[desdemona]

OT: Actually, South Korean chaebols have a long history of deeply authoritarian and very conflictual industrial relations. This is a huge and very long-term problem for Hyundai (which of course is a chaebol much much larger than just cars), in terms of profitability on a global basis (they've already had 4 consecutive years i believe, if i am not wrong, of declined net, global profitabillity), the 'home base' is getting to be expensive/high-cost. Just the price of their enormous success, i suppose. Just what the Japanese had to endure too, in the eighties and the early-nineties. But the Korean trade unions are just as disciplined, determined, and 'military'-like as they themselves are, so! Plus rapid aging of their labour force etc. Probably increases the value to Hyundai of their other plants and operations, like in India, for eg.

Back to T: the Tucson has a first-mover advantage, or is a first-mover attempt at least at deploying the euro-americo-chinese standard/spec c/d-cuv in a 'third world' market such as India or Brazil etc, which have tended to have heavy, b-on-f, pickup-based large, less 'refined' suv-s, imported or domestic, dominant instead. For cost/value/utility reasons and also aesthetic ones? It will be interesting to see whether the Indian auto market demographics are, as yet, large enough for such smaller-and lighter-than-Fortuner/Hilux-type, softer models (assuming Santa Fe-like, i.e., proper global-speccing of the Indian Tucson.)

[MAS]

Originally Posted by yjagota

As far as the choice goes, to be dead honest, I am damn confused at the moment. The only thing which is final is that I need an automatic SUV. I love driving cars but I cannot drive a manual due to a injury in my left foot. Due to the injury, I am mostly being driven by chauffeurs in sedans. I need to remove this dependency, so it has to be automatic. The reason for looking at a SUV is that I live in UP, India, and the condition of the roads warrants a SUV, and secondly, I have two sedans already, so I want to try this new segment.

I'm sorry to hear about your leg injury. As you live in UP and as the bigger cars command respect on the roads of UP, I would strongly recommend you to buy the Endeavour.

[shashanka]

Originally Posted by desdemona

OT: Actually, South Korean chaebols have a long history of deeply authoritarian and very conflictual industrial relations. This is a huge and very long-term problem for Hyundai (which of course is a chaebol much much larger than just cars), in terms of profitability on a global basis (they've already had 4 consecutive years i believe, if i am not wrong, of declined net, global profitabillity), the 'home base' is getting to be expensive/high-cost. Just the price of their enormous success, i suppose. Just what the Japanese had to endure too, in the eighties and the early-nineties. But the Korean trade unions are just as disciplined, determined, and 'military'-like as they themselves are, so! Plus rapid aging of their labour force etc. Probably increases the value to Hyundai of their other plants and operations, like in India, for eg.

Back to T: the Tucson has a first-mover advantage, or is a first-mover attempt at least at deploying the euro-americo-chinese standard/spec c/d-cuv in a 'third world' market such as India or Brazil etc, which have tended to have heavy, b-on-f, pickup-based large, less 'refined' suv-s, imported or domestic, dominant instead. For cost/value/utility reasons and also aesthetic ones? It will be interesting to see whether the Indian auto market demographics are, as yet, large enough for such smaller-and lighter-than-Fortuner/Hilux-type, softer models (assuming Santa Fe-like, i.e., proper global-speccing of the Indian Tucson.)

OT: You are spot on as far as the Korean chaebols go & also probably the Korean mindset. Scratch the surface a bit & one may not find too much difference in the intrinsic values of the North & the South - despite all the periodic sabre-rattling!

As far as the Tucson goes (as mentioned else-where in this thread), equating it with b/o/f or b/o/ch SUVs - such as the the Fortuner/Endevour - is meaningless, otherwise our roads would have had a surfeit of Tucsons & Santa Fes. I'm sure soft-roaders such as these would have been successful in India had the Hyundai bean-counters & marketing spin doctors priced them sensibly.

We Indians have an almost ESP like ability to sense good VFM - witness the XUV500 success story. The Creta started of well & is still riding the crest. But Hyundai is pushing the price envelope & is hoping to milch the market for all its worth! Till something better (read priced more sensibly!) comes along.

BTW, desdemona is a great moniker & makes me wonder if we have any othellos or iagos on our forum's roster! I haven't come across any so far.

[RSR]

I'm very glad the Indian market has rapidly matured to the extent that high quality, properly engineered products of the 21st century built on solid monocoque chasses like the Honda CR-V, Škoda Yeti, soon-to-arrive Hyundai Tucson (and hopefully many more in the future) succeed and get thoroughly appreciated by knowledgeable, discerning buyers.

