[ranjan united]

Its gonna be awkward, isnt it? You pull up at the signal in your BMW M3 and instead of asking you BHP the guy asks "Nice Car!! wht's the mileage?"
Bottom line is people who wanna buy the sportscars and bikes are already aware of their fuel consumption. so i'm guessing it shouldn't be that much of a problem to potential buyers.

[1100D]

Its really time for sporty peppy cars as roads are improving but most of these cars are going to be bought as status symbols rather than objects of passion, hence most of them will be chauffeur driven. Beleive me, there are some places people show their noses when you say that you have arrived self driven and have no chauffeur. Some people even go to the extent of showing pity for not having been able to bought the services of a chauffeur! So Chauffeur is more status. I personally know a few guys who would turn up from the backseats of their Santros as if they are coming out of a stretch limo!

So hence these so-called chauffeurs, denied from most basic pleasures of life for aparently no faults of theirs would one to go one up on the road once they have dropped the owner at the office. The road being such an equaliser. Any Ding or Dent on the car, someone else hit it.

So even if we have the infrastructure and the manufacturers ready would we have the car buying public making a note.

[manson]

Originally Posted by amit

We blast the manufacturers for not giving us performance cars but why should they when most Indians are not too bothered with the boring task of driving their own cars. Lets face it, most Indians look at cars as a means of getting from point A to B and as status symbols. I am sure there are plenty of Octavia Rs's that are chauffer driven. Why even look at premium sedans? I have seen countless chauffer driven M800's!

Even if we get roads as good as the German autobahns, Indians would'nt want to drive their own cars. Most Indians are not car or driving fans and most, even with smooth roads, would never go on a driving weekend holiday. Anyone wants to see a chauffer driven Ferrari? come to India!

i totally agree with all the points you have made, and that small scale production of the same would not be feasible for the companies. But then, considering that most of our local manafacturers have strong tie-ups aboroad, can't they bring some vehicles down in limited quantity in ckd/cbu form?

I know GM, Suzuki e.t.c tried the same with their vectra, forester, vitara . . . but then these had immediate competition from companies manafacturing the same locally which would mean a cheaper price tag. What i'm trying to stress on is the companies should instead try and get a little unusual stuff down, quantity could be a few hundreds so that they can cater to the small percentage of enthusiasts in the country as well rather than just plainly serving the conventional sedans, dinkys as these will always have locally manafactured alternatives which will cause hardly any sales of the imports.

for eg, kinetic came with the comet, good product but not the best of quality, but there was nothing you could compare the comet to in the indian markets yet, so eventually despite the fierce criticism kinetic managed to sell all of its units of the comet.

Am sure kinetic couldn't care about the minute amount of profits from the comet project, it was more or less just for the same!!
Its time our established 2/4 wheeler manafacturers learnt a thing or two from smaller companies.

manson.

[Insane Devil]

Time has always been right, but the prices have never!
Hyundai plans to launch the new Tiburon/Coupe for over 18lks! while the fully loaded 3 lt v6 engine costs only Rs.10lk in Australia!!!

price it right, and things will sell! now they better offer more options too! a low end and high end engines ... choices are most important! not everone here is on the outlook of mileage! i know many ppl who have very lil driving, so they prefer something real powerful!

[1100D]

At the affordable end of the spectrum, are we not moving away from the Peppy cars. The Zen for example, the next-gen will actualy be the Mr Wagon which can hardly be associated with enthusiasm. The Ikon 1.6 is dead in favour of Fiesta, which would appeal to a larger audience but is definitely not as "josh" as the Ikon (although the 0-100 times maybe a wee bit faster in the Fiesta). The Palio in itself does not sell much and the 1.6 doesn't form a big chunk of the Palio sales.

The market is giving the companies the direction to go. The capital cost involved in setting up a production line for the affordable cars doesnot allow for the cars to sell in meagre numbers, although the target audience might be in love with the cars. But the car co's have to do business right.

One alternative seems to be, manufacturer provided tuning for the affordable cars. The Owner would have the option of getting the car tuned from the company workshop. Be it suspension setup or the Engine. What this will also not do, is void the warranty as it is company provided.

