[i74js]

Originally Posted by veyron_head

I cant understand how Mahindra calls the Vibe a compact 'Sedan'. It clearly looks like a hatch. The only difference being the boot opening separately like in a sedan. Identity crisis can kill a product, ask Sumo Grande or Maruti Versa.

Vibe is a joke with customers and nothing else. M & M should be ashamed of offering this product to the Indian buyers.

No thinking while taking the design to production line or they just wanted to take us for a ride?

Complete waste of premium showroom space and nothing beyond that. Mr. Mahindra should pull out the product at the earliest and bring a proper hatch.

[yosbert]

Originally Posted by vb-san

Some interesting movements in the D1 and D2 segments. The surprise of the month should be the Fluence with 200+ numbers, ahead of the Jetta and Cruze.

In fact, I have been spotting Fluence quite regularly for the past week or so. Although I do not think I can really correlate that to the Fluence numbers, but the coincidence is really weird.
And I must add, its always a please to spot a Fluence, one of the best looking cars in its segment, IMHO.

[pranjal1984]

Originally Posted by i74js

Vibe is a joke with customers and nothing else. M & M should be ashamed of offering this product to the Indian buyers.

No thinking while taking the design to production line or they just wanted to take us for a ride?

Complete waste of premium showroom space and nothing beyond that. Mr. Mahindra should pull out the product at the earliest and bring a proper hatch.

That is their second joke after the abominable Quanto without hurting anybody's feelings.

[Skyline GT-R]

Kairali Ford Kochi claims to have 600 EcoSport bookings with them. Add approx 300 with 2nd Ford dealer Malayalam Ford & they have enough ammo to smoke Duster next month.

My SE told that MOST of the customers considering EcoSport are those who dropped Duster & Amaze plans.

As i spent 45 mins in the showroom, i could see some 7-8 bookings being made for EcoSport. Customers were waiting @ F&I desk to discuss the deal.

Insurance to be taken only from Royal Sundaram + 5,000 worth of "Must Buy" accessories. make hay while the sun shines?

[maddy42]

M&M: Cheetah bhi sotha hai. Owners do not care about your clubs, about VIP treatment in spas about how the design is inspired by a cheetah running but on ROI. Get your act right and do more QC more than marketing you will see the numbers go up.

[volkman10]

Audi continues their good run in India by posting a growth of 4.45 % increase in sales for the month of June 2013.

A total of 750 vehicles were sold in the corresponding month against 718 units sold during June 2012.

Audi India sales grow by 21% for calender year 2013!


http://autobei.com/blog/audi-india-s...der-year-2013/

[Hayek]

Thanks for the thread. Given that reported data is dispatches to dealers, I wonder if M&M delayed dispatches to complete type approval for the revised XUV 500 with "lower" ground clearance. If that is the case, we will see a big jump in July sales. Personally, I think the XUV is much better than the Duster - and that the Ecosport is nothing but a small hatchback on stilts - and both can't compare with the XUV. Unfortunately, someone in the government seems to have written the budget definition of SUV for Renault - such that the Duster diesel was a car even if an SX4 was a SUV. It's high time the government stop messing around with taxes (including the ridiculous concession for sub 4 metre cars, and have uniform ad valorem taxes on all vehicles.

[julupani]

Originally Posted by volkman10

Audi continues their good run in India by posting a growth of 4.45 % increase in sales for the month of June 2013.

A total of 750 vehicles were sold in the corresponding month against 718 units sold during June 2012.

Audi India sales grow by 21% for calender year 2013!

Audi has to be given credit for taking a very agressive marketing strategy, which seems to be paying off for them.

Just to give you an example, over the past year to year and a half, the Big three Germans and JLR have opened up showrooms in Bhubaneswar.

BMW has been here for quite some time now, thanks to the fact that the BMW dealer of Kolkata is actually from Orissa. Thus the BMW Kolkata dealership has a sub dealer in Bhubaneswar, but rather than a proper showroom they operate from a hotel lobby of a hotel that is owned by the same person. There are just 2 employees and never more than 1 car on display. Service is handled by another car dealership owned by the same person.

Mercedes has had a service presence in Bhubaneswar for close to a decade now. It recently opened a new showroom here, with two cars on display. For some reason the old service location continues, which happens to be shared with another dealership.

JLR Kolkata dealer too opened a sub dealership in Bhubaneswar, but it is about 20kms away from the city center.

