[Utopian]

Delighted to see a Tata car in the top 20 charts. Finally a respite for TML after a long time. They should ideally expedite the launch of Kite now with the traction already built by Tiago.

[Syed_Munazzir]

Great analysis Aditya !

Why aren't there any sales figures of the luxury segment vehicles like the BMWs, Audis, Merecedes, Jaguars etc. Just curious to know as to how much these machines sell on a monthly basis. Are the sales figures not disclosed by these companies?

[mrinmoy_s]

Originally Posted by Dr.Naren

CHEVROLET

FORD

Really sad to see the fate of Figo twins. Good products at VFM price got rejected in Indian market. Reason??

I think GTO had come up with an excellent thread last month. Why car companies should not move away from their core values. And here I quote
"Ford: Driving pleasure, solid build. From the Ikon to the Mondeo and the Fiesta to the EcoSport, Fords have always been fun to drive. They've had a typically European build too. Bring cars that abandon these core values & Ford fans start looking elsewhere. The new Figo twins neither have sharp handling nor that 'solid' build."

I personally dissuaded a good friend of mine to not to buy the new Figo due to its poor build quality. In fact, while test driving we stopped beside an old Figo and I showed him the difference by simple press of hand on the body. If one has to buy a VFM car...better to go to Maruti than Ford!

He finally booked the Polo GT TSI btw

[gurthvader]

• Ford Endeavour dethrones the King Toyota Fortuner in the D2 segment. How many saw this coming? I understand that a facelift is expected for Fortuner but even then it's an achievement for Ford. Hope Ford does not go overboard and sink.

It was long overdue, because Toyota had taken this segment for granted & was milking it dry, that said Fortuner kept getting more & more expensive all the time without really adding too much value, only because customers had no where to look. Previous Endeavour was good & pretty capable but lacked that modern feel, which put the Fortuner at the head of this segment. But appreciations to Ford they picked on the right chords, which is to say that they are back with vengeance.

[avdhesh15]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

Tata has definitely found a winner in Tiago.

Originally Posted by SDP

Tatas on the other hand have entered the Top-20 with good volumes in Tiago.

They have gotten some momentum and it’s upon them to take advantage of it, or lose the battle. They need to launch the Kite and Hexa asap!

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Is Amaze cannibalizing the City sales?

Ciaz has taken over from the City. Although horribly boring to drive as compared to the petrol City, the Ciaz is a no-nonsense car which gets 80% of the work done (100% for a chauffeur driven car). It’s also much cheaper and Honda has anyway diluted its “premium” tag with the quality issues in recent cars.

Originally Posted by GTO

Either ways, simply crediting Maruti's success to its excellent after-sales is a limited view… I could list another 20 reasons for Maruti's success. My point? There's a lot more to Maruti's prosperity than just the after-sales (important, but not the sole reason).

I agree – people need to change their views on Maruti. Just pinning after-sales or showroom reach isn’t fair. As GTO has pointed out, there are a lot of factors for success and Maruti seems to be doing quite a lot of it correctly. With the new petrol engines coming up for Baleno and Brezza, and the enhanced production capacity at Gujarat, it can only get better from here!

[coolboy007]

Originally Posted by GTO

My point? There's a lot more to Maruti's prosperity than just the after-sales (important, but not the

Could not agree more with you, i do not own a Maruti and do not love their cars but off late, Maruti has launched some really capable cars in the form of Ciaz/Baleno and they should be appreciated for that rather than just saying that Maruti sells because of its after sales.

The cars are aptly priced, have features to match Hyundai, Baleno is one of the better handlers in its segment after Punto, has excellent rear seat comfort and then comes with Maruti's peace of mind and stellar resale. It does not have a single major negative barring the light build quality.

It is heartening to see Maruti bringing in 1.6 MJD and boosterjet Baleno for enthusiasts, how many companies in India do that? The Baleno is an excellent product and if the Indian made Baleno passes the crash tests, i would happily bring one Boosterjet home. Suzuki's engineering is growing by leaps and bounds, couple that with the hard work Maruti puts in, they well deserve the staggering sales figures they are getting.

