[gurthvader]

Thanks! Aditya & like always a great review.
I however wonder why the Hexa is doing poorly, a couple of friends who own them, they sing songs about them, one of them even said its the best TATA ever. The car has presence, looks pretty premium & rides well too. Two friends who own them unanimously agree that TASS treats them well too, wonder what's not working in its favor

[payeng]

Originally Posted by gurthvader

Thanks! Aditya & like always a great review.
I however wonder why the Hexa is doing poorly, a couple of friends who own them, they sing songs about them, one of them even said its the best TATA ever. The car has presence, looks pretty premium & rides well too. Two friends who own them unanimously agree that TASS treats them well too,

wonder what's not working in its favor

As a common customer, the Hexa reminds me strongly of the INNOVA. According to me that's where the problem with the HEXA lies.

[DCEite]

Originally Posted by AkMar

Tigor clocks 2564 dispatches. It is not a bad number for its segment (minus Dzire ) especially considering the fact that most of the Tigors are sold to private owners, whereas other cars in the segment like Xcent, Amaze, Aspire are sold as taxis also. I feel Tigor is appealing to individual buyers at least to some extent in spite of mediocre engines.

Absolutely. I got delivery of Tigor AMT XZA a few days back. Its heartening to see the quality levels of a Tata Car coming such a long way.

Considering Xcent sold 2.8k units and Tigor 2.5k units - effectively the Tigor is number 2 CS today, as most of the Xcent sold today are commercial cabs, and the commercial sales of Tigor would almost be zero if not zero.

[ptushar]

Originally Posted by gurthvader

I however wonder why the Hexa is doing poorly, a couple of friends who own them, they sing songs about them, one of them even said its the best TATA ever.

Here's my understanding of the issues with Hexa.

I just took delivery of the Hexa 1 week ago. Now, when I was in the market for the car, here are some opinions I got:
1. Why a Tata car? Are you nuts? Go for Maruti or Hyundai. They are much better.
2. Why the Hexa? Go for the XUV, it has many more features

When I went to the XUV showroom and spoke with the sales guy there, he asked me which car I was considering other than XUV. I mentioned the Hexa and then he went all out to point to many features in the XUV that the Hexa does not have. Like the Sunroof, some safety features, a whole lot of electronic features etc. And he was absolutely right. No exaggeration and no false information. He was pointing out the precise differences.

Now, here's the problem. For an average Indian buyer, the decision making is not always on the quality of the vehicle. In fact the decision makers are seldom the people who will drive the car. It's the spouse, the parents and of course, the children. This community is not really worried about the quality, the driving dynamics etc. Their decision making is mostly on the features. And this is exactly where the Hexa gets beaten.

Tata have built a capable car and have improved the A.S.S. But they need to address the needs of the spouse, the parents and the children if they intend to capture the numbers.

As for me - I am so far very happy with my buy!

[SoumenD]

Originally Posted by gurthvader

...
I however wonder why the Hexa is doing poorly, ...

Well mainly for the baggage that the brand carries. Nothing else.

Mostly the word in the street is:

1. '20L for a TATA, are you crazy?'
2. My family/friends(Wife/parents/neighbours etc etc) aren't comfortable with a TATA.
3. My experience with Indica/Aria was horrible, so can't trust a tata anymore.

But with time this surely would go away as it worked out for Tiago. Even that had a lukewarm start but the positive word of mouth and eventually people hitting the showrooms changed the perception. I still believe it deserves 10k+ numbers and hope it will reach there someday. In case of HEXA, since the amount is nearing 2 million, people still are skeptical but with positive word of mouth things will change overtime.

Good to see TATA reach 3rd position. But look at Maruti's numbers I doubt anybody can reach even 50% of their tally in near future.

With Jeep doing great, can we expect FIAT would introduce a LINEA/PUNTO replacement sometime?

[neoonwheels]

Originally Posted by SoumenD

With Jeep doing great, can we expect FIAT would introduce a LINEA/PUNTO replacement sometime?

If I were FCA boss, I would happily stop FIAT emblem in India and concentrate my energy and money on JEEP. India has a soft corner for anything SUV and with Compass, they have got a good start. There is nothing for FIAT in mass product market, better to move on to niche mkt. Also, I guess the Linea upgrade has a different platform than the current one and it might call for additional investment for a car which hardly sells.

[pgsagar]

Originally Posted by gurthvader

Thanks! Aditya & like always a great review.
I however wonder why the Hexa is doing poorly, a couple of friends who own them, they sing songs about them, one of them even said its the best TATA ever. The car has presence, looks pretty premium & rides well too. Two friends who own them unanimously agree that TASS treats them well too, wonder what's not working in its favor

I really feel sorry for Tata. No matter how hard they try, we Indians ruthlessly turn Nelson's eye to it. Our car market is very brutal. First 6 months can make or break a new car. First 6 months sales numbers decide whether it will sell or sink. It happened even to Maruti. Anyone remembers A-Star? First 6 months sales were dismal and it sank A-Star. Maruti badge did not help it one bit. S-Cross , too, is going down the same road. Coming to Tata, I'm sure if somehow Tata can lure people into their showrooms and make them take it out for a test spin, there will be more Hexas out on road than are now.

[gururajrv]

1 - Maruti's great show in Y-O-Y and M-O-M proves they aren't resting on their laurels as most of the products in the list are new entrants and will continue to capture the market in the days and months to come. However, they have learnt to bring in the new SWIFT at the right time as the sales is coming down whilst they are all eaten up by Baleno. I sincerely hope the same blood doesn't end up fighting later w.r.t to sales wherein the comparo happens between Baleno & SWIFT

Ertiga numbers are down and I believe MSIL will launch the refreshed or upgraded SWIFT and Ertiga together. Ciaz numbers are still strong that doesn't seem to have been affected by either the new city or the new verna.

