[krish-iitm]

Ford has to improve its approach to customers. We went to Harpreeth ford Gurgaon and requested the receptionist for test drive of aspire. One guy came and told rudely " license dedo" . We immediately walked out

[RaghuVis]

Wow! Totally surprising export list there. I was sure Nissan would feature pretty much at the top of the list. For every Micra they sell in India they export 10 and In case of Sunny it's 20 exports for one sale in India!

Also, as Rajeev pointed out in one thread about the rising Ford exports, this also seems to be believable. I wish they had good export numbers for Aspire. The model is really struggling in India and hope it at least picks up in export so that they don't pull the plug on such a nice and deserving car

But the number of beat really beats the ball out of the park!!
Am really curious as to where these exports are really going into. Any idea if we can get some info on that. No wonder they are not stopping the production of a car which most Indians seems to have forgotten.

[drsingh]

Originally Posted by dvprasad

By the end of this month, i am moving to a sales job that involves driving atleast 50kms inside the city during peak hours.

So i needed an AT car & budget was set at 10 lacs post exchange of my current manual wagon r.

I started with Ecosport AT, since it is the safest car in my budget.

However a test drive revealed that its sluggish response was a deal breaker considering it cost more than a million bucks.

I also realized that i could not be choosy about parking since my job entails me to visit clients across the most chaotic parts of the city.

It did not make sense to spend more than a million bucks on a new car & park in open unsupervised places where it was susceptible to scratches, dents & whatnot.

I then considered the reasonably priced figo twins, since they were well within my budget.

However i realized that the only functional dealer was Chennai Ford, who was least interested in selling the AT variant of the figo twins.

I tried MPL ford, who asked me to try with chennai ford for AT variants of the FIGO twins.

I even contacted the newly established Manasarovar Ford to see if they were any better, to no avail.

Fed up with the attitude of Ford dealers, who made me feel like as if i was pleading with them to sell me their product.

I contacted Maruti dealers, to see if i could get wagon r/stingray amt option variant.

I was amazed with their persistent followup to my telephonic enquries & finally booked a celerio amt zxi option variant.

It is easy to see why ford has very low sales numbers despite having excellent products.

With such jokers for dealers, they probably should focus on exports as a sustainable business model.

Precisely why most practical purchases end up being Maruti. And why the 'masses' don't entertain more 'deserving' candidates.

[drsingh]

Originally Posted by RaghuVis

So maybe the penetration is not very deep but IMO Baleno is a much bigger success that anything we have seen in recent times. Some say they have even surpassed the SWIFT hysteria.

Baleno is a car built on an International platform, has eyecatching looks, appeals to the masses and the enthusiast (upcoming booster jet engine etc.), amazing fuel economy, spacious, Maruti's ASS, Better resale, captive base of a large number of swift /Dzire owners who can be sold on the upgrade.

It appeals to potential owners of hatches, compact sedans and compact SUV'S. The engines are already tried and tested. And a supposedly better 'Nexa' experience.

I'd say this is the best shot across Toyota's mass market bow (Read the Liva effort). If Nexa can offer Toyota levels of service with comparable costs, It would be harder for Toyota to crack the lower end of the market.

And with Suzuki turning India into a manufacturing base for global exports, it is likely India will get the benefits of all international R and D.
With Suzuki preparing the next Alto to be closer to Japanese KEI standards we can expect better cars from A segment upwards and a lesser likelihood of 'India specific' jugaads with cut corners.

[NPV]

Car sales slump in Kerala second year in a row, effect of the recession in the Gulf economy.

Slump in sales is giving jitters to dealers as Keralites, worried over the Gulf economy, have become cautious spenders.
The Motor Vehicle Department (MVD) too might feel the heat, ending up way short of its revenue target.
According to the MVD data, only 8.5 lakh vehicles were registered in 2015-16 period, indicating a drop of around 30,000 compared to last year. The fall in registrations has been consistent for the last two years.

Source:Indian Express Bangalore 28 March 2016 - Vehicle Sales Slump in Kerala Due to West Asia Crisis