Team-BHP - Revival of the legend called Lancer.

Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

- The Indian Car Scene (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/)

- - Revival of the legend called Lancer. (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/12964-revival-legend-called-lancer-2.html)

I gather this until now.

point 1. people think lancer 1.5 isnt Fuel-efficient. Accusations go to HM for this.

point 2. Atleast a 1.6 ltr engine is needed with around 100bhps to make it comparable to other cars. No price change. A crdi maybe welcome to

point 3. Hm needs to update the interiors. ALong with freshening up of the exteriors.

A limited edition run of Evo in India may help. Hyundai teracan hardly sells more than 100 units. I dont see how lancer EVo can sells less than these. Indiatimes had a price fig of 18lacs for tihs car.

Having just bought a Lancer 2 1/2 months ago, here's my take on reviving the model...

1. They definitely need more power - dump the 12 valve head at least & go for a higher revving 16 valve dohc unit. Hold the current price (approx. 6.6 lakhs or whatever).

2. A diesel would help the sales numbers in this diesel crazy market of ours - methinks a nice 1.6 - 1.8 CRDI turbo unit pumping out about 16+ kgm of torque would do wonders. Price the new diesel at about 7 lakhs on road.

3. Import a high end MIVEC / Evo-ish model for the enthusiasts which produces a minimum of 200BHP. This is only for their brand image - price it around 14-15 lakhs & expect sales of about 450-500 cars all over India. This would go a long way in making the Lancer aspirational. In case you're wondering, yes, it would compete directly with the Skoda Octavia RS, & would blow it's doors off! :D

4. Improve after sales service & brand image by dumping all Hindustan Motors (HM) dealers.

5. Dump HM themselves. In case you didn't get it: Dump HM! Dump HM! Dump HM! - I don't think there's been a crappier car company in the history of the automobile.

Before all you Amby freaks completely lose it, note that I'm dissing the company & not the car, which IMO, is also a damn joke. The only decent Ambys around are those like Rudra Sen's (http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/vbpicg...?do=view&g=160) - they're so modded from the original that they only look like Ambys now, everything else is taken from other vehicles.
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I actually chose my 2000 Lancer over others I'd seen, & paid about 25K more than the Bombay market price, because it's fully produced by Mitsubishi & was simply assembled here. 6 years / 41k km down the road, & there's not a rattle in the car. I'd seen newer models (2001-2004) which were quite rattly & really slow - it looks like the Birla hand that finally kicked in did wonders for the Lancer's build quality. :Frustrati

Look at Rishi Kapoor's thread for BUild quality.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-t...tic-karma.html

The new models are not the same.

@ devarshi84: That's what I'm saying dude - I bought the 2000 model because it was so well built by Mitsubishi & only assembled by their JV partners here in India. The later models didn't look so good to me, & their engines were seriously lagging.

Quote:

Originally Posted by elf

buddy he's bought a 2006 model and he has found the build quality to be amazing and as good as before.

i have a 2000 build Slxi lancer and i love the car ..yeah it does lack power but changing small things like your stock air filter to a cone air filter help a bit ..just a bit ..of cource not good enough when you have palio's equiped with 100 bhp... maybe some 1 should post all these complaints on the mitsubishi international website since Hm does nothing about it anyway

Quote:

Originally Posted by devarshi84

buddy he's bought a 2006 model and he has found the build quality to be amazing and as good as before.

Dunno how much of the 1.8 Invex is done by HM, but if it works, fantastic.

My point is that the 2001-04 Lancers I saw (both private sale & through dealers) weren't all that great. Much preferred the 1999-2000 in terms of engine response, build quality, etc.

Unfortunately, whatever HM / Mitsubishi do - The current Lancer will not sell!

In the opening post, Devarshi brings up parallels with the Baleno. There is a reason why the Baleno could stage a successful comeback while the Lancer cannot:

1. Marutis dealership network. Addresses one of the most important fundementals of marketing : Availability! Marutis network is probably 100 times bigger than HMs Mitsubishi showroom presence.

