[ckranjan]

According to Times of India :

Maruti Suzuki on Wednesday announced rebranding of its retail outlets in the country and these would now be called 'Maruti Suzuki Arena'. Promising a premium experience to its customers, the company said its main objectives are to provide a sophisticated and technologically advance option to prospective customers.
The Maruti Suzuki Arenas will have completely redone exteriors and interiors, and will now assume a modern appeal to attract customers - primarily the youth. As part of this massive operation, 50 of the 2050 dealerships across the country will upgrade in this financial year itself, said company officials. The upgrade will include product vision screens, personalisation spots for choosing accessories, cafe and lounge areas - among several other features.

Link : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/a...w/60290492.cms

[Chetan_Rao]

Isn't that what NEXA was for?
Regular Maruti Suzuki showrooms for an efficient, no-nonsense experience, and NEXA for the 'premium' experience?

Not saying people buying cheaper cars deserve worse treatment (I'm in that bracket myself), but this just confuses the whole 'premium' strategy.

[narayan]

Be prepared to shell out more for Maruti cars in future as they try to leverage their goodwill to start scraping out higher margins. This makeover which involves substantial investment from the dealer would have happened on the back of a promise for higher profits in future.

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by narayan

Be prepared to shell out more for Maruti cars in future as they try to leverage their goodwill to start scraping out higher margins. This makeover which involves substantial investment from the dealer would have happened on the back of a promise for higher profits in future.

Spot on!
No business / businessman ever makes these "improvements" out of their own pocket as a charity. These are always paid for by us - the customers. So...

[RaghuVis]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

Isn't that what NEXA was for?
Regular Maruti Suzuki showrooms for an efficient, no-nonsense experience, and NEXA for the 'premium' experience?

Not saying people buying cheaper cars deserve worse treatment (I'm in that bracket myself), but this just confuses the whole 'premium' strategy.

NEXA was a stop gap arrangement for increasing price of car and justify the premium tag. Inflated price of some cars on same room would not have been a success. The success of it in such a short span would have been surprising even for MSIL. Their original intention is to start milking people without them realizing. This Arena is real deal now. They will slowly but surely increase the premium factor without investing much on the car. MSIL is slowly moving from 3-12L bracket to 5-15L and even 5-20L by 2020.The only hope for MSIL is that everyone else is also moving in that direction of price rice without any value addition so end of the day they are not going to lose much.

[TusharK]

Maruti Suzuki has announced that its sales network will be rebranded as 'Maruti Suzuki Arena'.

The new showrooms will have a new blue facade and car buyers can avail of a valet service.



On the inside, the showrooms will feature interactive touchscreens and a personalisation zone, where customers will be able to mix and match accessories and configure their vehicles. Additionally, the showrooms will also have a cafe & consultation area and an owners' lounge. Relationship managers will be equipped with tablets with an app for customers to browse and compare different models and variants. Customers will also be able to book or personalise their vehicles through a new website.



The company plans to set up more than 80 such outlets across India by March 2018. Existing showrooms will also be converted to Maruti Suzuki Arena outlets.

Link to Team-BHP News

[Avikbrio]

Then what is the difference between this and Nexa now?

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by RaghuVis

.....They will slowly but surely increase the premium factor without investing much on the car. MSIL is slowly moving from 3-12L bracket to 5-15L and even 5-20L by 2020.The only hope for MSIL is that everyone else is also moving in that direction of price rice without any value addition so end of the day they are not going to lose much.

I don't disagree with your thought process, but there are major issues with actually implementing something like that.

1. Maruti still hasn't shaken off their 'cheap car maker' tag, despite Nexa's success. Their most expensive product, S-Cross, is a dud (by their standards) and there's rumors they won't bother with the 1.6 MJD in the upcoming face-lift.

2. They don't have the engines to compete in the million+ rupee segment.

Diesel: 1.3 DDiS is old and inadequate for large cars, the 1.6 too expensive and the new 1.5 homegrown oil-burner is still in testing.

Petrol: The 1.2 NA is a small-car engine, 1.0 Boosterjet not a patch on the competition (1.2TSi or 1.0 EcoBoost), and they don't have a higher capacity petrol motor ready to deploy (that might change with the 1.5P on the S-Cross, if it arrives).

If this is just an exercise to sell the the exact same products at a premium, Maruti don't have much room to play with before they hit the 'I won't pay that much for a Maruti' ceiling.

[octane_100]

So Maruti is doing everything to go "premium" other than making the actual products feel like one. No offense meant to any MS owner.

[Reinhard]

Interesting to see a discontinued WagonR Stingray-ish car in those renders. Perhaps the rumored WagonR MINOR that was speculated for a near future launch is leaked in it?

[AYP]

Originally Posted by Reinhard

Interesting to see a discontinued WagonR Stingray-ish car in those renders. Perhaps the rumored WagonR MINOR that was speculated for a near future launch is leaked in it?

The WagonR Stingray moniker has been discontinued. Instead the top variant of the WagonR, i.e., the VXI+ looks like the Stingray and comes with all the equipment that the Stingray had. Related discussion-

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...i-variant.html

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by AYP

The WagonR Stingray moniker has been discontinued. Instead the top variant of the WagonR, i.e., the VXI+ looks like the Stingray and comes with all the equipment that the Stingray had.

My god do I feel stupid!
I had no idea that the VXI+ borrowed the discontinued Stingray's looks! Perhaps due to lack of them on the road...Or I'm getting too old.

[tsk1979]

Very good move. Finally Manufactures are being honest

Arena 'noun' : a place or scene of activity, debate, or conflict.
I guess they decided to make it descriptive based on the high number of angry customers

[Leoshashi]

A video showing the finer details of the new Maruti showrooms.

https://youtu.be/HPpnFLOWkc8

[2000rpm]

Rightly pointed out. Whenever a Company starts speaking of customer experience during the sales cycle, they are actually looking to improve margins. Look at the Ignis pricing sold through Nexa in the name of premium experience. The most overpriced car today I feel.


Also I think this will be a Tier 1 strategy only where dealers have the moolah to invest so much money. But then what will Nexa really do!