[gshankar]

Can I sue the government for the damage its roads have caused to my suspensions? or my back?
One correction to someone up there - most parking lots are government owned... or contracted to private parties - the lands till belongs to the public.
In future - you will be taxed when u park your *** on any public property.
Another correction - we are actually paying nearly twice what car owners pay abroad - and they get better products that us Indians!!
I wonder - why do we pay the government taxes when most of the bloody roads have toll booths??
I think Indians were born to be screwed every which way...!!! what say?

[BUSA]

Read this. The price of XTrail over here is around 25Lakhs and in SA the X trail is comapred to the Scorpio.

Great pricing, because rival SUVs like the Land Rover Defender, Ssangyong Musso, and Nissan X-Trail

Link

[low_bass_makker]

in india the sport swift is not launched and the corolla in india has a 125 bhp motor but in foregin u can get a 164 bhp motor. is this justice.......... cant we afford expensive model......

[ranjan united]

Originally Posted by gshankar

Another correction - we are actually paying nearly twice what car owners pay abroad - and they get better products that us Indians!!
I wonder - why do we pay the government taxes when most of the bloody roads have toll booths??
I think Indians were born to be screwed every which way...!!! what say?

You said it !!!

[suman]

Originally Posted by BUSA

Read this. The price of XTrail over here is around 25Lakhs and in SA the X trail is comapred to the Scorpio.



Link

OT: In Paris, they use the X-trail as a taxi! Rode in one last month and wasn't really impressed about rear seat leg space......

[Poseidon]

Originally Posted by sbasak

It all depends on economy of the nation! As India grows prosperous and more manufactuers come here, the things are bound to change.India is rising though very slowly. See already used cars prices have drasically fallen here. Wait for another 5 years - you'll see that the auto gap between Indian and Europe/America will further reduce. Till then, we have to accept that we are overcharged

Democracy on the roads will eventually ensure:
-lower taxes
-better roads
-better cars
-better accountability from govt/manufacturers
Look back 10 years and one can appreciate, democracy:
-on the rails it has ensured better train amenities and service.
-in retail, telecom, airline, it has ensured mind-boggling choice and value to customer.
-is slowly changing the quality of governance (by RTI act etc)
What we all disagree with here is the pace of change.
Till then, democracy will ensure our right to whine! (no offence here)

[mail4ajo]

I hate this thing about accessories - pay extra. A Alto mat cost 450Rs, Mud flap-250rs, Steering cover-250rs.

We cough up 3.25L for the top end version and no standard accessories are given free. How much difference will it make for Maruti to give that as complimentary??
Days will come when these guys will tell us - Engine and gearbox is accessory - Take it or leave it!!!!!!

I definitely feel that we are not given a fair deal. We are given the most outdated technologies. Every one talks about India being a major Automobile market. How many internationally sold cars have made their debut in India?

Times have changed, companies stated to realise their follies in understanding the Indian consumer and most importantly the great Indian middle class, the strata with heavy disposable income.

We can look forward to better times in the future.

[tsk1979]

Its not the manufacturers fault only, there are lot of other factors too

1. In Europe and US cars are for driving on the road, and SuVs for most part road with off road capability. In India cars have to be designed with off road capablity. So you need high gc, higher profile tyres, softened suspension.
2. In Europe and US the engine is supposed to run on petrol. In India, it has to run on kerosene too. So lower power
3. Regarding Skoda et al, they pay very high customs duty, excise, road tax etc., Cars which are built entirely in India owe 40% of their value to taxes, and cars which are imported as CBU/CKD this ranges from 50-70%. The car companies make almost the same amount of profit on the vehicles as they make in US, its just that we pay more tax
4. Features which are wanted in US, even though they will push up the price, are unwanted here. Value of life is less in India. So when safety and money clash, money wins. Thats why you even have a rider version of the RS.
5. Give an avg car buyer a car with Airbags for 6 lakhs and without airbags for 5.4, 6lakh will sell only to enthusiasts and safety concious and the volumes are not enough to justify that.

[prasadee]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

2. In Europe and US the engine is supposed to run on petrol. In India, it has to run on kerosene too. So lower power

Thats plain BS. They make low powered cars to save on costs, and give better mileage that the customer is asking for. No one is designing their cars to run on kerosene. Even the tiny engines with low power would die if you put kerosene in it.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by prasadee

Thats plain BS. They make low powered cars to save on costs, and give better mileage that the customer is asking for. No one is designing their cars to run on kerosene. Even the tiny engines with low power would die if you put kerosene in it.

Huh. Why does RS produce less power than europe(RS is a performance car). ITs not mileage. What you said is true for economy cars, but the primary culprit is lower quality if fuel. Adultration messes up with the octane rating. To enable to run an engine on lower octane rating fuel without knocking you need to lower the compression ratio which its Power and Mileage both.

If you were to detune an engine for mileage(AKA NHC) you do not need to lower the compression ratio. Since most Indian versions sport a lower compression ratio its due to the poor fuel quality.

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by prasadee

Even the tiny engines with low power would die if you put kerosene in it.

He means diluting gasoline with 5-10% kerosene.

[microhit]

Originally Posted by s.prashanth

well I am sorry on the octy i was trying to correct it and a mail has been sent to the administrator regarding it, coming back to the puny wheels, my question is why the differnce in the models why not give the same wheels on the standard as well as the deluxe models, coming to safety the confidence of the driver improves when he knows what is driving him, rather than trying to find out the limits of his car and the cornering adhesion by permutations,ont you think so???

no, you are correct

Octy is not a luxurious car. It is a bunch of VW like crap, sold in very few countries.

Indian market have not matured and I doubt it will anytime soon (unless indians change their breeding habits)

you can say all you want, but in the end I can argue that- Do you have road space in your state to drive? Do you wear seatbelt? How many times do you change lanes without giving indicator? How many times do you stop and look right before merging left? How many times do you break the speed limit ? Do you respect pedestrians? Last - how many times do you use your horn? Do you deserve good cars after all this? NO.

Indian maybe the largest democracy - but less than 50% actually vote.
So here is the contradiction again!

We should not make comparisons with other countries. Just because you have microsoft office in Bangalore dont mean nothing - India remains one of the poorest countries in the world and Indians get what they deserve. Its not just about you - its about the entire country - Demcracy right?

And i agree with you about overpriced Corolla etc.

[condor]

Another point abt the kind of vehicles we get here. IMO - Maruti's vehicles are basically hand-me-downs from Suzuki. Well, one can say that the vehicles coming from Maruti are tested etc etc ..

http://autocarindia.com/new/Information.asp?id=1464

Happened to see a Omni recently from the inside - was partly shocked / partly surprised by the way the seat belt was mounted onto the pillar - looked like a cheap add-on.

[s.prashanth]

Is there any way we can make a Auto magazine to catch up on this thread, and makeit public???

[condor]

Not sure if that's even possible. Magazines depend almost completely on ad's for their revenues. Subscription fees / cost of magazine that we pay is a pittance compared to what it actually takes to produce the magazine.

When it comes to getting a better deal from any company, there's nothing like an educated consumer who can call the bluff and not accept what ever the companies dish out.