[Nitrous Power]

I think Ciaz has potential to go further up, if not beating segment king City.

Even after removing some features, i20 Elite is selling more than previous generation. I understand that Hyundai has kept prices closer to last generation but still selling more than 10k for a premium hatchback is no small feat.

MOM, Mahindra's all offerings have taken beating barring Verito which is non performer anyway. As GTO noted, it's time for Mahindra to get rid of non performers. XUV needs diesel AT as soon as possible.

Coming to Toyota, Corolla's sales breaching 1000 mark in second consecutive month shows people's faith on Toyota. I am pretty sure that majority of sales would be from Petrol Corolla and not loan mower sized Diesel engine.

[aaggoswami]

1) Dzire seems to have taken a hit of around 3000 units, but then the entire segment has taken a hit, be it Amaze or Xcent. Zest has the capacity to revive Tata motors and it shows. After driving Dzire, Amaze and Zest I think Zest certainly felt better than the Honda. Xcent has very weak motor, specially in diesel format. Petrol does not shine out either. Zest is a pleasant surprise. Honda, Hyundai and Maruti, watch out for Bolt. Bolt will be a strong package compared to Brio and Grand i10 atleast.

2) Swift is back to it original figures. IMO, Swift deserves it. Competent package coupled with probably the best After Sales and Service network.

3) Wagon R is a huge hit. Despite the car being only petrol powered ( with CNG and LPG options ) its doing good after all these years. Shows that a practical car cannot be ignored in Indian small car market.

4) Ciaz is an expected hit. We need to watch out for next 3 months as the sales would have stabilized.

5) Renault-Nissan needs to evaluate its strategy and root cause for failure. Nissan's orientation towards diesel is not going to help them. Sunny for example, has diesel version which has more safety features than petrol. Their products are not that bad.

6) Chevrolet. Repeated failures takes away whatever faith people have in the brand. Its high time GM realizes this.

7) Ford. Fiesta still not selling. Ecosport is helping them survive, the same way Figo helped Ford. They need to bring in new Figo very fast.

8) Honda and Toyota. Mobilio, Brio and Amaze are not as well engineered as competition. Its time both Toyota and Honda realize than throwing poor products wont help get business. Be it Etios twins or Brio/Amaze/Mobilio, they are far behind contemporary options.

9) Celerio is victim of overlap IMO. Xcent is also in same boat. Elite i20 can be a very tempting package as compared to a sub-4m. Xcent. The added status which I20 has managed to earn plays a role. Celerio vs Wagon R and for any middle class family Wagon R will come out on tops. On sporty front they have K10 and on practical front they have Wagon R.

[jessie007]

I would like to add to the statistics with figures for segment-wise market share over a period of last month, 3 months and 6 months. These numbers give a fair picture of each vehicles market share within its own segment and whether they are gaining or losing.

Segmentation might not be perfect but I have done it to the best of my knowledge. I have left out some vehicles that have negligible impact in overall market share. Have also highlighted (in yellow) top 10 sellers for each month over the past six months. Plus one can see the segment-wise total sales trend over the past six months (horizontal colour-scale). Hope this is helpful.

Click on an image to enlarge / zoom:

[prakhar1998]

The erratic, and mismanaged supply that Honda is displaying, is disappointing to say the least. This Japanese giant never before had problems that it's facing now. Quality and reliability issues. Manufacturing and distribution mismanagement etc. Honda really needs to pull up its socks. The release of the Jazz isn't going to make matters any better either.

[lancer_rit]

Great overview GTO !
Maruti head and shoulders above all others. Ciaz is doing good though need to watch over next 3 months. Once S cross is launched, the mini SUV market may see a shakeup.

Hyundai and Honda are going strong. Toyota doing good.

All others are floundering.

Skoda is now an enigma :-( More than a year after Octavia launch, sales are very poor and Availability is poorer. I mean why launch the car if you're not going to make it available? Killing the brand on top of service, support and rogue dealer issues.

[thoma]

Maruti is selling equal to (well, almost) what all others are selling combined! I am wondering why Hyundai, who had been so long in the country and had come of age, is still not able to break the shackles from the early 20s (% sales) to the 30s. They are selling just a third of Maruti. What could be the main reasons?

• Is blind faith is anywhere a major factor?
• Maruti's mass market car, Alto is way better Hyundai's Eon?
• Number of service centers and spares available locally?
• Number of models? Omni+Eeco alone does 12k figures. Ertiga 5k. No competitors

Would be good to see a bit more competition rather than a dead pattern and 'chalta hai' attitude.

