[zenren]

When we look at the quality and reliability of a manufacturer, we should be looking at the products that majority of the folks go for. Unlike other manufacturers, Tata is never known for its petrol engine variants. Majority of the customers go for their diesel variants and hence having a trouble-free petrol variant that sells very rarely doesn't say anything. I don't think there is any petrol car that demands big repairs in the first 7-8 years. Typically, the petrol engines have fewer maintenance issues than traditional diesel engines. Its the trouble free diesel that shows the reliability apart.

Personal experience with Tata in the family: My uncle had a 2004 Indica V2 DLS which served almost 8 years and got sold last year at around 80k km. First 70k km were relatively okay but the moment the ODO crossed 70k, we started seeing multiple failures and each visit carrying a 5 digit repair bill. Luckily for him, someone offered 1.75L for that car and he immediately sold it, preventing further damage.

I'm not expecting any car to last forever but if the competitor's products can stand till 200k+ without major issues, the same would be expected out of Tata vehicles too from a customer perspective.

The customers trusted them with their hard earned money when they launched the Indica in 1998 and most regretted that decision due to the issues that were unaddressed in the early Indicas. Tata launched V2 5 years later claiming to have addressed all the issues with the previous version. Customers believed them again and this time there were improvements all around and short term reliability was really on par with standards but the long term reliability of V2 were not on par with models that got launched a few years down the line. Today, we still see those 15 year old body shells when we walk into a Tata showroom with eV2 or whatever naming they give. That 15 year old body shell also happens to carry all the unreliability perceptions that were associated with the Indica which was launched in 98. For a layman, if Tata really improved, why are they still selling these pre-historic models?

[sarthakgupta]

Prices Slashed

Tata Motors today slashed prices of its Indica and Manza by up to Rs 50,000 in order to prevent falling sales in recent months.

The company, however, increased the prices of its sports utility vehicle range, comprising Sumo, Safari and Aria, by up to Rs 35,000 following the excise duty hike in the Budget.

"We have cut prices of Indica and Manza cars as we want to boost the morale of customers to give them a value proposition and make it more attractive to improve weak market sentiments," a Tata Motors spokesperson said.

The company has reduced the rates between Rs 29,000 and Rs 50,000 with immediate effect, she added.

The official, however, said there will be no change in the prices of its small car Nano.

The Indica range is priced between Rs 3.29 lakh and Rs 4.88 lakh, while the Manza is available for Rs 5.71-8.80 lakh. These prices are according to the company's official website.

"On the Sumo, we are increasing the prices by Rs 7,500, while it will be a hike of Rs 11,000 for Safari and Aria. With the hike in excise duty, the total increase on these SUVs will be between Rs 20,000 and Rs 35,000," the spokesperson said.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...w/18793301.cms

MODS, Please update the thread title. Thanks.

[invidious]

Originally Posted by swiftnfurious

Are you sure of this? As far as I know JLR vehicles are NOT serviced in TA$$ !

The service center in Worli, Bombay services Nanos as well as Jags.

[Gotham_City]

My two cents on this.

Tata vehicles were already the best VFM which anyone in market could offer. The management is trying to solve a problem which never existed. Customers are not shunning their cars due to high price, but for, reliability and after sales service issue.

Given the situation, Tata Motors could be better off with the following (while keeping the prices same):

1. Blanket 5 years warranty (on unlimited mileage) on all passenger cars - will help them regain the confidence of customers on reliability issue. Tata Motors will have little to lose, if they believe in the quality of their products. May be, commercial registrations could be kept out of it

2. Relationship managers for premium vehicles (taking a leaf out of M&M strategy) - should appoint relationship manager for Manza, Safari and Storme buyers. When customers are treated like king, it shows up in sales

3. Heavy penalty to service station basis customer complaints - Tata Motors should penalize the service stations if they are found falling short. Com'on, they should also feel the pinch. They are the ones who landed Tata Motors in this soup.

[rkg]

I won a Vista form first batch of Oct 2008.
My brother owns Indigo Marina of first batch Oct 2004.

Both the cars were extensively used on Highway's.

Till now neither of the cars have stranded us anywhere.

