[RoadGlide]

Originally Posted by mayank_ferrari

Thanks for the info Ajmat. As told by you that a Manufacturer sells these on a tender basis, meaning the dealer can further sell it to the customer or in short can these media vehicles end up with the final customer??

If I am not wrong, BMW recently had an auction of cars. It comprised of media cars as well. I found out that the X3 media car was sold to a known. When he shared the pics, it seemed familiar. Upon matching the numbers, it turned out to be the same car.

So at least per my knowledge, BMW does sell off their media fleet after a while.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by ajmat

Whether, family, siblings, customer, suppliers, office, management etc. Some are more equal than others.

Great post, Ajmat . Going to our homepage.

Let me then also call, the forums who command a credible viewership, whose readership have been validated over a period of time. They are fair but any weak spots might be exposed but we can dumb that down by first calling the print group and creating a positive blitz.

Today's customers are smarter than the car manufacturers & print media think. And I'm happy that the customer thinks for himself. If the auto brands + car rags think they can influence sales via biased reviews, they should probably stop smoking the heavy stuff.

Example = In what were obviously very heavily paid reviews, some car magazines made the Renault Captur win in comparisons (against the Creta, no less)!!! Any difference? Zero. The car royally bombed nevertheless. In recent times, the unsorted + beta version Tata Harrier also won "shootouts & comparisons". Take a look at the sales threads = it's barely doing an average of ~1,500 / month.

The internet rocks . No one can control or stop the flow of unbiased, honest & neutral information. The only morons who read "sponsored articles & advertorials" are the manufacturers + magazines themselves.

[forty6]

Originally Posted by GTO

Great post, Ajmat . Going to our homepage.



Today's customers are smarter than the car manufacturers & print media think. And I'm happy that the customer thinks for himself. If the auto brands + car rags think they can influence sales via biased reviews, they should probably stop smoking the heavy stuff.

Example = In what were obviously very heavily paid reviews, some car magazines made the Renault Captur win in comparisons (against the Creta, no less)!!! Any difference? Zero. The car royally bombed nevertheless. In recent times, the unsorted + beta version Tata Harrier also won "shootouts & comparisons". Take a look at the sales threads = it's barely doing an average of ~1,500 / month.

The internet rocks . No one can control or stop the flow of unbiased, honest & neutral information. The only morons who read "sponsored articles & advertorials" are the manufacturers + magazines themselves.

Good cars don't finish first in India. At least not in sales. But that depends on how you define a good car. Most of the attributes that petrolheads rate highly are not considered too pleasing by an average buyer.
Steering feel, not much needed, as long as it is a light steering, it is fine. Ride quality, as long as it is not too hard, it is fine. Power delivery is immaterial, as long as it sips economically.
Design is very subjective, but there aren't really many head turners these days. And that is because consumers are not that much into it anymore. At least not the poster in the bedroom kind.

What's that go to do with magazines? Well, they are useless if you really consider. The petrolheads there, can recommend a car, but it won't sell. No one buys car magazines for the quality of their writing, and they are not to be blamed, their writing isn't on par with the famous international magazines. Read the brit Evo to know what I am saying. So these magazines are useless when it comes to recommending a car, they can't criticize a car and they don't have the depth of writing, so the best business model is to tie up with manufacturers and keep everyone happy and keep the cash flowing.

But to be fair to them, it is not just them, it is most of the print media industry.

[Carpainter]

Originally Posted by forty6

Good cars don't finish first in India. At least not in sales. But that depends on how you define a good car. Most of the attributes that petrolheads rate highly are not considered too pleasing by an average buyer.
Steering feel, not much needed, as long as it is a light steering, it is fine. Ride quality, as long as it is not too hard, it is fine. Power delivery is immaterial, as long as it sips economically.
Design is very subjective, but there aren't really many head turners these days. And that is because consumers are not that much into it anymore. At least not the poster in the bedroom kind.

Totally agree with you. People in India prefer something easy on the pocket even if that means compromising the core factors of a car like driveability, steering feedback, ride quality, build quality etc. Otherwise why on earth did i20,swift,baleno etc. sold more than Polo, Punto and the likes.

Speaking of the general media and print mags in India, they are boring and useless at the same time. They hardly point out the negatives and short comings in a car. All they say is like what infotainment it has or what character line meet at where etc but hardly say anything that matters and if you just read or watch one review of them, the rest are pretty much copy paste. They don't have the courage/willingness to go against these big companies and criticise their cars for some reason.

[Kosfactor]

Originally Posted by Carpainter

Totally agree with you. People in India prefer something easy on the pocket even if that means compromising the core factors of a car like driveability, steering feedback, ride quality, build quality etc. Otherwise why on earth did i20,swift,baleno etc. sold more than Polo, Punto and the likes.

Polo & Punto (Really?) are old models 10 or more years old, thats a lot of time to be sitting on the shelves. At its core there is a 1.0 liter engine that produces less power than an i20 \ Baleno. Polo \ Punto failed due to the incompetence of their manufacturer, its that simple.

The top sellers have reached there with a lot of work from their parent companies, from marketing to after sales support, there is simply no comparison.

