[vipinendran]

Originally Posted by deep_bang

I think this thread is becoming a M&M bashing thread. Lets get back to the topic. The original post was all about why is quanto not doing well. The question is not "why is M&M not doing well".

So, here is my take:
1. I have already commented on my previous post that as a Quanto owner, the problems I see are the body roll and the hard clutch.

2. There are more options like EcoSport/Duster (although they are more expensive).

3. The target audience is strictly a city user - not much in Tier 2 cities. WHY? Tier 2 cities generally look for value for money options, specifically value for Money per seat. Scorpio fits the bill perfectly.
It is the city user who wants a "SUV/MUV" and yet travel only with one or two people, possibly with kids on weekends, and possibly add a person or two in the 3rd row once a month. And this vehicle is for such a person.

When you have reduced your target audience to a select few in the city, numbers will be small.

5. The problem is that Quanto does not have any one SINGLE USP, apart from the price. And I think if it had some USP - like good ride, or very good fuel efficiency, or foldable 2nd row to give maximum luggage area - something, it might have clicked better. Right now it is a jack of all trades.

I personally think that in the Indian market, looks do get overlooked if there are other strengths.

Well said Deep Bang, it unfortunately has turned out to be a Mahindra bashing thread, anyway you have really given a very balanced opinion on the quanto. Foldable second row is a good option and bigger shoes should improve the side profile of the vehicle. As a quanto user I am sure you find the engine more silent and refined esp. after two services.

[Kratos453]

Originally Posted by bsdbsd

My point is that, shankar.balan has a point, borne out of his own experience, and it can be validated at many ends. Absolutely no offence to anyone, or any of the vehicles involved here in the discussions.

You are absolutely right and we should understand that shankar.balan's arguments are to provide us with a better product rather than go against Mahindra Quanto.

Mahindra has made a big mistake with Quanto and they have targeted the wrong market. Look at how Maruti has done it, look at how Honda is doing it.

My opinion where Mahindra has gone wrong with Quanto:

1. They made a chop-up job out of an already failure product (Xylo)
2. They did not bother to improve the quality and it remained the same as of Xylo
3. They did not study the market properly and even if they did they did not reach the market properly
4. They did not bother to improve the ride quality and reduce the body roll
5. They took us for granted in an attempt to cash in on easy money (this is the biggest mistake and they should have realized how much the market has matured especially with all the international competition around)

[ummieg]

The seats of Quanto are taxi like. Quality of seats needs to be improved to bring in a feeling of comfort and luxury. I am looking around for a change for my aging WagonR. I and my wife rejected Quanto outright for this reason.

[ryder]

I had liked the pratical approach of Mahindra and have quanto as one of the top contenders for my next car, that said, i have test driven this car and here are my 2 cents on what could have made me and my family feel even better post the test drive that we had (please note that i use an Indica LSI and some of my views might be a comparision, un-itentionally)

1) Bodyroll: There is ample, this needs to be addressed. The car lunges forward-downward under hard breaking, may be because the center of mass/gravity is not where it used to be and has moved forward bacause back has been chopped off. This forwad and downward movement gives a feeling that you might still end-up hitting something in tight sitiations where the wheels have stopped but the body takes an extra inch to move farward-downward and then backward-upward and then settle to a stop, this is my feeling only, i might be wrong.

2) Looks : The fornt of the current xylo should have been carried over instead of the older design, also the ugly gap between the bonnet and grill, looks more like a air scoop than a shut line.

3) Seat placement and flexibility: Can the second row seats be placed a little lower? i feel more secure and have more privacy, when the door are at least until ones sholder level when sitting inside. Foldable and detachable seats for row 2 and 3 would be welcome.

The above 3 points are what i felt, must improve, based on my TD. Below are some points for improvement for quanto per my opinion to help make things better for quanto.

3) Legspace: I also have a feeling, for most cars an inch or 2 can be shaved of from front leg space and the same be distributed to 2/3 rows as appropriate. Since my feeling is, most cars except some enty level ones have more than enough legroom in the front row, the seat can actually be places an inch to the front to free up space at the back.

4) Front Seats: Given the width of the vehicle, these can be made as 2+1 seater in the first row. That way, more seating, more appeal to segment looking for practicality.

5) Safety features: ABS and Airbags and any (every other) safety feature should be made available (at least as optional) on all variants by all manufacturers. I do understand it might not make business sense to them manufacturers but again just making my point.

