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Originally Posted by misquitas The purpose of my question (I hope it was a valid one, otherwise the moderators may please delete my post) was NOT to suggest the adoption of dubious practices, but to ensure consistency in recording facts and figures so that the reader can arrive at a more informed opinion. |
Misquitas, first let me
sincerely apologise if I sounded rude or alarmed by your proposal.
Your question is a very valid one indeed, no doubt about that. It does make sense to have the figures for all the offerings of a manufacturer in a single segment. But that must be done from our end, in a later post on the same thread,
just like the trend you have pointed out in your first post. I even thanked your first post as soon as I read it because of the usefulness of finding out how a manufacturer is doing in a particular segment.
The problem is Tata do this from their end, in order to hide the poor monthly sales figures of some of their models. Because of this, we can never know how well individual vehicles such as the Vista, Manza etc. are doing. It's such a hypothetical situation of this trend (bad practice of Tata Motors) becoming mainstream that alarmed me, and
not your idea of putting together the offerings from the same segment at all. I hope this clarifies the alarmist tone in my earlier post.
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Originally Posted by misquitas Maruti, for that matter, is already following the Tata model to some extent. The Alto 800 and the K10 series are quite "different" (in engineering and aesthetics) in many ways, yet they are also clubbed together for sales purposes. Would it not have been nice, as many have suggested earlier on this forum, for Maruti to have provided separate sales figures for the 800 and the k10? |
You're absolutely correct on that one. It's not just Tata Motors who're doing it, though they are the ones who do this in the most widespread and blatant manner, to hide some unpleasant sales numbers. Here is a list of all cars whose figures reveal some level of "clubbing":
HM-Mitsubishi -
Lancer+Cedia (discontinued now)
Mahindra -
Scorpio+Getaway (I don't think Getaway is included in their pick-up range, unlike the Bolero Camper)
Maruti Suzuki -
Alto800+Alto k10 and
Dzire+Dzire Tour
Tata -
Indica+Vista,
Indigo+Manza,
Sumo+Grande and
Safari+Storme
It's actually commendable of M & M to provide the individual figures for the Xylo & Quanto and the Verito & Vibe, though they could have clubbed them together. Maruti Suzuki Wagon R & Stingray as well as Nissan Micra & Active happen to be a new trend called "variant families" of the same model, so we can accept combined figures for the two.
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Originally Posted by misquitas Let us, for a moment, take this hypothetical case. What if Maruti were to sell the earlier and current versions (which differ in engineering and design) of the Swift at the same time? Would Maruti have clubbed them together for sales figures or would their respective sales have been recorded differently? |
They already do it in the form of the Swift Dzire and its taxi variant, the previous gen Swift Dzire Tour, so going by this they would have clubbed the two Swifts together in your hypothetical situation.
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Originally Posted by misquitas Since the Alto shares the same name between the k10 and the 800, it was (presumably) clubbed together. Same was the case with the "Indica" and "Indigo" siblings. My question, therefore, was this: the i10 now has a fraternal twin and given the two above precedents, it would have been natural to have clubbed them together for purpose of "overall" sales of a particular brand from a company.
But nothing, I repeat, nothing should have stopped manufacturers from providing a split up of variant sales within the brand. Ideally, all companies could, and should, have also provided the breakup of brands (Alto, Indigo/Indica, i10) on the basis of fuel (petrol/diesel/LPG/CNG) as is recently being made available by some companies or platform, even it they share were the same 'name'. Had that happened, we would had known the split up in sales of the Alto (800 and K10), the i10 (1.1, 1.2 and now the CRDI engines), etc. |
I completely agree with you on this.
It would be great to have the complete breakup for engines and factory-fitted fuel options as well for all cars, in addition to the petrol-diesel split they now provide.
The least we can expect of the manufacturers is to provide the sales of individual models and the petrol-diesel split. We can them club them together from our end to find out how a manufacturer is performing in a particular segment. But Tata doesn't see it that way, they are doing it from their end in order to hide some poor performers, and we simply have to accept whatever they give out. It's this kind of practice that should not be encouraged among other manufacturers, because if that were the case, then we would be completely clueless as to how individual models are performing.
I hope I've clarified what I meant to say. I hope you've understood that I was alarmed ONLY by the "clubbing" practice becoming more widespread among manufacturers to our detriment, and NOT by your proposal which would be very useful if we do it from our end.