[manson]

Originally Posted by ranjan united

Its gonna be awkward, isnt it? You pull up at the signal in your BMW M3 and instead of asking you BHP the guy asks "Nice Car!! wht's the mileage?"

rtech surely has gone through the same more than once

manson.

[manson]

Originally Posted by Insane Devil

Time has always been right, but the prices have never!

price it right, and things will sell!

far from being a hyundai person, but what according to you lead to poor sales of the embera? reasonably priced, better than average in terms of looks (though inspired from the accord) and to go with tha a whole lotta tech over it arch rival.

manson.

[LandCruiser]

Originally Posted by islero

I agree. Bigger bikes are a better answer to the performance question than cars at this stage of our transport system. More cost effective, and easier to enjoy (also easier to get killed in, but then.....)

good.. but am thinking if a car hits a pothole at highspeedsstill you can somehow survive .. what will happen to the bike rider!

[Insane Devil]

Originally Posted by manson

far from being a hyundai person, but what according to you lead to poor sales of the embera? reasonably priced, better than average in terms of looks (though inspired from the accord) and to go with tha a whole lotta tech over it arch rival.

manson.

well, in that case there comes the financial differences in our society. ppl think honda as an upmarket brand and hyundai as a cheaper brand. i know many a ppl who are such thick headeds, that they go for honda accords JUST to show off to ppl that its an "HONDA ACCORD" and not a "Hyundai Sonata".

i have driven both of them for a good drive, and anyday the Sonata beats the honda.... the quality difference between the sonata and accord is that the accord is jus 10% better than sonata's.

see the Tucson.... first everybody said it wud go flop, its just not worht and blah blah blah, but now its selling like hot cakes.
and so is hte Skoda LAURA... before it launched, most of them said it was waste of money, super expensive octavia, it wudnt sell, skoda is on dope and stuff like that, but to see, they are minting on the Laura sales! its 250% more than expected. and ppl are all over it now!

sometimes, in india, some cars click sooner, some later.

[manson]

Originally Posted by LandCruiser

good.. but am thinking if a car hits a pothole at highspeedsstill you can somehow survive .. what will happen to the bike rider!

the same stuff that wil happen to anyone who falls off an indian bike.

manson.

[mxx]

Being practical, I think there are 2 cars that will be introduced and will be a success.
Please note "success" does not mean volumes, But selling enough to reach the target of the manufacturer. It wont be volumes that the manufacturer considers because these are most likely to be brough via ckd route.

Swift Sport. This is likely to be introduced as limited edition. Should it come it will be a great hit with enthusiasts. Limited edition also means that we will be getting a fully loaded model.

Skoda Laura/new Octavia vRS. Skoda is not shy in introducing new technologies and models. Thier cars are well built, and great vehicles to drive. They have good reputation too. Previously, the octavia rs is a case to be noted. Now if this comes, this is going to be many enthusiast's dream come true. Because as we know, this is basically a Golf GTi built by skoda.

[kvish]

Originally Posted by mxx

Swift Sport. This is likely to be introduced as limited edition. Should it come it will be a great hit with enthusiasts. Limited edition also means that we will be getting a fully loaded model.

Considering the limited editions that Maruti has been launching, swift sport may turn out to be a cosmetic one..... would be cool to have the actual 1.6L swift sport though...

There was some talk of Getz sport too...wonder where that plan went...

May be, like other members mentioned,companies need to altleast start offering kits for upgrades...

[sujaylahiri]

I agree with 1100D. Look at companies like Mitsubishi or even Honda. They have such a good arsenal of cars throughout the world but the ones we get in India are their underpowered versions. The Civic was sold in Pakistan since the mid 90s I think. Even cars like Chevy Optra and Skoda Octavia are tuned down and then sold in India.
We'll never get sportier and peppier cars in India if we always care about fuel economy.

[ranjan united]

I dont see any manufacturer bringing in any new sporty cars in the market any time in the near or distant future. Even importing is a pain in the rear-side. A person's best bet is too buy something like a Octavia and tune and modify the s**t outta it. Sure it wont be much, but atleast it'll be mental satisfaction - manufacturer's warranty be damned.

[adya33]

Originally Posted by sujaylahiri

We'll never get sportier and peppier cars in India if we always care about fuel economy.

I had posted a topic based on this some time ago.
Here it is