If it makes anyone feel any better, European cars sold in the UK (and to a greater extent in the States) are a meagre representation of the different variants available in their home countries. The UK is perceived, to an extent rightly so, as a rather cynical and snobbish market where people have a limited appreciation of the engineering and a heightened sense of the image. Having no indigenous industry of our own any more, we are beset with (largely German) ideas of Britishness, from the (awful, in my opinion - but how wrong I am, it sells to image-conscious housewives!) BMW Minis to the generally bone-jarring suspension set up for German and French roads.
In Germany, the extent of options on your car is bewildering, but brilliant. It is almost endless and I am fascinated by the paucity of the spec of my old (German-spec) W124. It has a heated screen-washer bottle, by way of the neatest and highest-quality little stainless-steel coil run off the cooling system, and a pneumatically-multi-adjustable driver's seat which is run off the air/vacuum which powers the central locking. It was ordered by a Mercedes factory engineer. He omitted air conditioning, specified a sunroof along with the lighter but rougher and tougher 5 cylinder engine with a manual gearbox (very unusual for a 124, given MB's excellent autos and awkard alternatives - but a little more efficient).
Ordering the spec of your Porsche, Mercedes-Benz or VW could take days in Germany - the possibilities are almost endless.
Don't forget that in the UK and in Europe, we cannot order a Tata Nano - or any other Tata. Without any doubt, at £2500 to £4000, the Nano would be a massive seller in Britain, if the European bureaucracy would allow it (and there was a decent sales campaign and backup) - which they won't, in current form. From what I read on this forum, they are highly reliable and functional. If they can survive Indian heat and monsoons, a little light rain and the odd frost in England would be a pushover! Now that Skoda has gone conventional and Tatra are defunct, the only other rear-engined, rear-drive car is a Porsche.
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Originally Posted by GrammarNazi Guess how many variants of Indica does TATA have?
Here in India, if an auto-maker provides various variants for the customer to choose based on his needs, we criticise them for confusing us. Why so? Because in India, a car is supposedly an "Aspirational" product and many, if not most, people consider their car as a "Prestigious" possession.
We all have better friends, who'd value us for ourselves rather than our cars, but then we also have 'Relatives' and those type of 'Friends'. People who we'd rather shut up by plonking a car in our garage than argue & explain whats what.
So, more variants = confusion as to whats your actual "status".
Just my 2 cents. |
Also the case in the UK. It's an aspect of being 'human', supposedly!
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Originally Posted by narayan I'm guessing here
1. India is not a high margin market to have lot of variants
2. Engine variants is something not very welcome because we are a FE consscious market. So what's the point of having different states of tune when most people will go for the most FE one |
Many specs aren't engine related, remember
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Originally Posted by mohitk1993 Some reasons I can think of, are:
2. Certain body styles simply do not sell in India. The first body style that comes to mind is the Estate, which is present in more than 50% of the mid-size cars there. Some more include the hot hatch, van and the pickup truck segments.
6. Our obsession with fuel efficiency means certain variants with convenience features such as AT and 4x4 are simply skipped by car manufacturers. |
I don't really consider 4x4 a 'convenience feature'. It is something which the British land-owning classes took to in the form of the original Range Rover in the 1970s, which allowed them to tow their horseboxes up slippery slopes. And the aspirationals followed, no matter how little land they owned. Admittedly, the original RR was a very good-looking, tough and simple vehicle and gave a commanding view over normal cars' roofs. This has spread around the globe, sadly - the real need for all wheel drive is limited, the right tyres and good ground clearance is all that is usually required. Many is the time I have overtaken 4x4s struggling in snow. It is purely a marketing gimmick to make a lot more money at the higher end of the market, to people who haven't a clue what they want.
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Originally Posted by shankar.balan I empathise mate.
Prior to buying my Yeti Elegance, I used to regularly visit the Skoda UK website and keep configuring the Yeti there in all sorts of permutations and combinations and just drool. The one I ended up configuring and liking best came to a whopping 29000 GBP after all my choices of bells and whistles were conferred upon it. But heck, that would have been one real devil of a Yeti had such a thing been possible to get in India!
The one sadness I have is that the Yeti has never been sold in India in that Forest Green shade in which it is available in the Western markets...that is a lovely colour indeed!
We in India, are the 'underprivileged third world' in many more ways than one! |
Couldn't you have a Yeti in a similar dark shade resprayed by a competent paintshop?
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Originally Posted by vb-san One interesting bit I have noticed is, once the manufacturer get an understanding of our market, they limit whatever options they were providing earlier. One simple example – For the previous generation Jetta, VW used to give the customer option to choose the interior trim (beige, black and IIRC there was a Mocha Anthracite colour as well). Also, they used to provide a basic configurator for Polo and Vento. But once they got used to the market, and got to know the buyer preferences, they just stuck to beige as a standard for all models. |
True, and some would say this is to boost their profits, others may say it keeps the price down. Depends whether your glass is half-empty or half-full!