My personal experiences of travelling in Indian highways ( approximately 50K Km's) is most of the times what i see in the opposite direction ( white board cars) are TATA. Almost 60% of them

My personal feeling is most of the TATA cars are used for high way along with city use (on an average in percentile terms-- as against other campaniles)

Apart from TATA i see mostly Toyota/M&M. Very rarely Maruti,Hyundai

It does not mean these cars are not used on Highways, but to a lesser extent than TATA

It is normal for any automobile to have repairs/ problem once they do run more milage?

It is my personal opinion that TATA cars on average tend to put more milage in given time frame against other cars.

More the milage more the service costs.

My Vista has a milage of 69K in 4 year's 4 months.

I did not face any serious problem any where. Rather i got very good response for TATA dealers at all the places and in odd times , that too free

Once a TATA dealer kept a person waiting for me on the road at night 8 PM in Tirupati . I have called them from chittoor around 7 PM asking for help as the AC blower stopped blowing air. It was loose connection.

My car had Engine protection guard. In rural roads on humps, it tend to push up and scrap the engine and make sounds.

I was in Kumbakoanum. Called the dealer in Tanjavore. He said bring it to Tanjore. When i informed him it is not possible, he has asked me where i was staying. He has sent a person to my hotel in Kumbokonum to get it rectified. Refused any payment

Similarly a person was waiting for me In tiruchirapalli at night 9 PM

Vista has inadequate AC. On a highway drive AC water started coming inside. I have called TATA dealer at Bijapur around 6 PM. They took the car at 6.30 PM checked it and took a test drive for 30 minutes at night 8 PM. No charges

In Indore- Engine protection guard problem rectified on priority basis-- No charges

Same in Vizag at SRMT Motors along with free car wash

Some of my colleagues who own non TATA cars were really surprised at this.

I get my car checked before every long trip at Concorde, dairy circle, Bangalore. It was always done immediately with no charge

It does not mean they are perfect. But i think they are on par with others

I have plenty of stories first hand ( not second hand or from friends) where a brand new car SPARK stranded in the middle of the road due to alternator failure.

They guy frustrated with the problems- sold it and bought Indigo CS.
He was of very poor opinion about TATA initially. after the GM experiences, he says TATA is better

[saket77]

I have never owned a Tata Car, but when the Indica was launced in 98-99, the looks appealed to me so much (I was 15-16 at that time) that I was almost adamant and persuaded Dad to buy an Indica. Our running was low, so I wanted to go for a Petrol version, 1405cc engine. But the dealership told us that they have stopped the petrol version for some time and all they have is DLS. This got some alarm bells ringing in my head. We put-off our plans for a while, for about 2-3 years as our old car was doing reasonably fine duty of commuting.

Probably, this was the best decision that we took as during these 2-3 years, so many versions, upgrades etc. of Indica were launched. Also, I noticed the niggles in my friend's Indica DLS, which were deterrent enough to finally say a 'no' to Tata. These 2-3 years showed how Indica aged with time and what comes along.

I remember, when the Car was first launched, it had a 4 speed gearbox (this was quickly changed to 5), which was a total retrograde step. Also, in petrol models, it had ancient mechanical distributors against the electronic ones in all contemporary cars of that time. The only thing I liked during this period was that it had a bigger engine right from the beginning & independent suspension on all 4 wheels.

I just don't blame the service centers for Tata debacle, but I hate to see a manufacturer treat its valued customers as Guinea Pigs in its experiment. I don't really see a Tata car as a VFM, because, they age pretty fast & badly, have too many niggles even as of now, below par product & build quality, etc.
I will never buy a car whose manufacturer makes the customer pay for putting their hard earned money & trust for granted. God knows if they cannot even improve the plastic on dashboard in 15 years, how long they can survive the competition where better made cars are sold at the very same price. Same for the Nano too, and at more than 2.5 lacs, I don't see any VFM. Its an extortion in my opinion if a buyer has to pay 2.5-2.6 lacs for a 600cc car & the obvious other limitations. Its much better to get an Alto (or any other car near this price range), even if one has to pay a little more.

Regards.

[ashutoshb]

There's a buyback offer too!


TaMO offering 60% resale value after three years.

