[Ferruccio]

Originally Posted by humyum

Its not these guys that take the shots baba, the heads over their heads, VP's etc give the go ahead. Look at Tata's product planning team, some 5 guys at the top of the bunch, take the shots.

Originally Posted by drsingh

So that means the higher management has no confidence in the people they employ?

HumYum :-) you obviously are not a fan of BBCs iconic TV Series Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister. The guys at the top have such narrow band-widths that they would sign the document agreeing to sell the company for a single Rupee if so advised explicitly by the guys who take the bus.

The VPs et al are so busy running from meeting to meeting and one ribbon-cutting to another that the actual task of running the company falls on chaps with 5 years experience!

Dr.Singh The danger is not that the higher management has no confidence. Au contraire, the chaps with 5 years experience are trusted too much IMHO.

[Seran Manian]

Thanks Team BHP, for the un tiring efforts taken to publish these details month after month.

Top 4 - All Maruti Variants sell month over month above 15000 each! Then there is a big gap and the rest sell well below 9000. Maruti has made a mark and impression in the India buyer that is un beatable by others. Even the out dated Maruti Omni (Pardon me if I use words that some may not like ) sells 6K plus. That only show the faith of the Indian Buyers in the brand.

Mobilio sales have not made any impact on Ertiga sales it looks. In fact it has increased over the previous month. Then who is the looser?

Honda City sales figures going down a bit may be due to the Production shift. Hope they will catch up in the coming months.

Renault has only Duster to rely on and that too just maintaining the 3k mark. That makes me understand the frequent calls I am getting from the OMR showroom. They are under pressure to increase the figures .

Tata should be happy about the way they impressed the buyer about their product Zest. Hope the sales will grow soon.

[saion666]

Originally Posted by RavenAvi

Tata: Initial response to the Zest might have been heart-breaking for the Indian manufacturer, who has pinned a lot of hopes on this superbly built C1 offering. Still, ~3300 numbers is decent enough. Will the numbers rise once the word-of-mouth gets around in the days to come? Let's wait and see.

Thats the reputation of TATA at work. I know so many who are interested in the car but are playing the waiting game since TATA cars have a history of issues in the initial batches which get sorted out later.

[humyum]

Originally Posted by Ferruccio

HumYum :-) you obviously are not a fan of BBCs iconic TV Series Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister. The guys at the top have such narrow band-widths that they would sign the document agreeing to sell the company for a single Rupee if so advised explicitly by the guys who take the bus.

The VPs et al are so busy running from meeting to meeting and one ribbon-cutting to another that the actual task of running the company falls on chaps with 5 years experience!

Dr.Singh The danger is not that the higher management has no confidence. Au contraire, the chaps with 5 years experience are trusted too much IMHO.

Well experience is irrelevant in new product planning, you learn on the job. No one was born a new product planner, they all got in as freshers and proved their talent. All that matters is you connect your automotive education + management education + your passion and understanding of the market into a brilliant product plan.

Let me give you an example, a model like a Premier Rio, if it had a Mahindra or Tata bagde or the Quanto had a similar design characteristics as that car with some of the downsides of the Rio ironed out, it would be selling like Hot cakes even now. Most of us would pick it up instead of a hatch that we drive now.

Anyway let's agree to disagree, maybe both of us have different experiences with these companies and hence our own conclusion

[sadsack]

Originally Posted by ank.nsit

The likes of Xcent, Amaze & Zest have not made even an iota of dent in the sales of Dzire. Same for the Swift.
Even with the news of face-lift coming soon, no dip in sales number.

I think it is a bit simplistic to target one manufacturer's product with a similar one from another. I think answers will be a little more accurate if one takes the overall picture

Originally Posted by Speed.Demon

Wow, is it the first time that the hatchbacks have seen less than 50% of the market share?
The compact sedans making their presence felt, then.

This is right. The number of products in the compact sedan have increased with different options being available to buyers. This explains why the Dzire continues to sell despite the Amaze, Xcent and Zest coming into the picture. It is therefore conceivable that with increased competition in the segment, greater validation of the segment itself has happened and therefore the Dzire numbers have not shrunk. The shrinkage is in the hatchback segment where the Alto has fallen below the Dzire.

Originally Posted by saion666

Thats the reputation of TATA at work. I know so many who are interested in the car but are playing the waiting game since TATA cars have a history of issues in the initial batches which get sorted out later.

Tata's task is uphill since there is no longer a single factor going against it. One is the fact that it stayed still with no launches for too long and by the time the Zest has come, competition in the segment has increased. Given that scenario along with the loss of brand equity that Tata has suffered from, the numbers of the Zest are not bad at all. The test now is will it be able to keep up these numbers?

The yo yo that the Nano is on has pushed up the sales by a thousand units. This after the production of all versions except the Twist have been stopped. This tells a story. People want a good, inexpensive car with good features. The addition of the AMT and the hatch which can be opened should keep the sales momentum, but time is of the essence. Delay things too long and the window of opportunity will be closed. Tata can pin hopes on the Nano because it is a segment all by itself and some right changes can make a winner out of it, though the shrinking of the small car segment will probably ensure that it will never sell in the numbers that were expected of it originally. It will be good to target the car at women, that segment is not properly explored as yet.

The Datsun story is going wrong but I think if the Nissan-Renault alliance has some deep pockets then it can push the car's numbers after feedback from customers is taken.

The Skoda Rapid story is now beginning to sound hilarious. India got a sedan named Rapid before the rest of the world because this was based on the older generation Fabia. Now when the new Fabia is coming into the world market, Skoda says that to manage costs it will create a "new" Fabia for India based on the Rapid!! To me that sounds as if Skoda will make some cosmetic changes to the old Fabia (maybe borrow the dashboard from the Polo) and bring it back into the market. Volkswagen and Skoda have messed up their strategy in India and I think things will improve only after one of the brands is chopped off and that will have to be Skoda given the fact it has acquired a seriously bad reputation in terms of after sales service. Too many cooks spoil the broth and too many brands offering the same products spoil the market.