Neither JLR nor Merc even bothered to give a newspaper ad regarding opening of dealerships in Bhubaneswar.

Audi was the last and has been functioning for less than a month now. Some contrasts:
1. Audi opened a huge dealership with space for showcasing 8-10 cars in the showroom. It has an attached independent service facility which can again handle quite a few cars.
2. Unlike others, the Audi showroom operates in a brand new high end building which will house various corporate offices.
3. Unlike the others, their showroom opened with much fan fare. The entire building was decked up in lights, there was a fireworks show. Senior management from Audi India had turned up, with actress Lara Dutta in tow. There were reports in all local newspapers the following day, apart from quite a few full page ads leading upto the the showroom launch and after the fact as well.
4. Within a week of the showroom opening, Audi brought down some of their top sports cars like an R8 V10, RS5, TT RS etc, got a section of raod closed off and had an impressive display of their cars. With proper publicity via social media and news papers the display attracted a few hundred people.

Effect of all this:
The owner of a gym in my neighborhood decided to pay a visit to this new showroom. He quite liked a red A4 on display. 2 weeks later, he is the proud owner of a red A4 2.0TDI. I asked him did he look at anything else and the answer was no. He just went to the showroom with no particular intent to buy at all. Within less than a month, Audi were able to sell an A4 to a guy who wasnt looking to spend 35lakh rupees on a car in the first place.

[s.prashanth]

Surprised seeing the Hyndai Fluidic Elantra selling more cars in their segment D1 compared to Skoda Laura, Chevrolet Cruze, VW Jetta.

[EagleEye]

Originally Posted by s.prashanth

Surprised seeing the Hyndai Fluidic Elantra selling more cars in their segment D1 compared to Skoda Laura, Chevrolet Cruze, VW Jetta.

I guess it just goes to show how much of an impact customer service can make on sales. Hyndai is no. 2 in India for their customer service, and it shows.

[anu21v]

Originally Posted by EagleEye

I guess it just goes to show how much of an impact customer service can make on sales. Hyndai is no. 2 in India for their customer service, and it shows.

That sales figure just shows the difference of product and Hyundai network size (in turn number of service centres) and not necessarily the quality of service compared to its competition in this segment.

[allajunaki]

The reason why Hyundai sells well on our subcontinent is because they understand the Indian mentality. They know that unlike in the west, a car is a major investment for most (after a home). And in turn they have a large service network and maximum "tangible" benefits compared to competition (Any feature that can be put in to a brochure).
However, European counterparts did not do as much homework (except, perhaps Audi) w.r.t Indian mentality and perception. Most of the European cars are elegant and simple. They focus on intangibles, and aim at a better overall package. Consequently, number of items on a brochure feature list is a bit less. So Europeans give we good well rounded package for your money, which is great, but not good enough for us.
Also the fact that same cars elsewhere is targeted at a different strata of society than over here. Koreans understand this well, Europeans, well they don't, at least not as much.
This is perhaps the reason why Japs and Koreans are so well perceived on Indian soil.
Hope my ramble made sense to someone
PS : I ended up with a VW anyway :P

[xingamazon]

Does anyone know what is the waiting period of Swift Dzire. If they are stalling production of Diesel engine due to reduced demand (as per Link)

Then that should technically mean the waiting period should be reduced to a week, if they are still quoting months that would mean they are building up false demand for thier vehicles. Is that a correct assumption.

Did anyone enquire about Dzire lately?

[carboy]

Originally Posted by allajunaki

They focus on intangibles, and aim at a better overall package. Consequently, number of items on a brochure feature list is a bit less. So Europeans give we good well rounded package for your money, which is great, but not good enough for us.

Can you give examples of some of the intangibles which the Europeans focus on?

[i74js]

Originally Posted by xingamazon

Does anyone know what is the waiting period of Swift Dzire. If they are stalling production of Diesel engine due to reduced demand (as per Link)

Then that should technically mean the waiting period should be reduced to a week, if they are still quoting months that would mean they are building up false demand for thier vehicles. Is that a correct assumption.

Did anyone enquire about Dzire lately?

I checked yesterday with 2 dealers in Delhi, both are quoting 15-21 days for Dzire with specific colour & trim choice, else even less with available colours & trim with the dealer.

Looks that new launches and good pricing has corrected the waiting period of several manufacturers. The waiting period of Amaze has also come down between 30-45 days. I received a call few days back for renewed interest of Automax Honda in selling Amaze to me, whereas earlier - the less said is better !