Cheers, Drive safe.
Ryder

[0xTKB]

Here are my views. About a year ago I worked at Mahindra dealership (was just a temp job as I was getting bored at home). When the dealership sent me to the pre-launch event of Quanto to New Delhi, we had two days of meeting regarding the Quanto. The first day was just about the various aspects, specs & other features of the car.

The second day we were shown the car in flesh. There were about 50 guys present at that time (from Himachal, J&K, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan). And almost all of them unanimously agreed that this car will be a huge pain in the a** to sell. Most of them said that it is based on Xylo, which is already very hard to sell. They echoed the view that it should've been based on Scorpio because it is a bigger brand and better looking vehicle than Quanto.

[zenren]

Originally Posted by ryder

Below are some points for improvement for quanto per my opinion to help make things better for quanto.

3) Legspace: I also have a feeling, for most cars an inch or 2 can be shaved of from front leg space and the same be distributed to 2/3 rows as appropriate. Since my feeling is, most cars except some enty level ones have more than enough legroom in the front row, the seat can actually be places an inch to the front to free up space at the back.

How different is this from an existing owner not putting the front seats all the way to the back? Front seats are not fixed and the 2nd row legroom depends on how forward or back the front seats are kept.

I understand the additional space that can be liberated at 3rd row if it is facing front but in this case, it is just the width of the jump seat that gets a marginal increase. It'll still be insufficient for an adult.

Quanto was never meant to be a regular 7-seater. Compromising on the first row that's used everyday for a rarely used 3rd row might not be practical.

4) Front Seats: Given the width of the vehicle, these can be made as 2+1 seater in the first row. That way, more seating, more appeal to segment looking for practicality.

5) Safety features: ABS and Airbags and any (every other) safety feature should be made available (at least as optional) on all variants by all manufacturers. I do understand it might not make business sense to them manufacturers but again just making my point.

Cheers, Drive safe.
Ryder

#4 and #5 seems to contradict each other. You cannot design a 2+1 front row and ask for airbags at the same time. Even seat belts would be a challenge for the passenger in the front middle. More importantly, having a middle passenger could directly impact the convenience of the driver - his legs could come in the way of gear changes and clutch usage.

[anjan_c2007]

We would be led to believe that everything Mahindra touched turned into gold.The proper noun "Midas" was almost substituted by "Mahindra", the way they played their marketing games till about half a decade back.

The Verito and Vibe (Verito's Quanto here) have played spoilsport in their car making venture. The Vibe is another Quanto like disaster, after the sub 4000 mm definition by our bureaucrats.

The Xylo has become a lemon. When launched in 2009, it had a 3 month waiting list scaring the potential customers.Whereas, the Scorpio had a month long waiting list.

The Quanto was a post 4000 mm (the desi bureaucrats definition of a small car) fiasco by Mahindra. The Xylo sales were less than half the Scorpios sold, by the time the Quanto was a concept.Its three cylinder diesel engine is another let-down and M&M thought of cost savings, using the same mechanicals.This strange chopped, poor man's SUV (or whatever one calls it) fits nowhere in a customer's scheme of things.

M & M thought it could Quanto the C segment cars, but that's now a failed experiment.

And with the Vibe, it thought it could shoo away the higher B segment cars with SWIFT dreams, but that was a foolish experiment.

Taken together, two failed products the Verito and Xylo were chopped by M & M to derive two more badly failed products.

About a decade later, the owners may find spares for these lemons getting tougher to come by. M&M being an Indian company has a better edge here at least, vis a vis the European car makers especially..

[Nanometer]

The best thing for Mahindra to do would have been chopping the Bolero and bringing it under 4 meters . With 4 * 4 place it below Thar.

[sinharishi]

Mahindra to give new push to the Xylo and Quanto.

There’s a buzz that M&M may reconfigure the Quanto’s seven-seat arrangement and make it a five-seater to offer better space for the second row.

A baby SUV codenamed ‘S 101’ by Mahindra is expected to be launched in late 2014. This could either give company or replace the Quanto.