[zenren]

I have a question regarding the categorization of some of the models, primarily the old i10.

It is still put under the B2 segment, though all the premium variants and 1.2L engine have been discontinued with the introduction of Grand i10. IMO, we should downgrade old i10 to B1 segment considering the variants that are currently available. Old i10 is certainly not on a higher segment than Indica/Vista.

Another question is regarding the SUVs being put into the same segment as sedans (C2 and above) while some MUVs like Ertiga and Mobilio that are primarily purchased by private buyers come under the UV category. Even these two vehicles are eating into the prospective sedan buyers just as the compact-SUVs like Ecosport and Duster.

[mihirgadre]

Good Afternoon good folks at team-bhp. This is my first post to the forum.
I have been following this thread for the past 5 years, passively, yet obsessively. My question to all you erudite folks out here is that, looking at these sales numbers, on a national level, across segments, what would you say are the top 3 factors considered by the Indian Car buyer, while making his purchase? Factors which can explain the distribution of sales volumes across various segments as well as within those segments?

[zenren]

Originally Posted by mihirgadre

Good Afternoon good folks at team-bhp. This is my first post to the forum.
I have been following this thread for the past 5 years, passively, yet obsessively. My question to all you erudite folks out here is that, looking at these sales numbers, on a national level, across segments, what would you say are the top 3 factors considered by the Indian Car buyer, while making his purchase? Factors which can explain the distribution of sales volumes across various segments as well as within those segments?

If you need top 3 factors, here is my take regarding the majority of the buyers:

Fuel: Diesel over Petrol

Brand: Maruti over Hyundai, Hyundai over others.

Body shape: SUV over sedan, sedan over hatchback.

[romeomidhun]

Originally Posted by zenren

If you need top 3 factors, here is my take regarding the majority of the buyers:

Fuel: Diesel over Petrol

Brand: Maruti over Hyundai, Hyundai over others.

Body shape: SUV over sedan, sedan over hatchback.

I'll say:

i) Cost of ownership, and
ii) brand or iii) style.

Why?

Cost of ownership (buying + running + maintaining): The reason why hatchbacks is the biggest category. People first decides on the budget. The initial price, Diesel/Petrol options and maintenance cost come into picture here.

Then comes either: Brand (your finding here is spot-on) or style (that's why Swift sells more than Ritz): Some people goes for a particular brand, while others go for the style of the car.

[avdhesh15]

Biggest sale coming up for Fiat in a long time? This story is absolutely mind boggling... no matter what bonuses we would have got, this would overtake most of ours!

"About 455 employees opted for Fiat Punto while 570 opted for jewellery and 207 took away the flats."

Source: http://www.motoroids.com/news/surat-...ndia-rejoices/

[mihirgadre]

Thanks, Zenren & Romemidhun.
Personally the 3 parameters according to me in customer speak are:
1. "Status" or "Prestige" (form, proportions, details, size, perceived quality...)
2. "Hassle Free Ownership" or "Peace of Mind" (reliability, durability, longevity, consistency, quality of workmanship...)
3. "Affordability" or "Frugality" (Price, Efficiency, Choice of Fuel, Spares cost, Resale value...)

Ideally scores of various cars on the top 3 factors should have a high correlation to the sales volumes of cars. By corollary, scores of upcoming cars on those same 3 factors should have a high correlation to their expected volumes.

So, what would be your forecasts (in average monthly volumes) for some of the upcoming/recently launched cars like Ciaz, Avventura, Bolt, Scorpio, S-cross, New Jazz, Go+, Figo Sedan & New Figo?

[jessie007]

Maruti posts marginal growth in Oct sales

Ciaz: 6345

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/...cle6554983.ece

New Delhi, Nov 1:
Car market leader Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) on Saturday reported a marginal growth (1 per cent) in its domestic sales in October.
The company sold 97,069 units during the month compared with 96,062 units sold in October 2013.


It sold 6,345 units of its newly launched sedan, the company said in a statement. In the mini segment (Alto, WagonR), MSIL sold 35,753 units in October, down 9 per cent, compared with 39,379 units in same period last year. Sales in compact segment (like Swift, Ritz) also fell 3.5 per cent to 37,083 units during the month against 38,410 units in the corresponding month last year.

[CoolCarNi]

Would be interesting to see Zest numbers for October. IMHO, the initial euphoria is settling down and TATA is doing nothing to improve the visibility of the car in print/electronic media. This may be your last chance TATA, wake up! The facelifted swifts are certainly going to add to your can of woes!

[jessie007]

Originally Posted by CoolCarNi

Would be interesting to see Zest numbers for October. IMHO, the initial euphoria is settling down and TATA is doing nothing to improve the visibility of the car in print/electronic media. This may be your last chance TATA, wake up! The facelifted swifts are certainly going to add to your can of woes!

Forget print media - I haven't seen one on road in a city like Delhi, though my daily running in quite limited. Seeing cars running on the road prompt more enquiries atleast, if not sales - As the saying goes "Jo dikhta hai wo bikta hai"!

[CoolCarNi]

Originally Posted by jessie007

Forget print media - I haven't seen one on road in a city like Delhi, though my daily running in quite limited. Seeing cars running on the road prompt more enquiries atleast, if not sales - As the saying goes "Jo dikhta hai wo bikta hai"!

+1 to that! Either they preponed the launch, or launched and become complacent thinking that they have a revolutionary engine in the form of revotron which will sell in decent numbers just like that! Truth be told, I also have not seen more than 3-4 cars on road in Pune