[Nilesh5417]

60% resale value? Now what does that mean? Knowing that resales value is not going to be great, 60% of resale value is going to be ridiculous.
And why sell it for 60% resale value when you can sell it for 100% of the resale value?
What am i missing here?

[arjab]

This whole discounting thingy is not going to do any good from the brand's perspective. Any price cut will only result in short termgains.

In fact, this will cheapen the brand appeal further and make it more "infra-dig" in the eyes of the customer.
Customers will now take it for granted that Tata cars must come with huge discounts - irrespective of product quality, product performance or sales performance.

Remember the case of KOUTONS Trousers ? Buy one and get 99% off on the second piece? Poor company went bust!

Maybe Tata Motors should have experimented more with innovative financing schemes, low interest rates, balloon/bullet payment schemes, maybe even a leasing options. Such a huge price cut does not heighten consumer confidence.

[cool_dube]

Originally Posted by arjab

This whole discounting thingy is not going to do any good from the brand's perspective. Any price cut will only result in short term gains.

Completely agree! This is a "knee-jerk" reaction and will do little in improving levels of customer confidence. Wish TML had not taken this step!

[swaroop_babu]

Originally Posted by Nilesh5417

60% resale value? Now what does that mean? Knowing that resales value is not going to be great, 60% of resale value is going to be ridiculous.
And why sell it for 60% resale value when you can sell it for 100% of the resale value?
What am i missing here?

Read it once again, they mention 60% resale value and not 60% OF resale value. It means you buy a variant for say 5 lacs, you can sell it for 3 lacs after 3 years. Yes, it is not as good as dzire, but still it is a good start in my opinion.

[babu.sundaram]

First thing, I never owned a car. But I have travelled in many Tata vehicles and I keep talking to drivers (sometimes just to know their life & perceptions, sometimes their vehicles, sometimes just to ensure that they don't feel sleepy!)

My observation is, almost every driver I spoke to has high regards for their vehicle; despite having done 2-3 Lakh KMs, their trust on their vehicle is high. Many say, as long as you do "oil service" (aka oil change) it keeps running.

True, they may not be fun to drive, but as work horse they are well respected. (The feed back is similar for Indica, Indigo, Sumo and even Starbus!).

It is not the price or reliability that is the issue. It is perception of Tata being seen as taxis (and indeed Indica is the default taxi!).

Perception of it being a taxi can be addressed by measures like below:
- Separate private & taxi A**.
- Keep different shapes for taxis and white boards (separate models). Private models should not even look like taxi ones.
- Introduce couple of SUVs (which dont look like Sumo!).
- Do a branding exercise to make people connect to Tata vehicles as part of their family (not as a worker!).

PS: Internally, the company needs to realize that they are making cars, not trucks!

[snowmane]

Just saw the sale numbers for the last quarter.

Tata is the only company whose sales have reduced by 33%. All others have grown, not so much but they have.

I hope they are able to make up for it very soon!!

[safari_lover]

Interesting to note that only the Manza diesel's prices are reduced. This makes it the only car with a price difference of less than 10K between the base variants of petrol and diesel versions - 5.9L for petrol and 5.97L for diesel Looks like they have not thought this through.

[veyron_head]

Space and Price are only two things 'for' Tata Cars. Everything else is against it. But Tata was fast losing out on the price advantage. The Indica diesel top end (Ev2, not the vista) costs 6.26 lacs on road in Bangalore. The vista quadrajet topend is a whopping 7.8 lacs in bangalore. Now that puts Tata on a level playing field with the Hyundai's and Maruti's where it will lose hands down on the A.S.S.

Tata needs to play to its strength. They can differentiate their current products only by pricing it low. That way, the price cut is a step in the right direction. I only hope they dont go back to the original pricing after they manage to sell the piled up inventory.

On another note, like a lot of said here, if Tata wants to move up the ladder, they badly need a totally new product in the hatch segment. Now this product should not remind me of any Tata car I have ever seen and should be a completely new design (a Chevy SR-V like sports hatch may be?). And Most importantly, they should not call that car a Indica XYZ (a la Indica Vista, Indigo Manza etc). If they come up with a such a refreshing design with even the same build quality like the vista, I am sure that would help them get a breakthrough.