[PrasannaDhana]

Is it only me or do others too feel Ciaz being moved to Nexa has made Maruti dealers sell more Brezzas at the cost of Ciaz sales? Ciaz has gone 3000 units down from last month if I remember correctly.

[r0nit7]

The drop in sales of the Hexa is shocking to say the least, but Tata have themselves to blame for the same. IMO, the XE/XM variants are too barebones compared to the fully loaded XT variant & that is why the Hexa is not bringing the numbers it fully deserves. No wonder, all the Hexa's I've so far seen on the road are either XT/XTA, of which there have been many. And yes, I've not seen any XE/XM on the road.

Meanwhile, negative MoM % change for all Hyundais except Grande i10
PS- Good Luck to the 71 brave souls who've bought the Cruze

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by romeomidhun

Army or no Army, Gypsy is soldiering on. I thought end of sale to Army was the end of Gypsy. How he proved me wrong!

With a modern replacement for Gypsy, it can garner 2K sales per month, I guess.

A modern ladder frame / light weight modular platform
1.2L boosterjet engine
Switchable 4WD
5 door, 5 seater
Coil spring suspensions
Priced around 8L ex-showroom Delhi.

Maruti, will you please provide me such a Gypsy?

There would be many takers. But, MUL doesn't recognize this segment at all! Even after the Thar's success.

Current ex-showroom is ~6.3L, for the engine alone they would want a 1 lakh premium. Adding a new shell, PS, AC, ABS, Airbags etc it will easily cross the 9L mark. They need to have fat margins too!

[kapilsharma80]

TATA: I feel Tata needs to refresh its Brand Image immediately. they have certainly improved their line up but need to shun the brand perception which consumers have.. they should consider a complete Brand makeover with new logo and new store /service center design and enhanced customer experience.It will do them a world of good.i anyone at Tata is reading this you may hire me

Fiat: i am a Fiat fanatic. Knowing Fiat inside out i understand that they will not bring in any new model/engine untill they are in Dire Straits (current status of sales is considered normal life at Fiat). So wait till they have the last dollar to bet then they will surprise everyone with new lineup.

Skoda/VW: Rapid and Vento are also nearing End of life looking at their numbers. discounts are also not luring customers

Mahindra-kuv 100: i really need to meet designer of this car and the person who approved this design . good for Mahindra that it is contributing decent numbers.i wonder what will the facelift would look like.

[sumeethaldankar]

Sedan sales are at no 3 spot. Suv craze has converted many buyers graduating from smaller hatchbacks to psuedo Suv owners. The Honda Accord sales figure is laughable. I hope Honda learns from their repeatative foolish mistakes to atleast price the hopefully upcoming Civic wisely

[i74js]

Its business as usual in the market, slight up and down in the SUV and D segment space is because of expected pricing of product after GST roll out.

No new launches are expected until the festive season; though its agreed that there is a shift from Diesel to Petrol in B & C segments, the market is still open to welcome diesel automatics (not psudo arrangements like AMT).

Ford - Can you please consider Ecosport with DCT in Ecoboost and TDCi? May be AWD as all these options are available for exports, you are doing it right now, why not take the EcoSport to No. 1 again in the segment !

Honda - WRV with CVT? and please look at your pricing strategy in case things start falling apart too soon for the WRV range

Nissan - When you have that lovely 1.5 petrol, why Micra is left out, keep single engine lineup for 3 cars (Micra, Sunny, Terrano), cut cost, make simple inventory and let people have a hot hatch with CVT i.e. Micra 1.5 Petrol CVT

Hyundai - Fully loaded Autobox? You have the muscle to sell cars, please do not underestimate that, Indians love your products and can you launch the new Verna, there is no juice left in the present one

[Deepu Sharma]

Originally Posted by Pancham

Its sad to see the Endeavour suffering from such poor sales as compared to Fortuner which is clocking close to 6 times more units considering the Endeavour is a superb offering from Ford.

No wonder I see the Creta everywhere. On an average Hyundai is selling 8000 Cretas per month. That is huge.

Another disappointment is Ford Figo. Lovely car but very poor sales. Wonder where Ford is going wrong.

I suppose mainly due to the import numbers going down and everest doing great abroad. Beats fortuner hands down any day. Moresoever Ford is cutting down stocks to nil as the new tax regime comes in place ; even the dealers quoting a waiting period of 3 months now.

[autobahnjpr]

A clear trend is that buyer's preference has shifted from a sedan to a "SUV/MUV" segment. Honda is trying very hard to enter here and get numbers (B-RV, W-RV) but they are still struggling. Fiat and Toyota tried with "cross" vehicles but it did not go down well with customer. Only MSIL and Hyundai are milking this segment with creta, vitara brezza and ertiga. I think the total sales of sedan segment would be less than the monthly sale of vitara brezza for the last month.