Source: http://goo.gl/RGtsIa

[IndiFuture]

I may not be the best person to provide an answer to this, but I can definitely say why I wont buy the Quanto.
1. Though I like the Xylo's new looks, I equally hated the old looks. And Quanto carries that older look.
2. Even if I overlook that, then I have a huge tall MUV, even more disproportionate after the boot-chop design.
3. Body roll, simply untolerable in this car.
4. Xylo's heritage. Its the same reason the Manza's dont sell due to Indigo/Indica's taxi credentials. After all, you wont want people to flag you down at every signal for lift, and god help if you have a white car (which is also the most preferred).

[pgsagar]

Originally Posted by IndiFuture

I may not be the best person to provide an answer to this, but I can definitely say why I wont buy the Quanto.
1. Though I like the Xylo's new looks, I equally hated the old looks. And Quanto carries that older look.
2. Even if I overlook that, then I have a huge tall MUV, even more disproportionate after the boot-chop design.
3. Body roll, simply untolerable in this car.
4. Xylo's heritage. Its the same reason the Manza's dont sell due to Indigo/Indica's taxi credentials. After all, you wont want people to flag you down at every signal for lift, and god help if you have a white car (which is also the most preferred).

Yes. We can say same thing about Innova, too. I see more yellow plate Innovas on road than white-plate.

[abhayvir]

Quanto is a very attractive and indeed innovative product. I think M&M can pat themselves on the back for creating it. But then I also think they missed a few tricks as well. With such a unique product, I would put a rather creative marketing plan at work to sell it more. (By the way even the Verito Vibe can benefit from this):

#1- Scrap the mid and the high end variants. Keep the base variant only.
#2- Give the customers to customize almost everything. And charge accordingly.
#3- Create options e.g. Captain Seats or Bench Seats at the rear. Double DIN GPS Touchscreen A/V or a simpler one, 2/4/6 speakers, 16"/17" wheels etc.
#4- Use the web for all this.

I believe the experience itself will enable Mahindra to get a lot of customers. I'm positive it'll be more than 400-500 pm.

[Equus]

The city/urban comment is very valid. This market is not really widening and the Dusters/Ecosport/Terrano's have captured it well. The Quanto doesnt compare well with these, outside the price factor. You just get too much more for a couple lakhs and the urban market doesnt mind that honestly..

Having said that, definitely M&M should take the feedback in this thread and make the v2 much better.. Seems like they want to make it a 5 seater (or atleast provide a 5 seater option) as well! Makes a lot of sense, alongside the Vibe actually.

[IndiFuture]

Originally Posted by Equus

Seems like they want to make it a 5 seater (or atleast provide a 5 seater option) as well! Makes a lot of sense, alongside the Vibe actually.

I am pretty sure that the 5 seater will fail miserably (read the news too). The only reason it is still selling in hundreds, and started selling in thousands is because of the two jump seats that it provides, which none of its competitors did. That is the ONLY reason, and I repeat, ONLY reason people bought this ugly car in the first place.
I believe that only way forward is reducing the height (by a good 150 to 200 mm) and making its front look similar to new Xylo, than old Xylo. I will buy it, and I'm sure many others too. I dont think its impossible, in fact, its very possible. And they need to keep both 5 and 7 seat variants, let people choose whichever they want.

[Prafful_Rathod]

M&M already had started the S101 small SUV project on paper after the sub 4m rule and the trend abroad towards small SUVs. But since they were starting from zero, they knew it would take 4 -5 years for it to hit the market. In the meanwhile they had the Xylo platform which was under performing compared to their plans. It has a capacity of about 5 to 6000 vehicles per month. They were doing about 2000 to 2500 Xylo Plus about 1000 to 1500 Xylo pickup (Genio). So they still had unutilised capacity of about 2000 to 3000 vehicles per month on the Xylo platform. The easier option for them was create a sub 4m SUV out of Xylo and cater to the segment till such time they come up with S101. At the same time there will be better utilisation of Xylo platform. Plus the investment required in Quanto was relatively lesser. If you consider all these points M&M's idea was right in bringing in compact SUV on Xylo rather than taking a risk with already well established Bolero and Scorpio brands.

The execution is what was not up to the mark. Firstly they tried to create a USP by offering two jump seats (i.e. 7 seater) in a category where mostly there are 5 seaters. But those two jump seats are useless. I am not sure about the tyre size but it looks smaller and the gap between the Wheel arches and tyre is huge and looks ugly. Obviously they are not going to change body shell as it would be very costly and defy the whole purpose. At the most they can refresh interiors, work on ergonomics. Not sure if body roll can be reduced to a large extent with the given height of the vehicle.