Media can hype up stuff to a certain extend, however in the end the consumer has to see value in what they are buying, even if that value is just plain old trust.

[GTO]

Here's something unique = MG has roped in Myles (CarzOnRent) to maintain their press fleet. We're guessing the main advantage is that it's "outsourcing" the entire headache of maintaining the media cars, co-ordinating with journos etc.

This was a regular white plate car (like a regular car). No black + yellow plates. No 80 kmph speed limit either .

Our pickup & drop was handled entirely by Myles. Even the customer subscription model is through Myles (related news item).

Blackwasp found the pickup & drop experience to be smooth. Walkaround videos were taken at both times (pickup & drop) to document the condition of the car, no damage etc. The driver was on time and the Myles team was super prompt.

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by GTO

This was a regular white plate car (like a regular car). No black + yellow plates. No 80 kmph speed limit either .



Attachment 1912264

When MG told us about this, we told them our apprehensions about the 80km/h limiter. Wonder how this legally managed without the black and Yellow plates. Must be in the form of lease cars

[GTO]

Originally Posted by ajmat

Must be in the form of lease cars

Indeed, this was a lease car. Blackwasp confirms it.

[Warwithwheels]

Originally Posted by GTO

Indeed, this was a lease car. Blackwasp confirms it.

Are't lease cars always registered in the name of the leasing company? Here, the registration details reveal that the hector is registered in the name of an individual.



EDIT: Got this from the public domain. The car is listed on a car rental company's website in Mumbai

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by Warwithwheels

Are't lease cars always registered in the name of the leasing company? Here, the registration details reveal that the hector is registered in the name of an individual.

Attachment 1912285

EDIT: Got this from the public domain. The car is listed on a car rental company's website in Mumbai

Attachment 1912287

Yes but that is if you buy a car on lease. Here the Eastwest rent a car has bought the car and Myles is leasing the car from him. So myles is the lessee and the owner is the lessor.

This is what Zoom car has in their ZAP program. The car is owned by one person and depending on the number of days you give the car to zoom they reimburse the EMI to you.

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Yes but that is if you buy a car on lease. Here the Eastwest rent a car has bought the car and Myles is leasing the car from him. So myles is the lessee and the owner is the lessor.

This is what Zoom car has in their ZAP program. The car is owned by one person and depending on the number of days you give the car to zoom they reimburse the EMI to you.

But the ZAP cars have black and yellow plates and the speed limiter if I am not mistaken

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by ajmat

But the ZAP cars have black and yellow plates and the speed limiter if I am not mistaken

Zap has the speed limit and black and yellow plates but looks like Myles is a different approach.

They have corporate fleets for companies as well as subscription. This must be a corporate fleet.

https://www.mylescars.com/myleszero/dealer#evaluateZero

Under this it is mentioned that the car is white plates and the owner of the car is a Myles registered dealer, in this case east west rentacar.

I guess Myles has found some way to skip all the restrictions that ZAP has.

Also this is actually interesting model cause they give to corporates like a lease but charge subscription. Decent idea actually where the corporate doesn't own a car and if the person changes no hassle of changing car or closing lease. You just stop subscription.

[shravan2k2]

I am curious to know where these media cars get auctioned? If GTO or Vid6639 could help me out?

[GTO]

Originally Posted by shravan2k2

I am curious to know where these media cars get auctioned?

Copying Ajmat's post here. But you generally need to be "in the know" to be a part of the auctions. E.g. the M5 which we tested was recently auctioned & sold for just over a crore.

Originally Posted by ajmat

Keeping this a separate post

• Some of them do not escape gods intervention and get totalled
• Some of them are given to journalists for long term tests (call it a tax free obligatory perk!)
• High end cars are used for high end events to ferry tennis players etc. A Mercedes GLS that I used in Ladakh had been blessed by Paris Hiltons bum and then used for the inaugural Delhi F1
• Some are given/lent to dealers as demo cars (heaven help if you are a dealer in the region for the event! The company will swipe your cars)
• Some of them are used for "Experience" shows - some tired Merc, BMW, Jags out there
• Some are used as for media run paid junkets into Ladakh etc. (Overdrive)
• Some are kept in the factory to test components or used a validaition vehicle.
• Some are sold after a while to dealers on a tender. (I was advised by a manufacturer to avoid these cars as the prices were already heavily marked up)
• Some end up in the Marques exclusive secondhand pre-loved

[ashlil]

Originally Posted by GTO

If the auto brands + car rags think they can influence sales via biased reviews, they should probably stop smoking the heavy stuff.

Example = In what were obviously very heavily paid reviews, some car magazines made the Renault Captur win in comparisons (against the Creta, no less)!!! Any difference? Zero. The car royally bombed nevertheless. In recent times, the unsorted + beta version Tata Harrier also won "shootouts & comparisons". Take a look at the sales threads = it's barely doing an average of ~1,500 / month.

Recent example of this has been Kia Seltos. Every single megazine and website seems hell bent on selling the Kia Seltos. For example, I visited autopunditz to look at the monthly sales figures and was greeted by at least two articles that were obviously paid for by Kia.