[KreativeGeek]

Coming to Ford's continuing downfall on the sales front, they have just announced huge discount on high end trims of Aspire and Figo.

It is difficult to say if timing of these discounts could work in their favor because Tiago has emerged as a strong contender based on decent sales figures it has garnered post launch. Aspire is finding takers mostly in the cab fleet business to be frank.

I do see more Figo's and Aspire's on Pune roads now than before however the game is almost lost for Ford with no major launch lined up in near future from their stable and their 200 crore marketing campaign has shown no visible gain with regards to brand foothold increasing amongst mainstream car buyers.

[Vipin Kumar]

Originally Posted by Dr.Naren

FIAT
It look like top folks at Fiat don't care about sale figures. They are more than happy selling engines to Maruti. Please get those good looking and powerful cars which you sell in Europe and improve after sales service. Please do something Fiat.

Five years back, FIAT was offering four or five years warranty. When I went to enquire about the Linea the other day, the SAs said there was only two years warranty available right now. According to them, the package may be again available sometime and then you can avail it! Yes, the FIAT is not really bothered about sales figures, it seems.

FORD
Really sad to see the fate of Figo twins. Good products at VFM price got rejected in Indian market. Reason??

It looked as though Ford wanted to raise the sale numbers by making more of a mass-market-friendly vehicle here, by discontinuing both the Classic and the Fiesta at a single stroke. Even the aged Classic was almost bringing these numbers in its last months of production. The old Figo lost the number only when the market clearly sensed that the new one was coming. I drove the aspire recently, and it was hard to believe that I was holding a Ford steering...

There were reasons that took a lot of people to Ford once. They have now moved away, with the disappearance of a lot of features original to Ford's manufacturing, build and steering set-up. One SA was telling me that the steering of the EcoSport was lighter and better than my Fiesta's! Ford might have expected other (perhaps new customers) to go to them. They must have expected that they would attract the Maruti and Hyundai loyalists. The former group has now no reason to visit the Fords anymore while the latter remains faithful to the "reliable" brands with a great service network anyway.

Smart move by Ford to reduce price of Ecosport is really fruitful. If not, Ford would have been in similar position like GM.

Yes, it really appears. But Ecosport was never a flop in the pricing, right from the beginning, especially after Ford learned a bad lesson with the launch of the 2011 Fiesta.

35 units of Ford Mustang

This is indeed surprising! What an enviable number for a car in such a segment at its introduction itself!

Vipin.

[wilful]

Originally Posted by volkman10

Thanks Aditya for the analysis,

If you go by value the picture is different, here are the toppers considering the value ((as calculated by the top-end variant's price multiplied by volumes). Source
Attachment 1539703

I wonder if there is some data on how many 'most expensive variant' of (AT) Crysta were sold (out of the 7765) - as also the top end Creta diesel. It would give us an insight to blow away some of them cobwebs surrounding the perceptions of the Indian market and buyer attitudes.

[landcruiser123]

The Fortuner is dying. This is due to the Innova than the Endeavour.

Also, looks like the Innova might be eating the Corolla too. I know a lot of people will disagree. To those people: Can you tell me whether the Innova diesel or corolla diesel is a better buy?


Brezza's volumes indicate a lost opportunity for Ford.

Is Honda's dream run with the City over?

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by landcruiser123

Also, looks like the Innova might be eating the Corolla too. I know a lot of people will disagree. To those people: Can you tell me whether the Innova diesel or corolla diesel is a better buy?

Well honestly they are quite different. I have had both. Corolla diesel is more pleasant to drive ( sedan vs MUV driving dynamics), has a much better FE ( 18+ kmpl vs 10-12 kmpl) and image ( D segment sedan vs Taxi image of the Innova). Also the corolla feels smaller and more car like to drive whereas the Innova feels huge to drive. But yes for a confused buyer, everything is possible in our market.

