[humyum]

I say this now, I have said this before. Without excellent + cheap after sales/parts You cannot CANNOT sell a car in India below the 15 lakh range +/- a few lakhs.

VW needs to offer 5 years warranty with every car and needs as a package, lower the prices of parts by localization and needs to give a firm whacking to all its service station staff. Maybe, tables can turn a little.

[avdhesh15]

8%... that's 15k cars monthly even in today's industry! My feeling is that it was an amazing "upward management" exercise in the boardroom by the Indian management. Should be interesting to see the leadership team's movement over the next 12-18 months.

[INJAXN]

When I was looking for a hatch December last year, Polo was 1st in my list, but my wife sent me 10-15 links of bad ASS experienced by VW customers .
I told this to sales manager of VW ( PCMC area, Pune), he then told me that they have improved a lot and in some recent rakings they are #1 in ASS .

well we didnt buy the polo, and moved to Maruti.

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by avdhesh15

Should be interesting to see the leadership team's movement over the next 12-18 months.

There will be movement, a lot of movement in the 'Indian' boardroom i.e., resignation letters and outward movement of the members of the top management.

Fulfilling the 8% market share is ONLY a dream and if they do so then it is an achievement. BUT to reach this, they need to better out two things, namely,

1) Their after sales standards + attitude;


2) Better and larger portfolio which appeals every single buyer of every segment.

Feels good to see that if a customer enters a Maruti or a Hyundai showroom he walks out with a deal. There is a car in every budget and Maruti beats me to this with one car available in every 1 lakh increase from the 3 lakh segment.

Originally Posted by INJAXN

I told this to sales manager of VW (PCMC area, Pune), he then told me that they have improved a lot and in some recent rakings they are #1 in ASS.

Did he read the list upside down or the ASC is in #1 position from last?

Ask him to share the rankings that he boasts!

Anurag.

[Contrapunto]

A lot of things about VW's management is a mystery to me. Why are they running expensive ad campaigns when they don't have products in inventory? Last week, encouraged by the ads etc, my friend took a ride to the city centre showroom in Chennai. The first thing that the salesman had to say to my friend was that they can't deliver either the Polo TSI AT or the Vento TSI AT for 5-6 months, but graciously offered a test drive. We gave the salesman a piece of our mind, and he swore not to touch VW with a bargepole for a long time. Why could he not have told us the facts and saved us a 1.5 hr drive? It was callous and insensitive.

VW management has not shown a capacity for introspection and reflection. Its easy to blame the customer, but that does not help sell. The customer has choices, and need not suffer this arrogance at all. What they need is a change in leadership, and a strong mandate to change organisation culture to one that puts the customer at the centre of their universe. "The Indian customer is immature and ill-informed, they dont deserve oour best products as they can't afford them" is not a good opening statement to an customer-focussed organisation.

[Turbanator]

They are now after SKODA , maybe to save VW India they might sacrifice SKODA altogether ...

Volkswagen may limit the operations of struggling group company Skoda in India as the brand has failed to get volumes despite a long presence in the market. Mahesh Kodumudi, president and managing director of Volkswagen Group India, said that new strategies are being considered for the Czech car brand that was the first within the VW group to set foot in India around 2001 but has not managed to cut much ice with customers, managing a poor 0.8% share at the end of 2013-14.


Stiff competition from heavyweights like Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Honda and Toyota has seen Skoda struggle to find its feet. The company has been unable to make a major dent in the domestic car sales and has seen limited success with niche products like the `Superb' sedan and the midsize `Rapid'.
The company withdrew from the big-volume compact car segment last year after deciding to discontinue the Fabia hatchback.



Kodumudi said one of the options being considered as part of the brand assessment is whether to have it as a mainline player. “May be, it is not necessary to be a mass-market brand all the time. That kind of rationalization is going on, though no decision has been arrived as yet.“

Full article at :
http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/A...25062014020024

[volkman10]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

They are now after SKODA , maybe to save VW India they might sacrifice SKODA altogether

Skoda is speculated to play in the premium market and VW brand will fill in the rest + premium(e.g. Passat )

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by volkman10

Skoda is speculated to play in the premium market and VW brand will fill in the rest + premium(e.g. Passat )

What? They want to prove that VW has more sales than Skoda? Looks like a pathetic attempt on it! It's like Skoda is being made the scapegoat for VWs mistakes!

[rohanjf]

Is Volkswagen really aiming to capture 8% market share by volume (total number of cars sold)?
They better say that they want 8% of the total market turnover.
Considering that there two segments below Polo's segment where Volkswagen has no presence (and no plans to make an appearance), they might as well launch such products as Tiguan which have decent demand, and show more commitment to India by starting assembly of Touareg. They should have learnt their lessons already by seeing how their fellow Germans, including their own Audi, have started assembly of their flagship models in India.

I think I read it here in Team BHP itself, that SUVs offer better profits than sedans or hatchbacks.

And it doesn't look like any top manager at Volkswagen India has had to go through the pleasures and pains of owning and maintaining a budget car. Unless the top management looks through the eyes of a budget-car buyer and feels what a budget-car buyer feels, they won't understand what a budget-car buyer needs.

[TheLizardKing]

Let me offer another perspective, another side to the story if you will. Maruti and Hyundai have the first mover advantage in what has turned into a highly competitive market. They understand the market well because, well, they "defined" the market. The relationship dynamics between them and their dealerships are also sorted out. So when VW say that Maruti and Hyundai dominate the market, they are not whining. They are just admitting an unpalatable truth.

