[Pam81]

Originally Posted by Karthik Chandra

Agreed MSIL was late, but end of the day, the company is here to make profits. MSIL found the opportunity to push cars without safety features since the market was not that sensitive to safety and demanding until recently, you cannot blame it on MSIL alone.

I am not blaming. Just told my opinion that they can't be seen as a leader only with sales!

Originally Posted by Karthik Chandra

There is a cost involved on everything, why would a company incur cost until it finds that the market is demanding? It is only very recently that we started accepting million rupee car from Maruti, forcing the manufacturer to think cost aspects earlier. Now that the customers are ready to pay that additional amount for safety, the company has started providing the same.

Now you are citing the customer behavior. What is the value of human life? Just because Govt. regulations are not strong and customer is not expecting, one can milk the customers to lure for comfort of car and that's acceptable?. Market is not like that anymore, MSIL is forced to admit that but still nothing is coming on the highest selling small car ALTO. There are many examples of dying products who stood on their brand promise! One such example is Nissan Micra, offering air bags as standard in all variants right from start. They could have simply omitted that when they had a chance for "Indianizing" the car. But they did not. Same can't be said of MSIL.

Originally Posted by Karthik Chandra

What needs to be appreciated is the reaction from MSIL, it is very easy to become complacent being the market leader having 48% share, but the company isn't. Now that it has given options lets not continue cribbing.

IMO better late than never

Hey, I am not cribbing but I can't simply accept they are the best because they are selling in huge numbers and again that's my opinion. Many of us can be proud of having Indo-Japanese as market leader in sales but truly that does not cut it for me, individually!

[trinity0114]

Originally Posted by Karthik Chandra

trouble free cars - not as trouble free and offering peace of mind as MSIL

Do you have any evidence or stats to prove that MSIL cars are more trouble free/reliable compared to its rivals?

Originally Posted by Karthik Chandra

We can't just dismiss the achievement saying herd mentality, there is a reason why the car sells. Maruti has constantly been in line with the pulse of the market - They saw the need for safety increase and offered in as options in base variants, they found there is a need for enthusiast cars, hence S Cross 1.6, probably a Baleno boosterjet.

Safety features in base variant thing w.r.t Maruti means nothing, even if tomorrow they start giving safety features in the base variants of swift we all know that in a crash those safety features would have no use as the structure itself isnt stable. I know baleno is a different car with which they have started offering safety in the base variant but why dont they share its crash test results(car has grown in size compared to swift, is more loaded still weighs next to nothing). Why the secrecy?

Originally Posted by Karthik Chandra

It is plain simple for MSIL to be complacent, given their dominance in the industry the 2nd best is a long way below and will probably never catch up, but they aren't they keep updating - that's their success that makes people to look up the Maruti cars.

People who actually understand cars have never & will never look up to MSIL cars.

Originally Posted by Karthik Chandra

Why are you searching for a proper car from MSIL to justify its sales? Whats the point?

Because according to some people they have the perfect products & the sales which they achieve is not because of herd mentality but because the products are good. I say show me one car which is perfect/deserves to be sold that much. Again all this dealer network/service stuff can give you sales till a point, rest is just herd mentality

Originally Posted by SunilM

Fiat has serious credibility crisis amongst the general population.

Thats because of the baggage they are carrying & only they can correct it only if they want to

Originally Posted by SunilM

Market wants bullet proof reliability and nice service. Fiat has has a long way to go on both.

Please dont make such generalising statements. My Palio has never given up on me in its 2 lakh kms, it has been as bullet proof as it can get when it comes to reliability.

Originally Posted by SunilM

Calling the choice people make for their cars as crap is naive. People are smarter than you think and they do a lot of research, seek advise, before they buy one of the most expensive possessions they will own.

India is a very different market when it comes to automobiles compared to the rest of the world. Word of mouth & perception are the biggest sellers here. I know of people who never knew that rain sensing wipers & darkness sensing headlamps existed as features in other cars, for them it was something new which Maruti did in S cross & the same bunch of people dismissed to even see cars from a couple of brands. If merits of a product ensured its sales our market would have been different.

[Karthik Chandra]

Originally Posted by trinity0114

Do you have any evidence or stats to prove that MSIL cars are more trouble free/reliable compared to its rivals?

Do you have the evidence and stats to prove otherwise?

My logic,

No of vehicles sold = trust by the customer = trouble free, peaceful experience

Originally Posted by trinity0114

Safety features in base variant thing w.r.t Maruti means nothing, even if tomorrow they start giving safety features in the base variants of swift we all know that in a crash those safety features would have no use as the structure itself isnt stable. I know baleno is a different car with which they have started offering safety in the base variant but why dont they share its crash test results(car has grown in size compared to swift, is more loaded still weighs next to nothing). Why the secrecy?