The same is true in the smaller SUV segments where Renault's fabulous Duster started it all, followed by the Nissan Terrano, Hyundai Creta & Maruti Suzuki S-Cross. The same holds true of the sub-4m SUV segment, where this wonderful trend was started by the Ford EcoSport, though this segment is dominated by the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza now - all of them happen to be modern, safe, sound, refined, sophisticated, high quality products of 21st century engineering built on excellent monocoque chasses.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the case that long ago in India, when the Indian SUV market was held back by the vice-like stranglehold of a peculiar class of vehicles called jugaadineered body-on-frame UVs. A perfect example - this product weighs all of 1820 kg (curb weight for a 2WD variant), costs more than a million rupees (on-road) for several variants, yet managed to exhibit its jugaadineered body-on-frame "brilliance" to the entire world, when it was subjected to a simple international crashworthiness test by the good folks at Global NCAP:

http://youtu.be/iFei7XFOdIw

[volkman10]

Hyundai Tucson launch rescheduled for November 14

Source

[Arjun Reddy]

Spotted today near Chennai.

Courtesy BHPian Anand BR.

[ANAND BR]

Hope the new Tucson lives up to the new hyundai standards. After a fiery design in the form of the fluidic, Hyundai seems to be developing cold feet and is toning down the design.

Also if the new Tucson slots into the 16 to 20 lakhs bracket it will be giving the competition a run for its money. Hope Hyundai doesn't cringe on small essentials in the new car.

[volkman10]

Hyundai Motor India unveils design expressions of all new Tucson, just before its launch!




http://auto.economictimes.indiatimes...ucson/55115551

[Axe77]

I don't understand the need for camouflaged versions and unveils of designs given this car has already been reviewed by auto mags. Is this face lift a further change from what we've been seeing these past few months?

[ach1lles]

What is this I don't even.. the car is over 2 years old. What is going on here? Design expressions? Cars that are going to launch next year (Hexa etc.) have more info out. Even this thread is dead.

Also, I have a sinking feeling they delayed the launch to *after* Fortuner's because they have some "slap to the face" pricing coming our way.

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by ach1lles

Also, I have a sinking feeling they delayed the launch to *after* Fortuner's because they have some "slap to the face" pricing coming our way.

The Santa Fe goes smack against Fortuner on positioning. I'm not sure Fortuner pricing has any relevance to Hyundai's strategy of Tucson pricing and I don't think their launch would be waiting for Fortuner.

I am hoping the Tucson pricing is as well structured as the recent Elantra launch and doesn't follow the Creta model. I also expect them to continue with their rubbish variant options as has become their hallmark in recent times (Creta, Elantra, i20 A/T etc).

Hyundai has three examples of pricing in front of it:

1. Overpriced Creta that's successful.
2. Overpriced Santa Fe that's not so successful
3. Well priced Elantra that seems to be well received.

The Santa Fe's failure is understandable - at that price they've got very strong competition from two excellent products, Fortuner and Santa Fe.

The Creta's success is also understandable. There's no identical sized vehicle (XUV is bigger and pricier and Ecosport smaller and cheaper) that gives the kind of offering Creta does. The Duster / Terrano twins are just too dated.

With the Tucson, it again has less direct competition given the CRV is only petrol. It may have to contend with Innova though even though they are very different products. (Similar price, diesel A/T / M/T, non sedans being the commonality). XUV is also competition at some level I guess.

If I had to price Tucson geared for success, I'd aim for an on road price not exceeding 25 lakh on road for top variants. Thats a reasonable SUV premium over the similar scale Elantra from the same stable.

[Arjun Reddy]

Originally Posted by Axe77

I don't understand the need for camouflaged versions and unveils of designs given this car has already been reviewed by auto mags. Is this face lift a further change from what we've been seeing these past few months?

Automag first drives would have been done else where and not on the India spec car. For example Autocar is not able to commit if we are getting the 137 BHP or the 180 BHP. Also don't forget a lot of customers are not us enthusiasts, who would track a model on the internet or travel often abroad and would have seen it. To the companies it is very important to keep the model fresh when it arrives, they just don't want the common folk to walk into their showroom on day one and say ' I have seen this before'. In spite of all the images that I would have seen , the first look at the new car always gets me going. My two cents.

[ach1lles]

They launched the Santa Fe sport in competition with the Fortuner, not the Santa Fe 7 seater "Grand". The Santa Fe sport is almost the same price as the Tucson elsewhere in the world where both are offered. I believe Santa Fe was more expensive than the Fortuner when it launched too. Anyway, why I said they maybe could've just postponed for Fortuner's announcement is that the new Fortuner would end up touching a higher price bracket, almost certainly 35L+. That way if Tucson comes close to 30L on road, it won't look so bad. If they were bullish about the product, they could've easily launched the product before Diwali as originally planned and started deliveries later à la Hexa.

Originally Posted by Axe77

The Santa Fe goes smack against Fortuner on positioning. I'm not sure Fortuner pricing has any relevance to Hyundai's strategy of Tucson pricing and I don't think their launch would be waiting for Fortuner.

