They have surpassed VW thanks to the Duster boom, which is a smartly positioned SUV not because of any other reason.

[narayan]

Originally Posted by VeluM

Wonder why then the Storme thread is consistently in the top current threads, and sooo many pages long already, with a serious spurt since launch.

The way i see it, Safari/Storme are typically bought by enthusiasts and largely through a decision of the heart rather than the head. Hence such threads normally keep going on and on even if the car is not launched

[kmadhok]

Originally Posted by sourabhzen

Or is it Storme that is coming?

I thought the Storme was already reviewed much much before its launch here

[supremeBaleno]

The A-Star was declining in sales over the last few months. Down to 57 last month. And suddenly this month it has done 587 which is a 10x increase. Any idea why ? Discounts ?

My sis is looking between A*-MT and Swift-P and my choice is the former, given her needs. But don't want her to buy it, if they are phasing out the car or something. Doubts arise due to the Alto800 coming in and that segment getting too crowded for Maruti.

[MAS]

Originally Posted by GTO

Guys, sorry about the missing analysis this month.. Just caught the numbers for a forgotten manufacturer. Surprisingly forgotten, because they've sold more cars than Nissan, Skoda, Fiat & HM last month!

Trip - 3
Trump 40 - 205
Trax (Goods) - 95
Trax (Pass) - 953
Traveller (Goods) - 75
Traveller (Pass) - 691
Traveller 26 (Pass) - 51
Citiline - 3
Traveller Shaktiman - 9
Force One SUV - 102

Also, here's the split for petrol & diesel from Toyota (unfortunately, no other manufacturer has shared the same):

Corolla: 107 (P) & 225 (D)
Etios: 529 (P) & 1,576 (D)
Liva: 282 (P) & 2,209 (D)

Thanks for the update GTO. Force One SUV is selling quite well. I am sure it will rake up more numbers if the safety features are added.

Originally Posted by GTO

We're currently adding the final touches to an official review of a very important car, thus that's where all the energies are.

Safari Storme?