[RavenAvi]

The gap between the 6th and the 7th placed car companies in the manufacturers' sales charts has grown into a H-U-G-E and worrying one. The steady decline of Ford, Chevy, VW & Renault-Nissan numbers has no doubt contributed to this.

Ah! The wonderfully multi-talented Aston Martin-esque Fiesta. Why is Ford India hell-bent on giving it such step-motherly treatment is beyond comprehension and belief! With an ARAI certified figure of 25 kmpl and a price tag which is cheapest for it's entire segment (Fiesta Titanium costs less than the Verna 1.6 base!), not to mention it's plethora of features and I dare say BEST-IN-CLASS ride behaviour and handling, the ~400 numbers simply doesn't do it justice. And I cannot think of even ONE reason why Ford India should be "satisfied" with those numbers - can't be production constraints, lack of proper advertising could be a reason, could be profits through exports, but scratch your head hard and you can't come up with ONE good reason why.

10,000 units of the Elite i20! Whoa! I thought those kind of numbers were reserved for only the best-selling Marutis. Just goes to show what a well-rounded, practical and improved product can do to the sales numbers. In fact, the combined tally of the Grand & the Elite is ~19,000 units, which is well over the Swift numbers & the DZire numbers. No mean feat by any means. Well done, Hyundai!

Zest numbers are improving, and the positive buzz is helping it immensely. A very un-Tata product, yet a Tata in it's roots and essence, it's a wonderful VFM offering in the segment. Consider this, my Swift ZXI cost me 6.64L OTR, while the fully-loaded Zest XT Revotron costs 7.05L OTR! Present a prospective customer with that small price difference of a mere 40,000/-, and it's a no-brainer which way he would tilt. How I wish it was launched during the time I finalised our Swift ZXI for my Dad - I would have gone for the Zest XT without hesitating for a second thought!

[extreme_torque]

I for the life of me cannot fathom the numbers Swift keeps doing every month. Its build appalling tinny, the quality is not the best, the ride is harsh, it rattles, the rear is claustrophobic and the boot space is abysmal. Looking at its number I feel cars like Polo and i20 should do even more numbers.
If I was in the market for a hatchback today, I would not touch the Swift even with a bargepole. Outside India the story is different though, the build is visibly better and the car is cheap and fun to drive. Same story with Dzire as well. I feel the competition is as good if not better and yet they do less than half the sales in their best selling month.

No offence to the owners of respective cars. This is just my opinion.

[JoshMachine]

Thanks, this is indeed the most eagerly awaited report at the start of a month!

Have few observations / clarifications to be sought:-
1. The analysis covers volumes of cars sold, is it possible to extract / obtain value (revenues) of cars sold and then have grapical comparison? Graphs might show interesting trends amongst manufacturers.
2. Shouldn't Vibe be in B2 instead of C1?
3. Shouldn't Storme be in D1 along with Aria, XUV etc instead of C2?

In terms of volume growth, Maruti rocks again...and competitors are still grappling to even come close inspite of being in the country for more than a decade now.

[deetjohn]

i20 breaking into the 10k was expected and it gives a good feeling seeing a good quality hatchback giving the fight to those pseudo 4m sedans.

And I think DZire has landed a tough fight with Ciaz sharing the same floor. Will be interesting to see how this pans out.

The manufacturing glut to beat the possible hike in excise duty is true. Most dealers are sitting with lot of inventory and some yummy discounts to be had till New Year.

[SchumiFan]

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

I for the life of me cannot fathom the numbers Swift keeps doing every month. Its build appalling tinny, the quality is not the best, the ride is harsh, it rattles, I feel the competition is as good if not better and yet they do less than half the sales in their best selling month.

No offence to the owners of respective cars. This is just my opinion.

Originally Posted by GTO

The suspension has an underlying firmness that’s evident at low speeds. While it’s never uncomfortable, the ride quality isn’t plush either over broken stretches of urban tarmac. The Swift is acceptably compliant, yet you will feel the stiff edge over large bumps and ruts.
Above 60 kph, and at any speed on the expressway, the Swift rides F-L-A-T. The rear end, especially, feels like that of some European cars I know. At speed, the new Swift feels extremely mature and the flat ride greatly enhances comfort over long drives. On highway potholes, the older car’s harshness is absent too. No, it’s no Punto and large bumps will still upset it, yet overall ride quality is far better than the previous gen Swift.

The handling remains sharp with good all-round grip levels. Of special mention is the body roll that is very well controlled. The front end of the car is eager to change direction, and responds to your inputs like a faithful servant. I thoroughly enjoyed chucking the car in & out of the Aamby Valley ghat corners.

