[TaurusAl]

There seems to be a drop in Innova and Xylo figures. Not that Xylo's market share has been reduced drastically, but just guessing where the taxi operators have disappeared. Surely they wont wait for the new launch of Innova which seems to be in pipeline like a normal consumer would.

If these 2 aren't selling, what car has taken their share.

Could it be a Lodgy effect ?

[romeomidhun]

Originally Posted by TaurusAl

There seems to be a drop in Innova and Xylo figures. Guessing where have the taxi operators have disappeared. Surely they wont wait for new launches etc like a normal consumer. And if these 2 aren't selling, what car has taken their share.

Xylo is in comma, and a natural death is the only possibility.

Informed private Innova buyers may be waiting for the new model. Or may be the news about creta and scross also might have some effect on innova.

[balajisv]

Originally Posted by dreamliner17

Maruti can sell 'anything'. I repeat 'anything'.

Well, I buy 'anything' that Maruti sells!!
For me, it's resale value and mileage that matters most. I'm pretty much OK for ugly design, cramped rear, tinny build, fewer safety options, less boot space, fewer electronics, and premium pricing.
I won't even look at other products, even if they are better and are VFM.

[dark.knight]

This has become extremely predictable these days, with the top 6-8 shuffling places amongst each other. One can say that the Indian market is one of the toughest markets to crack but the easiest to survive in once the job is done, first mover advantage pays off big here unless the first mover screws up big, like Airtel is the first choice for telephony (after BSNL's overconfidence blunder), Samsung is the mobile market leader (after Nokia's dilatory workings) & in the same way Maruti Suzuki captured the car market from what was an almost monopoly by Fiat, now both brands are in 2 extreme ends of our monthly sales charts (HM is more like an honourable mention these days).

Marketing has always been one of the areas of my interest, I feel the only way to capture the market in India is to give the consumers what they want, however ridiculous it might be. Indians love the value proposition, unlike other markets they are programmed to follow popular choice and once loyalty is established they passionately support the brand to no end. Indians also place a lot of importance in marketing, word-of-mouth & peer reviews so for a product to become successful is quite difficult until a lot of favourable circumstances happen together.

As far as the auto industry goes, I think the top 3 wont be changing places anytime soon, Fiat continues to plummet despite a very sincere attempt at refreshing their 2 models, maybe their problem IS the '2' models only strategy. The public never fails to remember that they were deserted & that's why we have unquestioned loyalty when it comes to Suzuki & Hyundai, they took our market seriously. Creta, Aspire, New Figo should change the current top 10 equation quite a bit when they arrive, all 3 being well packaged reasonably priced vehicles in their respective segments.

[naikameya]

Maruti knows the pulse of the market and it shows.
Victory for Dzire is well deserved. Why this hatred? It has survived an onslaught form a very strong competition xcent, amaze, zest(actually one can exclude zest). Even if those numbers include taxis it says a lot about reliability and comfort levels of that car. Nobody is stopping Honda & Hyundai from selling their cars as Taxis. Go ahead try it.

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by romeomidhun

* 9 out of 11 models from Maruti except Gypsy and Ritz continue in top 20.

Aren't they selling Vitara? Their website lists the model though.

Originally Posted by arnabchak

Maruti makes about Rs. 1470 crores just selling Dzires alone .

Considering ex-showroom price in Delhi for the cheapest variant, these are the numbers the makers make at the minimum:

[arnabchak]

Thanks MS.

My calculation was based on the fact that Vdi is probably the highest selling variant and hence arrived at the 1.4 figure.

Very impressive analysis though.

[GunjanArora]

Dzire beats Alto.. unbelievable!! IMO, there is a sudden surge in the taxi segment opting for Dzire. In my company(employs at least 200 cabs on contract basis), the Indica has been completely replaced with cars like Etios, Liva and majorly Dzire. During my office commute, I notice so many Dzires with the taxi plate and I believe this is the major reason of the surge in sales

[pranjal1984]

With their average monthly sales hovering around 10,000 cars, TATA Motors has a very challenging year ahead. I don't see a single vehicle in their present lineup bringing high volumes for them in the immediate future. The Bolt has been a very slow starter and I have hardly seen any Bolts in my city . Even taxi fleets are avoiding TATA vehicles now and they have migrated to the Dzire and Etios. I could make out the following reasons for the laggard sales of Bolt and Zest.

-Resemblance to their existing cars.
-Not competitively priced.
-Car buyer's allergy to TATA passenger cars due to past brand image and ASS issues
-There were three dealerships in Guwahati. Two have shut down and one new dealership is starting sales shortly. Frequent closure of showrooms affects the image of the parent company as dealerships are the face of the company.

I am a manager of a bank branch in Guwahati and whenever I am asking my branch customers about their plans of buying a TATA car, nearly 95% reply in the negative which is really sad for such capable products from TATA. I personally feel the aspirational value of cars is an important factor and that is where TATA has failed miserably to project their vehicles in positive light. However I am still hopeful that with their upcoming launches, the company can fight back.

[anilkalvani]

Originally Posted by geeash

That's very misleading as I have seen many dzires too registered commercially for taxis. As a matter of fact in chennai 99 % the government owned airport taxis are Dzires. They get a black dzire and paint the roof yellow and ply their trade. And MSIL allows Dzires also to be commercially registered unlike Hyundai Xcent. Do u have any statistics which says how many dzires and dzire tours were commercially registered and how many are privately owned in June?

Irrespective here IMO. Sales are sales. Period. Why do taxi segments go for DZire's (22k) or Amaze (6.8k) or Innova (4.1k)? The answer is peace of mind. Easy service network availability, ready availability of parts, etc all account for Maruti ruling the roost (1 lac+ cars a month) & why people have faith in the brand. Loyalty can't be bought or advertised. Publicity can work for a year or two. Remember how patriotic we were when Tata launched the Indica? Where are they now? The lagged due to 'not so sound' engineering, regular breakdowns, reliability issues.

