Team-BHP - New India-spec Chevrolet Beat revealed

GM are falling into a trap here. Low volumes mean they can't bring new models in at feasible costs, and flogging old cars means that they don't get the volumes. (But they have to remember it's got to be them to break the cycle, not the customer). Just look at their portfolio. No new cars in the relevant segments. The Trailblazer is the only all new car they have launched in the last couple of years.
That the new Beat is gonna be altogether absent here also sends out a message about how committed (not) GM are to India. (And it's GM we're talking about. Even Renault-Nissan are putting up an admirable fight now after being total duds for a good while.)

Obviously, questions are to be raised about them, but there's another question to be raised - about us. Even if they were to bring the new car to India and price it a little high, how many more of us would buy that over the existing few that do the current car now? Was the potential number justifying enough? Did that car have enough India-specific potential to take on Maruti and Hyundai at their own game? I guess not.

Anyway. This here Beat is more of the same kind of stuff we're used to seeing from them. The Active variant has 'flop' written all over it, and even this base car feels a bit long in the tooth now even before release.

However, not all is wrong. They still have a good basic design template (unlike say the KUV), a really frugal small diesel (that should also be fairly reliable being based off the MJD), and price in their hands. If they manage to make it a thorough effort on counts like equipment, driveability and pricing, this car still has the potential to stay in the game for a while. But the changes have to be far more than skin deep.
They should look at how VW played the equipment and pricing card like a champ with the Ameo and made the ageing low-seller Polo platform attractive again.

However, I'd want to look at the Essentia to get a much better idea of how serious GM are about India. Making a good compact sedan is a challenging ask, and will be a much better test for them.

I'm also happy they decided to drop the Spin MPV from their India plans. Despite a lot of BHPians wanting to see it here, I was always of the opinion that it just didn't make sense for India. It couldn't have offered anything new in terms of aesthetics or utility, looks quite ordinary, and GM don't have any powertrain options except for the MultiJet.
In that configuration, the Ertiga is totally set to gobble up most of the sales, and the Mobilio and Lodgy to occupy the remaining parts. Their own Enjoy bombed despite being well priced. And hence just launching a car for the sake of it did not make any sense.

Has GM India gone mad?

The next-generation Beat is already on sale internationally. I would've expected it here already. What's worse than the slow reaction time is that 'India's new Beat' is a reworked version of the old, existing Beat :Shockked:. I repeat, what we are getting is an updated (current) Beat, not the all-new generation unveiled internationally.

Winners like Hyundai either launch new cars in India first, or bring them in quickly after their global debut. Losers like Chevrolet continue to flog old hatchbacks, even when their newer generations have launched internationally.

GM has committed to launching this updated Beat 'within 2 years' :Frustrati. Seriously, you dimwits! Do you think anyone is going to care about the old Beat in 2018, a time when it will be a decade old and Maruti might have brought in the next-gen Swift?

What exactly is GM India planning to do with the $1 billion investment that its American parent committed? Spend it on La-Z-Boy recliners for the office? Why don't they save themselves the trouble and launch the 1997 Opel Astra again? It will flop just like this new Beat. At least, no one will be wasting time & money.

GM apparently thinks that the new Beat / Spark is only for 'developed markets'.

Quote:

Sam Basile, executive chief engineer. “And while it’s a truly global car, it is targeted for more developed vehicle markets, allowing engineers to focus more precisely on the materials and technologies that resonate with customers in those markets.

Source

Treat India like a 3rd-rate country and we'll treat you like a 3rd-rate company, GM. Learn from Hyundai, LEARN!

GM's never managed to sell European (Astra, Corsa) or Chinese (Sail, Enjoy) products in India. Going by earlier sales of the Spark, Beat & Cruze, you'd think they hit the sweet spot with Korean-engineered cars. Sadly, GM is botching up that strategy too.

Keep flogging the old or bring in your latest, I am anyways not touching GM India products with a barge pole till they totally revamp their thoroughly incompetent after sales service.