At the industry level, absolute dominance by MSIL is not good as monopoly leads to other side effects. Even Tata is struggling with ~5% market share in spite of being in the market for so long. I would love to see them take ~10% market share.
With new dzire, s-cross and swift lined up to capture the sales, I fear MSIL might even touch 55% market share in some months. This will not be good for the other industry players.

[manij]

I guess I missed the official news, but presume Mahindra has stopped manufacture of Verito / Vibe (despatches dwindling over last 4 months from 97 --> 48 --> 16 -->9 suggests so). I like travelling in the Verito taxis (a lot of the taxis in Bangalore are Verito/Logan, I feel ride/comfort is comparably better than Etios/Dzire which seem to be the other 2 current options), what will the fleet owners favor now?

[amtak]

Originally Posted by manij

I like travelling in the Verito taxis (a lot of the taxis in Bangalore are Verito/Logan, I feel ride/comfort is comparably better than Etios/Dzire which seem to be the other 2 current options), what will the fleet owners favor now?

The answer lies in this thread itself. If you see, Zest is constantly churning out 1000 plus units and I believe half of them would be for fleet operations. A few months back, Tata had opened up sales for Zest and Bolt for commercial registration.

[romeomidhun]

One thing I don't understand is; how these cars are able to stick to almost the same sales - month after month!

Eg: Ecosport. Monthly, it averages around 4K. How can some or other 4K people in India buy it on every month?

i. If the buyers are from some organised section, we can assume it will follow some trend. But this is from unorganized individuals.

ii. If it is a production constraint with waiting periods, then also it is fine.

iii. If the sales varies from minimum to the maximum, I can understand.

But for a car with no waiting period, if it can continuously garner a similar number of sales every month, it is something of my interest.

In short, a monthly sales fluctuation of even 10000 units is not at all a surprise, IMO.

Originally Posted by kbishwa

Indians buy value even at a premium.

I would rephrase it: Indians buy luxury if it is at an affordable premium.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Pancham

Its sad to see the Endeavour suffering from such poor sales as compared to Fortuner which is clocking close to 6 times more units considering the Endeavour is a superb offering from Ford.

Sad? Ford is actually very happy with the Endeavour's sales. We have to understand that it isn't necessary to be the no.1 to be successful, and not every brand aspires to do so. Why is Ford happy?

1. It's selling 4 - 6 times more than the old Endeavour ever did.

2. Proves that people are willing to spend 30 lakhs on a Ford. That wasn't the case with Chevrolet, Nissan & many others (including Hyundai).

3. F-A-T profits.

Originally Posted by Mad Max

I wonder where VAG is going with their strategy. They introduced so many upgrades / uplifts / "new" models, that customers may just have lost their mind.

I think it's credible that they are managing to sell ~3,000 units of what is a 7 year old car in India (and 8 years old globally). The Indian boys aren't getting much support from global HQ in terms of products or $$$, so what they are achieving with one car & 3 different rear ends is a huge achievement.

Originally Posted by Khushrav

The 110 units of Camry, 80+ of Superb and 1 of Accord are a story in itself. These cars have pushed the price tag so close to the German luxury sedans

Another contributing factor is THE SUV. SUVs have pretty much murdered sedans in the 15 - 35 lakh segments.

Originally Posted by kbishwa

Further, if you see the segment wise sales, the least price segment A is consistently at 3rd position from sales point of view. Number one is not even B1 segment but B2 segment (PREMIUM Hatchback). So, Indians buy value even at a premium.

Well said! Thank you for the great post.

[Porcupine]

This might be too much too ask for, but any chance we could get some figures for the luxury brands like Mercedes, BMW, Audi? I understand they are kind of in a different niche but it would be fun to see a comparison between the luxury crossovers and the entry level sedans and the 30 lac SUVs, especially with the advent of the recent Tiguan/Q3/X1 debates.

[feluda86]

Mr. Yoichiro Ueno, President and CEO, Honda Cars India Ltd. said “We are happy to have achieved positive growth in May sales. We continue to receive strong demand for New City and Honda WR-V.

It is amusing to see Honda Cars India's definition of strong demand. On one hand City has lost the crown it once had and WR-V sales is just about average. Jazz and Amaze sales are see-sawing every month. The numbers of other Honda vehicles are not worth mentioning.

On one hand, Maruti and Hyundai are improving quality/safety (approaching Toyota/Honda of old), and on the other hand these Japanese giants are approaching Maruti of old. How things have changed in the last few years.

[Moto$apien]

Originally Posted by romeomidhun

One thing I don't understand is; how these cars are able to stick to almost the same sales - month after month!

I believe, Sales nos. in the forum are for dispatches by the company to the dealerships. Dealership being a 'a going concern' has to place orders for a set no. of vehicles to be in cordial terms with the parent company!

So, it actually IS a very 'organized' structure that friend 'romeomidhun' mentioned.
I know a few dealership friends of mine who actually feel and fear the customer mood swings on a monthly basis. It would actually be a revelation if actual vehicles delivered to us customers could be found out on a month-on-month basis.