[volkman10]

Force Motors to exit SUV market, UV business to continue.

The company is currently producing "very small quantity" of Force Ones in its Pithampur plant in Madhya Pradesh. That may come to a halt in a few months.

Force Motors is learnt to be calling it a day in the SUV market. Five years after launching its first SUV, the Force One, the Pune-based OEM has taken a strategic call to focus on strengthening its utility vehicle (UV) and light commercial vehicles (LCV) businesses

http://www.autocarpro.in/news-nation...continue-10874

[Aditya]

Force Motors to exit SUV market; UV business to continue - post moved to a new thread.

[roy_libran]

Good riddance, for us, and finally Good sense prevailed, for them!
I hope, though, that they continue work on the Gurkha, and are, someday, able to do justice to that platform.

[VW2010]

Sensible decision considering their failure to capture the market. Call it badly priced or ugly design, either way the billions decided its not worth investing on that merc engine

They should have priced it differently and targeted a specific segment but instead simply threw someone out hoping someone will catch it.

[Thilak29]

So every vehicle Mr Bachan has endorsed so far met this unfortunate end?
It was Versa earlier, which ofcourse made a come back in different avatar.

[devarshi84]

It was a sad case how Force motors didnt pay attention to details.

The space, power and capability were there but Chinese quality and lack of features did it in.

I still think it makes a good case for itself considering how Indians view brutish sized SUV's.

[GTO]

Good riddance, I say! Never been a fan of the Force One. With the SUV segment having competent offerings like the Hyundai Creta, Mahindra XUV500 and gang, who in their right mind would buy a Force One for 15 lakhs?

When the game moves on, it's the weak that are the first to fall. No one's going to miss this lame duck.

Next should be the Isuzu MU-7.

[nik_kapur]

I don't even know what Force Motors was thinking launching this product ? Why do people waste money like this ?? I could have told them at the conceptualization stage itself.

They need to work there way from the bottom like a Mahindra did if they have aspirations to be a auto manufacturer. They should do a utilitarian UV with bullet proof reliability and target rural India.

[SmartCat]

Other than the incredibly hard and clunky gearbox (imagine 1980's bus or truck), I quite liked the Force One.

Force Motors is giving up way too soon.

[romeomidhun]

The second car promoted by the senior Bachan disappears! First, Maruti versa and now this. Versa came back as Eeco and became a hit. Will this come back? I understand the Force One was based on a previous generation Ford SUV. With the Endeavor stopping for new model launch, can we expect a come back as Force Two?

[carwatcher]

My concern is with the owners who bought this SUV, what would be the resale value of their SUV's is anybody's guess.

I really liked that SUV in White and thought it has awesome Mercedes engine but not sure how the engine performed.

I guess it was based in Ford Explorer. Eeco can't be said to be a hit as its not that common and popular with Taxi market due to its poor mileage. Now Bachchan Sr. is promoting TVS Jupiter IIRC.

Originally Posted by romeomidhun

The second car promoted by the senior Bachan disappears! First, Maruti versa and now this. Versa came back as Eeco and became a hit. Will this come back? I understand the Force One was based on a previous generation Ford SUV. With the Endeavor stopping for new model launch, can we expect a come back as Force Two?

[SDP]

This is one product that got its pricing fairly right at the launch, but was immediately outdone by the much more modern XUV5OO in similar price-band. Wish the Force One would have been launched a few months earlier. Because there was no other SUV in that price bracket (a USP of XUV5OO when it was launched), may be it would have sold in fair numbers. I still remember there were some good positive vibes about the Force One (on TeamBHP at least) when it was launched. Once a customer base would have been established, the word of mouth publicity possibly could have sustained respectable sales numbers. Sometimes the timing is just unfortunate. Force should have considered repositioning the Force-One (with possibly a good price-cut) after the XUV launch. Anyways.

A friend who had test-drove the Force One was mighty impressed by the suspension and the ride quality. After XUV was launched, he picked up the XUV, but still fondly remembers the ride of the Force One on non-existent roads.

Hope Force Motors comes out with a much better Force Two (or may be Force 1-S) soon and the marketing department does justice to the vehicle's capability next time around at least.

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by romeomidhun

I understand the Force One was based on a previous generation Ford SUV. With the Endeavor stopping for new model launch, can we expect a come back as Force Two?

The body panels which were imported from China were from old Ford SUV ( most probably and IIRC the Explorer ). The chassis and suspension were newly developed by Force Motors, engine was from Mercedes Benz.

One of my distant cousin has Force One in Indore and he was all praises for it when I met him last month in Gujarat. He drove 1500+ kms. in Force One from Indore to Saurashtra tour, occupants included his one month old daughter.
I agree that Force Motors is giving up too soon on a platform which still has potential. May be new or vastly improved powertrain and a people mover body on that chassis can bring in a bit of volumes, but thats just wishes. On other hand, its good experience gained for Force Motors and they must have realized the expectations of Indian customers for future product planning in private car segment.

[gthang]

The Force One is dead.

Boo Hoo.

Okay, I'm over it now.

Interesting bit from the article:

However, Force Motors will continue with its Gurkha, a utility vehicle primarily aimed at off-roading enthusiasts. A new version of the Force Gurkha, based on a new platform, will be launched "very shortly."

The tease continues...

Cheers

[abhishek46]

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

I agree that Force Motors is giving up too soon on a platform which still has potential. May be new or vastly improved powertrain and a people mover body on that chassis can bring in a bit of volumes, but thats just wishes. On other hand, its good experience gained for Force Motors and they must have realized the expectations of Indian customers for future product planning in private car segment.

If the power train and the chassis are good, they can consider building a cheap people mover muv on top of it. Atleast they can get hope to get some sales out of it, if sold in cheap muv format (A bolero rival for the rural folk).
How hard can that be? Even coach builders are capable of doing similar things
In the SUV space they didn't stand a chance (simply because an SUV owner's aspirations are different, like luxury, brand value, styling etc).