Maruti has managed to hit the hallowed “sweet spot” in terms of ride & handling balance.

Not going to bother with the rant. But just wanted to address the issue about the harsh ride you mentioned, using a quote about the ride as mentioned by GTO in the official review.
Kind of answers why people buy Maruti in large numbers. They managed to make a good car better by addressing the faults in the previous model. Same with the Elite i20 from Hyundai. Hence why it is selling well.

Finally it is the buyer's money and he is choosing to put it where he feels is the maximum value. Competition better start picking up their slack

[KrishD]

Safari Storme comes down to a mere 400 units after going steady at 800-1000 units for many months. Since these are dispatch and not sales numbers, it could be an indication of either of two things
1. They are cutting back on manufacturing and dispatching the existing Storme as the updated one could be round the corner
2. The focus on churning out Zest has taken their focus away from other cars

Really hope its the former and not the latter

[saket77]

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

I for the life of me cannot fathom the numbers Swift keeps doing every month. Its build appalling tinny, the quality is not the best, the ride is harsh, it rattles, the rear is claustrophobic and the boot space is abysmal. Looking at its number I feel cars like Polo and i20 should do even more numbers.

No offence to the owners of respective cars. This is just my opinion.

Originally Posted by SchumiFan

-------- just wanted to address the issue about the harsh ride you mentioned, using a quote about the ride as mentioned by GTO in the official review.
Kind of answers why people buy Maruti in large numbers. They managed to make a good car better by addressing the faults in the previous model. Same with the Elite i20 from Hyundai. Hence why it is selling well.

Adding to above, car buying is just not buying any product. You have to depend on the manufacturer for service and other after sale services which is very important, if not more important than the product itself. There are lots of cars which may be more competent than Maruti in terms of engineering and some do come at same or near to price points, but when it comes to service, Maruti is leagues ahead and hence rightly termed as people's car. If almost half of the car buying population is choosing a Maruti, there must be more than just herd mentality to it.

Good to see Elite i20 doing good numbers. It is a deserving car. Honda City has always been a C segment favorite, great to see it holding its fortress even today. Honda has done good to keep the City's styling competent to modern cars. And Good start to Ciaz. It's a good family sedan choice. Checks most boxes for a family.

Thanking GTO for his wonderful analysis of the numbers.

Regards.

[extreme_torque]

Originally Posted by SchumiFan

Not going to bother with the rant. But just wanted to address the issue about the harsh ride you mentioned, using a quote about the ride as mentioned by GTO in the official review.
Kind of answers why people buy Maruti in large numbers. They managed to make a good car better by addressing the faults in the previous model. Same with the Elite i20 from Hyundai. Hence why it is selling well.

Finally it is the buyer's money and he is choosing to put it where he feels is the maximum value. Competition better start picking up their slack

There is not ONE person I know, not one, who bought the Swift because it handles well. Also none from my circle of friend's is a repeat Maruti customer except one who has an old Dzire and went for Ertiga. Figo to me rides and handles better than Swift, it cheaper than Swift and is safer than Swift as well and yet it does less than 6th of Swift's sale in a good month. I do not think it can be attributed to service factor alone.

The only thing going for Maruti is the service network which more often than not are pretty good and if not, the company makes sure that they are taken to task and the resulting peace of mind which is a huge factor for sales in Tier II cities and it is something which others cannot match except may be Tata and Hyundai and yet it does not explain their sales in Metro's or Tier I cities. To me Maruti is an appliance company which makes them for as cheap as possible (nothing wrong with it until you start compromising on the build for lightness in interests of economy and economy only) and they are for most part reliable. I guess I am not that category of customer. Again my personal opinion with no offence to anyone.

[marsbhp]

Originally Posted by thoma

Maruti is selling equal to (well, almost) what all others are selling combined! I am wondering why Hyundai, who had been so long in the country and had come of age, is still not able to break the shackles from the early 20s (% sales) to the 30s. They are selling just a third of Maruti. What could be the main reasons?

• Is blind faith is anywhere a major factor?
• Maruti's mass market car, Alto is way better Hyundai's Eon?
• Number of service centers and spares available locally?
• Number of models? Omni+Eeco alone does 12k figures. Ertiga 5k. No competitors

Would be good to see a bit more competition rather than a dead pattern and 'chalta hai' attitude.

Alas, blind faith is definitely a factor in the Indian market. Added to it, poor advice from people like "Airbags and ABS are not necessary in India" definitely makes its mark on people buying cars that are flimsy and unsafe but just have the big M name behind them. Not to forget the eternal "Kitna deti hai?" pioneered by them and being taken to a new level compromising safety in entry level categories .