I'm however surprised to see S Cross not gaining momentum post the facelift? Because I see a strong surge in sales numbers from Sep - Oct '17 but casually settling down in Nov '17.

2 - Ford launched the refreshed Ecosport at the right time which shows the product is again inscribing it's name well in the hearts of the many when it had indeed lost the sales to a great extent in the last month comparo i.e. Sep to Oct 2017 MOM sales figures showed there was a decline in the number from 4,934 to a mere 400 units. They brought in the refreshed model at the right time. Now the numbers are up by big difference i.e. from 400 to 5,474 which is better than Sep '17 figures indeed. Way to go Ford! This product will keep them cruising.

3 - Not sure what made the Go+ gaining the momentum for nearly 100 units up from previous month. But Nissan / Renault / Datsun are seriously having a tough time keeping up with the big names in India atleast. Hope they don't slide into the shoes of Chevy in the coming years.

4 - Tata is rolling up their sleeves for sure and happy to see the so called prodigal son returning. Hope they keep up with firing up the charts each month. Personally, I'm happy they are overtaking M&M in terms of sales and I believe this is one sole reason M&M is on an advertising campaign with discounts and benefits announced for their products across their range in Dec 2017.

5 - As for Hyundai, i10 & 20 are being consistent though it's losing out with sales number on M-O-M. Albeit Creta being a good seller, is it somehow losing grounds for Compass? Repercussion causing Hyundai to test the refreshed Creta. Hyundai is usually quick to respond to market changes after Maruti - IMO. Overall, I can count on Hyundai after Maruti to lead the market with the changes.

PS:

@ Mods - are there any relevant threads for Bikes as well because I do not see much movement on the biking sector being discussed. Sorry if I've missed any!

[volkman10]

A snapshot of the entire auto industry with exports, year till date, as published by Auto punditz,

[Sayeed]

Originally Posted by gurthvader

Thanks! Aditya & like always a great review.
I however wonder why the Hexa is doing poorly, a couple of friends who own them, they sing songs about them, one of them even said its the best TATA ever. The car has presence, looks pretty premium & rides well too. Two friends who own them unanimously agree that TASS treats them well too, wonder what's not working in its favor

I guess, it's the infamous reputation Tata Motors built up due to their ASS ignorance of private car customers over the years, although there are efforts to improve, it will take time, also the re sale value affects the decision making of prospective buyers. Now that Tata Motors is coming out with truly desirable cars like the Tiago and Nexon, it will improve in coming years

[gurthvader]

Image baggage is heavy to carry around & TATA sure has a lot of it. Mahindra at one time had the same problem TATA has today, but Mahindra went to work to correct it & they have managed to derive good results out of it. I speak here from my experience , although Mahindra still have a long way to go but things are looking up & people have started trusting their products, which shows in sales figures they manage to clock.
At TATA they start an initiative pretty fervently but somewhere along the line it loses its sheen & from there it goes downhill, which may be a big reason why prospective customers look at TATA offerings with a grain of skepticism & if for any reason TATA asks for a premium it hits a wall almost immediately. Let’s hope TATA goes around this block & make customer delight its priority & not drag its feet.

[ksameer1234]

Originally Posted by gurthvader

Image baggage is heavy to carry around & TATA sure has a lot of it.

Yes, the baggage is heavy but Tata is moving in right direction with their new launches, especially Tiago. My mother-in-law bought Tiago yesterday. This is significant since her previous car was Zen Estilo (WagonR and M800 before that) and my in-laws totally despise Tata cars (purely basis experience of others). However, one test drive was enough to convince them that Tiago has good fit and finish and far more features than competition. What sealed the deal was that no other car at the price point of Tiago offered same features or fit and finish. They not only bought Tiago but went for the top-end model.

This is where Tiago is so important. It is able to find place in those households who never owned Tata earlier and only heard horror stories. This will bear fruit in future since those who have happy ownership of Tiago will want to upgrade within Tata, something which has ensured the dominance of Maruti-Suzuki.

[ashokabs]

It looks like the sedan segment of City, Ciaz, Rapid, Verna is dwindling as the value for money is getting worse. Except for the Verna, promotional price, every new avatar of these vehicles increases their cost. People are looking at Creta, Brezza as alternatives for sedans. One of my friends wanted a car for his wife to be driven by a driver. I had suggested Ciaz which was in his budget but he went and bought a Creta. Maybe this is a trend to be watched.

[Nissan1180]

Originally Posted by ashokabs

It looks like the sedan segment of City, Ciaz, Rapid, Verna is dwindling as the value for money is getting worse. Except for the Verna, promotional price, every new avatar of these vehicles increases their cost. People are looking at Creta, Brezza as alternatives for sedans. One of my friends wanted a car for his wife to be driven by a driver. I had suggested Ciaz which was in his budget but he went and bought a Creta. Maybe this is a trend to be watched.

This is true. Someone I know bought a Verna as the first car. While cars like the Verna and the Ciaz are still affordable, a City with all bells and whistles costs almost Rs. 15 lakhs on the road.

A few years ago, I bought my first car and it was a Nano Twist. Today, I hardly see anyone going for something from that segment. The cheapest car they consider costs at least Rs 5 Lakh. I guess the lower interest rates have convinced a lot of people into spending more on a depreciating asset.

[Jude300]

We all know that in the past few years there has been a surge in demand for SUVs, especially the compact ones. Looking at the 2016 vs 2017 body type pie chart, the fact is evident. Interestingly, the growth in the SUV body type is not eating on the sedan market share but that of the hatchback's. That sort of tells that people used to the sedan stick to a sedan and its the people who upgrade from a hatchback tend to move to an SUV.

2016



2017