It is naive to expect a brand to be all things to all people. Maruti has never be able to crack the 15L+ market, and Toyota has given up on its mass market aspirations. There is a reason for these failures, and it has to do with what each brand stands for in the customers' minds. Maruti will always be about VFM and "Kitna deti hai?". And because that resonates perfectly with the Indian customer, Indians will continue to gobble up Swifts and DZires.

For better or worse, VW stands for "German engineering". It is their roots, their heritage, what they stand for. They won't be able to change it so easily just because they are unable to crack a market, even one as huge as India. What is their strength almost everywhere else (they even cracked China) has turned out to be their weakness in India.

And there may be no easy solutions.

Meanwhile there continues to be a small number of satisfied VW owners in India who smile every time they crank the ignition. They drive "Das Auto" after all.

[iliketurtles]

Originally Posted by TheLizardKing

Meanwhile there continues to be a small number of satisfied VW owners in India who smile every time they crank the ignition. They drive "Das Auto" after all.

Very true, I'm one of them. But let me play the Devil's Advocate here. Maruti and Hyundai dominate the mass-market because there is a lack of other alternatives. Those brands are almost cookie-cutter in nature, all doing the same thing. What does someone who wants a fun-to-drive car do? He looks at Ford, Fiat or Volkswagen but let's talk about Volkswagen specifically. Most guys in that bracket of buyers run away from brand VAG due to A.S.S. concerns. if VW sort that out and it's half the battle won since there isn't a hatch in that bracket as fun as the Polo 1.2 TSI, for example.

But for VW, it's a catch-22 situation. They can't/won't justify spending more on establishing a bigger service presence until they have more customers, and more customers won't come into their fold unless they feel assured of the service experience.

I agree completely that there are no easy solutions, but knuckling down and showing they care about the after-sales experience is vital to their well-being. In my own experience I'm quite happy with their after-sales experience so far, but they still have some way to go. If I were the marketing guy, I'd focus on talking about VW customers and how they've improved or are planning to improve service levels, I wouldn't lead with German engineering, but that's just me.

[sudeepg]

It's funny how every other day VW has a half page ad in some leading news papers offering so many options. Skoda ads looks like they are giving away a ton of freebies. It doesn't look like there are many takers for their products still, given their after sales experience.

Originally Posted by iliketurtles

But for VW, it's a catch-22 situation. They can't/won't justify spending more on establishing a bigger service presence until they have more customers, and more customers won't come into their fold unless they feel assured of the service experience.

I agree completely that there are no easy solutions, but knuckling down and showing they care about the after-sales experience is vital to their well-being.

If I were the marketing guy, I'd focus on talking about VW customers and how they've improved or are planning to improve service levels, I wouldn't lead with German engineering, but that's just me.

Superb! Not the Skoda product. Your perspective is superb.

There is no easy solution after you burned your hands. You need to take medicine, relax a bit and work hard. Fiat is doing the same. Despite of being at the last position in sales charts for years (ohh.. please exclude HM) Still they are investing on expansion & on providing better service experience.

If Fiat can do it, VW can. But will they try this hard and painful route is the big question? The only disadvantage with this route is to work hard.

[iliketurtles]

Originally Posted by gemi_kk

There is no easy solution. Fiat is doing the same. Despite of being at the last position in sales charts for years they are investing on expansion & on providing better service experience.

If Fiat can do it, VW can. But will they try this hard and painful route is the big question? The only disadvantage with this route is to work hard.

I agree completely. I remember a time when Fiat's were such a hit and miss (I'm talking early 2000's, when I had a Palio) and they've made strides forward since then. But it has been (and is) still a long hard road for them since that old image remains in the heads of some. It's the same for VW. They need to pump money and time into this development of their service levels. Putting in the former is no problem for them, the latter is something that they will have to work on. It won't happen overnight, but I'm sure they can do it.

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by TheLizardKing

For better or worse, VW stands for "German engineering". It is their roots, their heritage, what they stand for. They won't be able to change it so easily just because they are unable to crack a market, even one as huge as India. What is their strength almost everywhere else (they even cracked China) has turned out to be their weakness in India.

I think the issue runs deeper than the German Engineering (or its flaws).
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...not-india.html
Problem being faced by the customer of German Engineering since 2009.
Acknowledged by VAG in 2012!
Gives 10 years warranty support in China after recall, but absolutely mum in India.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...speed-dsg.html
Later we come to know that the workshops in India have been silently changing the problematic oil. (But not the gearbox that may have been damaged by now)

What is so great and desirable about such kind of engineering which cannot work for what it was designed to be?

Meanwhile there continues to be a small number of satisfied VW owners in India who smile every time they crank the ignition. They drive "Das Auto" after all.

*Scene - VP Marketing's cabin*
VP Marketing: "I am absolutely stumped why we cannot make a dent in the sales when we have everything in place"
"We have a great product which sells Das Auto"
"We have a superb reputation of German Engineering"
"We have a great service support (points to a few posts on internet lauding the service)"
"We have a great number of satisfied customers who will spread the message by the world of mouth (plays the audio of telephonic feedback from one of the few happy customer)"
"We are also promoting our brand on print as well as electronic media! the way no one else does"
"Heck, we have also priced it right!"