As i had said earlier, had my last Maruti car in 2001-02. But i am seriously going to go back. My opinion though. (Also maybe because i'm getting old too, just crossed 40 )

[KMohanan]

I am not surprised by the poor performance of Tata Zest and Bolt.

The story of tata zest and bolt are good examples to teach in management schools on how to kill excellent products by the same company.

I highly appreciate the design and production team of Zest and Bolt. But feel sympathy on them to see how their sincere and shining efforts got shadowed by the wrong pricing and continued poor service support of the company.

At least tata management should have spent few minutes to read the postings on their products appearing in reputed sites like team-bhp.

For example :
Kindly refer to the following posts made by me nearly an year back on Tata Zest.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/offici...ml#post3496747

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/offici...ml#post3506877

At least now, please learn from the failures.

Tata should immediately conduct a self-examination and critical study on how the excellent (i say it again - excellent) tata products Aria, Nano, Zest, Bolt all miserably failed in the market ?

How many customers know that the travel in a Tata Venture is as luxurious and comfortable as the travel in an Innova for half the price of innova ? (Of course, the driver of the tata venture will never come to drive your venture again since the driveability of venture so poor with very low pick up and non-overlapping power bands !!)

If we consider the features packed in Tata Zest XTA variant, I really doubt whether any other manufacturer has offered so much to the customers !

Once again, I repeat, we are proud of tata in the efforts to provide the customers the best products.

A couple of years back, tata was number 3 in sales. Is marketing department not observing that Mahindra and Toyota have overtaken tata in sales for many months consistently ?

[GTO]

Originally Posted by dreamliner17

Maruti can sell 'anything'. I repeat 'anything'.

No, they can't. In the last 2 years, Maruti has discontinued more cars than any other manufacturer in India.

Zen Estilo (flop)
A-Star (flop)
SX4 - A running flop for 5 years
Grand Vitara (flop)
Kizashi (flop)
Versa was also a royal flop for years, until Maruti repositioned it as the Eeco.

What happened to Maruti's magic here?

Give the Indian customer some credit (for buying only good Maruti cars, not any & everything with the "S" badge) and Maruti too (for improving its cars). The Ertiga is a heck of a compact MPV, while the Ciaz is a comfortable cruiser (with puny engines). The upcoming S-Cross feels more European than Japanese! It's solid & it's fast (but also ugly).

[Swapnil4585]

Originally Posted by balajisv

Are you sure the private customers are least interested in design, electronics and cosmetic features?

Zest scores on low cost of maintenance and offers peace of mind ownership, thanks to the renewed focus on customer and A.S.S by Tata.

Zest is not a flop, in my personal opinion. It is settling at 2K units per month and it's a decent start, rather a restart by Tata in their quest to win back customers.

There is a category of private buyers with heavy use who are not much interested in cozy interiors, electronic features, etc, albeit in small numbers. Cars like Etios, Verito, Indigo CR4, etc, are a perfect fit with such customers. This target market can be found in smaller towns.

Coming onto the Zest and Tata Motors, I agree that as a product, it is at par with its competition in most areas, may be even ahead. I've had checked the Revotron Zest as a replacement to my 8 year old Indigo earlier this year. The sales person was convincing me to go for a Vista TDI since I was previously a TDI owner. After I pressed him to show me the Zest, he showed one, and while at the engine bay, he said "the bay is quite spacious. Any mechanic will find it easy to work". This statement shows a lack of trust of one wing of an organization on the other wing of the same organization.

I'd still say that whatever Zest and Bolts are sold, Tata, keep the customers happy. These private customers of today are your springboard to success in the future.

[dreamliner17]

Originally Posted by GTO

No, they can't. In the last 2 years, Maruti has discontinued more cars than any other manufacturer in India.

I agree with that GTO. But what i feel is, they can 'try' out and give flops! Of the 5 or 6 different segmented small cars that they have, it 'may' not matter to them if they have a few which don't do well. Other manufacturers don't even make that many models in totality! You can't have every Maruti sell in huge numbers. What i meant is, after the Swift has come into the picture, Maruti has made such a strong image that they can practically tinker their products here and there and yet achieve those big numbers.

We have a Dzire in the family and it's a great product. I am not against the Dzire being at the top. I am amazed !

[rajneeesh]

Originally Posted by GTO

No, they can't. In the last 2 years, Maruti has discontinued more cars than any other manufacturer in India.

Zen Estilo (flop)
A-Star (flop)
SX4 - A running flop for 5 years
Grand Vitara (flop)
Kizashi (flop)
Versa was also a royal flop for years, until Maruti repositioned it as the Eeco.

What happened to Maruti's magic here?

Give the Indian customer some credit (for buying only good Maruti cars, not any & everything with the "S" badge) and Maruti too (for improving its cars). The Ertiga is a heck of a compact MPV, while the Ciaz is a comfortable cruiser (with puny engines). The upcoming S-Cross feels more European than Japanese! It's solid & it's fast (but also ugly).

Well SX4 was not exactly a flop. In the initial 2-3 years it pulled in a decent number of customers. It started its innings on a strong note, but was hit by the then new "Honda City" . The delay in launching a Diesel hurt them big time. THe Vento and the Verna were fresher products. It also lost marketshare to its small sibling i.e. the Dzire. Cumulatively MSIL ould have sold more than 1.5 lakh SX4's. Till Honda launched the latest version of the City, no C segment car sold more than 5 K units per month consistently and 2-3 3K units per month was considered to be a respectable numbrr