2. Upgrading within the family : Unlike members of Team-BHP who buys Balenos on enthusiasm, most Baleno buyers are upgrading from smaller Marutis and who want to stay within Marutis network. Comfort level, peace of the mind...whatever.

3. Parent Company. For most Indians, Maruti = safe purchase, FE, low ownership cost etc. Not the same with HM and Mitsubishi. You cant even compare the market value of the two brands.

4. Image : The Baleno never sold on image. Whether at 8 lacs or 6 lacs. In fact, the car hardly has an image to speak of. Butttttttttttttttt most Lancer buyers (including yours truly) bought the Lancer during the early days due to the relative plushness, image and luxury. The image factor is no longer with Lancer.

5. Marketing / Position : The Baleno is a success now due to perfect positioning in the market. HM's marketing department couldnt even sell beer in a desert. Look at the Cedia.....a majority of my circle is not in the least aware of a new Mitsubishi being available.

6. Product relevance : I do wish that our fellow BHPians Invecs reeks of great build quality, but the 2006 Lancers that I saw in the showroom (over a Cedia preview) were outright pathetic. The panel gaps were right there in Mahindra territory. In fact, they are much worse than my Invex test drive. The plastic and fitting quality in my 2000 year Lancer were lightyears ahead of the currently available 2006 Lancers. In addition, the 1.5 is no longer considered powerful by the market. Simply put, HM has ruined the Lancer from what it was. And why should anyone buy the regular Lancer today? The competition has moved on with far superior products.

I like some of the suggestions here, but its vague to think of upgrading the engine to 100 BHP+ and retain a price of 6.xx lacs. And HM dont even have any sales volumes.

I am an ex-Lancer owner and enjoyed the car for the 3 years that I had it. But its a car whose day has gone.

GTO

Sadly, I agree with GTO. We had a 2000 model Lancer that we sold just 2 months ago. When I compared it with 2006 models at Metro Motors, I was shocked at how much better my car looked and felt. The original Lancers had a classy feel, especially the SFXi. The new ones feel cheap.

Quote:

Originally Posted by elf

Mine is a 2003 sfxi and I am enjoying troublefree ownership of the car.:) (touchwood)

Nice writeup GTO. make enough sense. HM lacks marketing tactics and I believe their workforce still follows The 50 years old processes. These facts exactly are what I was tryin to bring out by this thread.

I just emailed the link to this thread to a HM employee.

Do they sell the Diesel Lancer??? If No or Yes, Did the Diesel Lancer come with a Turbocharger. If yes, why not plonk that Turbo from the diesel into the petrol. Or best is to make the Invex Manual and its possible. Some Tuners in Mumbai have Manual 1.8 Lancers. They changed the gearbox.

Personally speaking if i had to opt for a second hand car i would pick up the Lancer SFXi and not a City Vtec plainly because the Lancer is ages ahead then the OHC Vtec, butttttttt where is losses out is the engine because of which people overlook all the negatives of the Vtec City.

Lancer needs better interiors a Turbo or a MIVEC and viola you have the thrills of a RS at half the price. What ever it may be Lancers ride/handle/drive very well buttt i still dont understand whats wrong with such a brillant car. Only it needs refershment which HM is incapable of doing. I hope they dont intent to make the Lancer like the amby and make people buy the lancer for nostalagia.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO

HM's marketing department couldnt even sell beer in a desert.

That was a good one GTO. rl: ....and also very true.
I think HM suffers from a superiority complex because their Lancer was so righly rated and respected in circa 1999 and now they dont want to stoop down to the level of Accent and Baleno and do battle with them.

But, what would you do as the marketing manager (with a tight budget) of HM to save this car?

YOu wil get in Srilanka , May be even in pakistan not because they dont want to bring in here , but are you willing to take the car suffering a 110 % excise duty ? I dont think HM is stupid . Their whole plant is being leased for manufacture of engines . They dont have cash reserves thats right . But some like to play it safe .and I dont think lancer EVO fq420 at around 40 lacs will sell taking into account 37 lacs for a Audi TT . Of course the perfomance minded will blindly go in for it but not 1 % of the indians

Quote:

Originally Posted by elf

What you had said is exactly right , I have experienced it myself . New ones lags a lot !