So unless I need three rows of seating, I would choose the Altis diesel over the Innova diesel.

[balajisv]

Unstoppable and busy Bs (Baleno and Brezza) from Maruti!
Though personally am not convinced by the Baleno due to its unexplainable light weight construction, I'm looking forward to their turbojet variant.

Tiago is a great product from Tata. Am seeing good number of cars now in Bangalore. 5K+ numbers are very encouraging. I'm not sure if Zest did manage to touch 5K numbers at its launch time?
Kite and Hexa launch has to be advanced to maintain this momentum. Cmon Tata, bring it on !!

Hyundai Creta has become more expensive in August due to the price hike. I'm sure the hike wouldn't be any kind of a deterrent to the buyer!

Toyota Innova - Just can't help controlling my 'raised eyebrows' when I see such high numbers of this new car on roads! Unbelievable truly!

[kashif_baig]

Originally Posted by mrinmoy_s

I think GTO had come up with an excellent thread last month. Why car companies should not move away from their core values. And here I quote
"Ford: Driving pleasure, solid build. From the Ikon to the Mondeo and the Fiesta to the EcoSport, Fords have always been fun to drive. They've had a typically European build too. Bring cars that abandon these core values & Ford fans start looking elsewhere. The new Figo twins neither have sharp handling nor that 'solid' build."

I personally dissuaded a good friend of mine to not to buy the new Figo due to its poor build quality. In fact, while test driving we stopped beside an old Figo and I showed him the difference by simple press of hand on the body. If one has to buy a VFM car...better to go to Maruti than Ford!

He finally booked the Polo GT TSI btw

Building on what GTO, whom I respect immensely for his knowledge and his insights, car companies also need to be on a constant path of evolution.

It's good to have some core values or DNA, but if a company doesn't continue to build on those values by considering them as their strengths and constantly identifying complimentary values and working on them, it tends to stagnate and not increase it's appeal beyond it's dedicated followers.

Case in point would be what a company like Mahindra did - building on it's image as a maker of frugal and rugged vehicles, first branched out into making a Scorpio and went even further via XUV5OO. Then decided to also target the other end of the market with TUV and KUV. It might have gained market share initially by either presenting a tremendous value proposition like XUV5OO which brought SUV "premiumness" within reach to many at a much lesser cost that other vehicles available in this segment. Or it brought in products which were mean to bring SUV'ish appeal to other segments such as in the case of KUV.

It's perception might have been hurt by the quality of these products once launched. However, these products were beneficial from the perspective of widening it's base of customers.

Just my 2 p.

[Debajyoti]

IMO core values of a brand are very important. Earlier Honda, City etc brands meant premium quality but Brio, Amaze, Mobilio, current City, unrefined iDTEC etc are not premium enough, quality-wise to justify that Honda badge. Both City and Ciaz now have almost same build quality, Ciaz gives better mileage and is backed by the Maruti A.S.S. network, then why would a customer pay 1-2lakh more? Same thing applies to Aspire/Figo/Ecosport vs Dzire/Baleno/Brezza. Innova is still leading the segment even at 20 lakhs only because it has not changed from its core value of rock solid reliability. If Toyota launches an unreliable, flimsy version of Innova Crysta at 10 lakhs, it would flop like the lower priced plastic iPhone 5c.

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by rkris

Toyota will now be in two minds. To stop losing customers to Endeavour, they must price the car sensibly. On the other hand, they will have to be mindful of where Crysta ends. Gonna be interesting!

Well I believe they would rather have an overlap with Innova rather than lose sales to the Endeavour. This was always going to happen when they priced the top end Innova the way they did. Whatever may be the case, they can't price the Fortuner more than the Endeavour or it would be a losing battle from the start. The Innova still hasn't got enough competition so Toyota could get away with atrocious pricing. But going by the sales figures, the Fortuner would be a totally different ball game.