Coming to the current Beat, when launched in 2010, the Team-Bhp official review compared it to the i10, Ritz and even Swift as its competitors. Since then, both the Swift and the i10(Grand) has transformed well, relegating the Beat to a much lower category. In dimension(space) and equipment(after losing the ACC) the Beat can now be challenged by the Kwid and definitely bettered by the Tiago. A facelift, at this stage, is inconsequential.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 3998043)

Treat India like a 3rd-rate country and we'll treat you like a 3rd-rate company, GM. Learn from Hyundai, LEARN!

GM's never managed to sell European (Astra, Corsa) or Chinese (Sail, Enjoy) products in India. Going by earlier sales of the Spark, Beat & Cruze, you'd think they hit the sweet spot with Korean-engineered cars. Sadly, GM is botching up that strategy too.

I won't be surprised by that. The way we keep buying only Marutis and Hyundais on and on and on, no matter what the rivals have to offer, anybody could lose confidence in this market.

And Hyundai do launch their cars in India first, but that's because we are more than a tenth of Hyundai's global market, and they have a serious potential of a large part of their future growth here. It's no surprise then that they only turn up early on a set stage.

GM's stage is far from set. They'll first have to work on the Chevrolet brand and then the Chevrolet experience in India, before even considering the actual cars. I'd like to see a genuine statistic of just how many people refused to even look at a Chevy because- a) it's a Chevy, b) something's wrong with their nearby Chevy dealer.
A Honda would've sold their same Cruze, Hyundai the same Captiva, and Toyota the same Trailblazer, in absolute truckloads. And won hearts of people while at that.

Even in this particular case, GM simply can't be assured of getting returns should they launch the new Beat here. If a Figo with a proper Hyundaiesque appeal and class busting engine and equipment barely makes four digits a month, what is the chance of a Beat surviving here? Would their investment even break even in quick time? And not that they can't afford to pump money into it for a while, but what impact is it likely to have?
Meanwhile, we keep the buying 6 year old Swift because it's a Maruti and gives 2x.xx kmpl, and the 70 bhp i10 because it has a beige interior, Bluetooth and rear air-con :banghead:

And what do GM do in the same meanwhile? They do this: :D https://youtu.be/LKfsy9kfeI8
Now I absolutely hate overusing hashtags, but just can't resist doing a '#BeatSo2016' here!!

What a Shame !

Is this the Best a company like GM can do ?

I think it’s time for them to pull the plug, pack their bags and leave.

I don't think, with this kind of attitude, GM will never manage to get back the trust or attention from Indian customers in near future; unless they come up with something special (like KWID or Duster or even a Cruze). They managed to lose the momentum they got by the Spark, Beat and the Cruze.

As GTO rightly said,
"Treat India like a 3rd-rate country and we'll treat you like a 3rd-rate company, GM. Learn from Hyundai, LEARN"

Quote:

Originally Posted by mukul32 (Post 3998190)

, anybody could lose confidence in this market.

GM's stage is far from set. They'll first have to work on the Chevrolet brand and then the Chevrolet experience in India, before even considering the actual cars. I'd like to see a genuine statistic of just how many people refused to even look at a Chevy because- a) it's a Chevy, b) something's wrong with their nearby Chevy dealer.

Didn't we Indians buy their Astra, Corsa etc before realizing the astronomical costs in servicing these cars. And didn't GM just abandon the Opel brand afterwards?

Didn't we Indians buy their Spark, Beat, Cruze, Tavera etc before GM started beating these old warhorses to death and later introduced Chinese models in American clothes?

Indians lost confidence in Chevrolet, and they really don't care if Chevrolet has faith in them or not! Chevy can only rebuild this trust hard way. The current future plan can only take them on a one way ride out of the country. They won't even be missed!

I had always wondered why they launched the very out-dated looking enjoy in the indian market, when they have a more modern vehicle like the spin in their arsenal. Then I had read on this forum that in China, enjoy holds the status/sales that the swift dezire has in our country. The impaired strategy makers of chevrolet India might've thought that Indians too would buy the enjoy like hot buns. Same would've been the case with sail/uva. The policy makers of the company does not seem to differentiate between markets.
The current beat neither has exceptional drive trains, nor is it's funky look eye-catching anymore. They could have just continued with whatever miniscule sale it has, rather than spending money on a worthless face lift.