Is Elantra pricing well structured though? It is kinda like that of Creta's. The base model starts at a good price for both but for all bells and whistles, which Hyundai has spoiled us with in the past, you *have* to go for the top end model. That is a diesel manual in the Creta, and a fuel agnostic auto in the Elantra. I mean, even for keyless entry and go in the new Elantra, you have to go for sx(o). It's not even there in sx AT. Jesus.

Originally Posted by Axe77

I am hoping the Tucson pricing is as well structured as the recent Elantra launch and doesn't follow the Creta model. I also expect them to continue with their rubbish variant options as has become their hallmark in recent times (Creta, Elantra, i20 A/T etc).

You kind of feel there's a philosophical change within Hyundai management that's making its presence felt with very good products albeit with higher than expected prices. Hyundai has started making really good cars. Reliable, good looking, safe, desirable. They have taken the pains to go through iterations with each of their vehicles. This last generation of their products has given enough confidence to consumers and Hyundai to move a few steps above the bargain bin positioning they had. I don't remember the source, but I read somewhere that in a worldwide study of 2015 cars, Hyundai came ahead of Toyota in reliability. Even if they didn't, they aren't too far away. This is also supported by the fact that they now offer best in class standard warranty with each of their vehicles, in each of their markets.

I also feel that it would've been much better received if their pricing had moved up by a single step with each generation, rather than in sync with their product.

Originally Posted by Axe77

Hyundai has three examples of pricing in front of it:

1. Overpriced Creta that's successful.
2. Overpriced Santa Fe that's not so successful
3. Well priced Elantra that seems to be well received.

CR-V is dated, certainly overpriced (starts at 23L ex-Delhi), and really is no competition as it isn't selling. Innova? Eh. I don't know. I don't think there will be many that will cross shop between the Innova and the Tucson. Let's not even bother with the XUV here. Tucson is out of XUV's league. 25L on road for the top Tucson would be sweet. But even with launch pricing I think that's being too optimistic. 25L ex-Delhi, mayyyybe. In other markets, Tucson base is priced alongside the top spec Elantra. I'm really hoping for otherwise, but I don't think Tucson will start lower than 19L ex-Delhi.

If you really think about it then, in the 20L+ price bracket there really is no good competition for the Tucson, just like the Creta in the 10L+ price bracket. Creta still has alternatives with the Duster twins and S-cross. Tucson has but 1.

Originally Posted by Axe77

With the Tucson, it again has less direct competition given the CRV is only petrol. It may have to contend with Innova though even though they are very different products. (Similar price, diesel A/T / M/T, non sedans being the commonality). XUV is also competition at some level I guess.

If I had to price Tucson geared for success, I'd aim for an on road price not exceeding 25 lakh on road for top variants. Thats a reasonable SUV premium over the similar scale Elantra from the same stable.

[kartavya]

Originally Posted by ach1lles

CR-V is dated, certainly overpriced (starts at 23L ex-Delhi), and really is no competition as it isn't selling. Innova? Eh. I don't know. I don't think there will be many that will cross shop between the Innova and the Tucson. Let's not even bother with the XUV here. Tucson is out of XUV's league. 25L on road for the top Tucson would be sweet. But even with launch pricing I think that's being too optimistic. 25L ex-Delhi, mayyyybe. In other markets, Tucson base is priced alongside the top spec Elantra. I'm really hoping for otherwise, but I don't think Tucson will start lower than 19L ex-Delhi.

If you really think about it then, in the 20L+ price bracket there really is no good competition for the Tucson, just like the Creta in the 10L+ price bracket. Creta still has alternatives with the Duster twins and S-cross. Tucson has but 1.

If they price the top model around 25 L (ex showroom) they won't get any buyers. 25 L (ex) translates to around I guess 28-29 L on road. I could get a base X1 (new product as well) for around 32-33L. There is no chance anyone wouldn't pay 3-4L and get an X1 over the Tucson.

Both the cars carry the same dimensions and hence fit the exact same purpose as well. The X1 looks better, obviously will drive better and definitely has better interiors. The only thing the Tucson would beat the X1 on is the feature list.

[sids1811]

Can't find the said image anywhere else except the ET auto link as posted, not even on HMIL website.

Last time when Creta was due to launch and HMIL released such renderings they were India specific RHS drive models, whereas these pics are for the LHS drive.

Might be that these pics are not released by Hyundai India but instead sourced from some international market, just one more case of an news agency trying to get ahead in news reporting but not paying attention to minute details.

Just my opinion, i might be wrong too

Originally Posted by volkman10

Hyundai Motor India unveils design expressions of all new Tucson, just before its launch!

Attachment 1571790
Attachment 1571791

http://auto.economictimes.indiatimes...ucson/55115551