I agree with you here

Originally Posted by trinity0114

People who actually understand cars have never & will never look up to MSIL cars.

Over 1 lac people buy a Maruti month on month, if you believe that 48% of customers buying a car in a month do not know or understand cars, so be it

Originally Posted by trinity0114

Because according to some people they have the perfect products & the sales which they achieve is not because of herd mentality but because the products are good. I say show me one car which is perfect/deserves to be sold that much. Again all this dealer network/service stuff can give you sales till a point, rest is just herd mentality

They indeed have perfect products for Indian mentality. Its not only because of good products but also because of herd mentality - agreed

Originally Posted by trinity0114

Thats because of the baggage they are carrying & only they can correct it only if they want to

If you've meant the general population by 'they', then I'm sorry, the company needs to ensure the perception changes, for the customer is not the loser, he/she has options

Originally Posted by trinity0114

Please dont make such generalising statements. My Palio has never given up on me in its 2 lakh kms, it has been as bullet proof as it can get when it comes to reliability.

I've owned a Palio and it was reliable, no doubts, but our testimonies are not enough, people will generalize, unfortunately that is Fiat's position right now.
BTW my SLX didn't come with airbags and ABS

Originally Posted by trinity0114

India is a very different market when it comes to automobiles compared to the rest of the world. Word of mouth & perception are the biggest sellers here.

agreed

Originally Posted by trinity0114

I know of people who never knew that rain sensing wipers & darkness sensing headlamps existed as features in other cars, for them it was something new which Maruti did in S cross & the same bunch of people dismissed to even see cars from a couple of brands.

unfortunately that is the impact MSIL has had in the market

Originally Posted by trinity0114

If merits of a product ensured its sales our market would have been different.

Excellent point

[trinity0114]

Originally Posted by Karthik Chandra

Do you have the evidence and stats to prove otherwise?

No I dont have any stats & I am not saying they arent trouble free, what I wanted to convey was reliability isn't exclusive to them & no brand is more reliable/less reliable.

Originally Posted by Karthik Chandra

If you've meant the general population by 'they', then I'm sorry, the company needs to ensure the perception changes, for the customer is not the loser, he/she has options

No by 'they' I meant Fiat. Obviously its the company's responsibility of improve their image & everything else

Originally Posted by Karthik Chandra

I've owned a Palio and it was reliable, no doubts, but our testimonies are not enough, people will generalize, unfortunately that is Fiat's position right now.

Agreed the company must do something to change their image

Originally Posted by Karthik Chandra

BTW my SLX didn't come with airbags and ABS

But the earlier Palio(not stile) offered driver side airbag & ABS as an option on the top trim

[rajamuneeb]

I don't understand TATA's marketing strategy. When they have a betterSafari Storme in their stable why are they continuing with its Safari Dicor and trying to kill its new product. Isn't it time for them to give a graceful exit to its dicor and let Storme compete with the Scorpio in the market. Scorpio is way ahead in terms of sales as compared to the Safari duo's.

[volkman10]

Top sales 2015 - Maruti Suzuki bags 6 spots in the top ten!




http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report...f-2015-2158841

[DriveOnceMore]

Mr. Mayank Pareek has rightly pointed out during media briefing of Zica that an Indian consumer evaluates 2.6 cars (on an average) while making the decision.
What that means in if I am out in the market for buying a car with specific requirements, then I may have 4-5 cars on my list which comes up in my mind.
E.g. If I want to buy entry level hatch, these cars pops up in my mind (in sequence) MS Alto, Tata Nano, Hyundai Eon, Renault Kwid.
Move a segment above and the list changes to MS Wagon R, Hyundai Grand i10 likewise.

Do this exercise yourself and you will also notice that there is surely one MS car (if not two) and most probably one Hyundai.

Now take the case of 'Good' cars like Fiats or say recent Kwid (which offers more value for money or are more safe or has many things more than a MS car). Those cars comes up in the list at 4th or 5th place, if they really come up in someone's mind.

Then it takes a real analytical skill set to zero down on choice of your own.
Now this skill set is the most important and varies with every individual.
For some that Analytical Skill Set will have affordability at the top and for some it might have safety atop.
This drives the decision.

Maruti Suzuki has worked up a lot to study market psychology and has climbed up the ladder.
Other manufacturers will need consistency and good product to beat that.

[skdking]

Friends,

This is a thread that is much awaited every month. Mainly on account of the incisive comments of the participants.

I want to ask one thing.

Can we correlate decline in Swift Nos with Baleno launch?

Or is that just lazy armchair analysis?

How many people cancel their Swift booking on launch of Baleno?

I am confused.