In my opinion, it all boils down to one person's personal opinion / belief & trust on the company capability.

No it is not the customer. it is the CEO of the company.

For example Nissan's CEO. Carlos Ghosn. The way he turned a loss making company to a profit making company.

Yes, sales doesn't mean cars are made with passion, however sales come when the car is passionate enough. Example swift. when it was launched it was more of an emotional attachment to the customers. Now a days, people buy maruti just because it is a Maruti. Even if MS management changes the company name to Suzuki Motor Corp or some thing, the sales might affect

The CEO is the one who has access to design, engineering and other departments of the company. If he is passionate enough, he could make some good passionate cars. Agreed that initiating such project comes at a price. Remember, Carlos re developed the Skyline GTR at a significant cost.
It is a risk taken by the CEO. Risk does give its returns however the company should be able to take the returns. they may be +ve or -ve.

Another example, Tata is .. sorry Tata was passionate about "Worlds Cheapest car" and "Common Man's car" however the risk didn't reward with the returns.

Other important note is. Passionate cars and reliability often dont go hand in hand. One needs to sacrifice for the other.

Tata is passionate about, Volumes, Making cheapest cars, cars will all features (They may work or not).

[msmatic]

Its not about the passion or the lack of it. Its about strategy. Every company tries to work on its strengths and bring out differentiation in its products, while driving value, thereby maximizing revenues. Maruti builds cars which are relatively lower priced than competition, and which provide greater FE, are reliable and less expensive to maintain - which means total lower cost of ownership than competition. This strategy works brilliantly in our country because for majority a car is still a luxury and it requires a huge investment, and naturally they would choose a package which is value for money - read almost the same experience at the lowest possible cost. The same strategy will not work in a country like US.
But this scenario is slowly changing with products like the Duster which is a quality SUV at an affordable price creating a new segment altogether. It remains to be seen if Maruti and other companies can adapt quickly and launch rival products and be successful.

[a4anurag]

We Indians are passionate about 1.3 MJD engine and passionate about mileage figures so are the manufacturers like Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai are trying to get their cars as much as fuel efficient as it can be which is causing these manufacturers to concentrate on getting these figures than better designs and sport oriented cars that will involve the driver more.

[zeemmee]

Indian customers are Passionate about cars , Indian car manufacturers are not. For long they have plagued indians by "SUFFOCATING" the indian customers.I believe that indian customers have enough buying power, no car in this world is out of reach, maybe for a elite few but still achievable.There might be other factors about government regulations, policies at play here, maybe others can bring it into my knowledge.Lets look at the indian intellectuals graduating from IIT'S & many other battled-after educational facilities.Have they contributed their part ? Maybe they did, did they get the required support from the manufacturers?
"The Success of international brands is because of the failure of local ones"
The statement may not be entriely true, but has its ground deep in the history.For example maruti 1000 when released was a hit, why ? simply because there was no rival.
Why not aim at building supercars? Cheap car is an excellent initative, well done , but not enough.
Look at korean car manufacturers, Kia & huyndai, (there maybe differences in opinion here) but have they not taken clues from other leading japanese & german brands or in simple words "Inspired" by them.Is it so hard for indian manufacturers to do so?