[cediaowner]

I for one don’t blame the car buyers in our country investing in Maruti Suzuki as their choice of car maker simply because no one wants to take a chance with their hard earned money. The other manufacturers might make better cars but Maruti has exceptional after sales coupled with responsive higher management in case things go really wrong. It is a free economy and other manufacturers are most welcome to challenge Maruti’s after sales and try to better it, perhaps then the Buyers will consider buying a car. For an average car buyer A.S.S is as important as the car itself.

A lot of Car manufactures think it’s just enough to bring an exciting product to the market but ignore after sales. So you can’t blame Maruti for selling cars in loads because of their reliability!

[ALTIMAed]

Originally Posted by jaganpec2002

It is quite the opposite. The Indian customers are not blind and that is why the big brand automakers are not able to sell their inferior products. They took the Indian customers for granted and hoped their badge would blind the customers and sells their products. But history says otherwise. If it is not for Maruti, the brands that you are calling superior would be selling their same products for more money.

Looking into the history of Ford products in India, the Ford Escort twins had really bad engines (though the diesel was better than the petrol). The petrol was a gas guzzler and could not stand upto the first generation Honda City. The Mondeo - was it too early for its time or was it too pricy for the customers. The Ikon, intially with the pushrod engine, why Ford? Why did you dump such old technology engine on us. The Ford Ikon Flair at Rs 4,99,000/-, mouth watering price but the car was full of niggles and add to that the sky high servicing and repair cost (no child parts available).

The Indian customers may be fooled once, but never again, so back to Maruti instead of Ford.

Honda, which one gave us the first generation City (still gives me a wicked grin when I recall the acceleration of the 1.5 Exi), but over the years quality has dropped into a deep well and add to that the hydrostatic lock issue when they launched the diesel engine.

Hence for repeat purchase customers have moved back to Maruti and definitely not referred the Honda. In the family, we have a Honda 1.3 Exi (facelift model of the first generation), it is still in brand new condition after so many years. Its a sad story that it has to be scrapped as it has a MH01 registration and is grounded at Gurgaon for want of renewal of registration. (Any takers, please PM me).

[King_pin09]

Well compiled analysis that one, Aditya, Thanks for sharing.

My observations on the trends are as follows,

1. A Segment – Alto rules. The Kwid shines (at a far distance from the Alto), however the numbers are dwindling faster than ever. Time for Renault to renew its market strategies including complete makeover of this steed. Better adapt quickly than becoming irrelevant to the market and repent later.

2. B1 Segment – Mr R continues its cake walk even after two decades of being on the Indian soil. Perhaps non availability of competitive product from its arch rival viz., Hyundai, is helping a bit. Tata is close on heels with the Tiago. Watch out Maruti. Sleepless nights guaranteed if Tata improves further on this pony.

3. B2 Segment - A very crowded market with Swift, Baleno and I10 Grand ruling. With just two digit sales, it seems Bolt and Punto (evo/avventura) have finally hit the end of road. Petty dismal numbers for the Figo as well.

4. C1 Segment – The Dzire dominates this pretty crowded market though. For others its business as usual.

5. C2 Segment – Brezza leads with pretty huge margin followed closely by the Ecosport. The Ciaz beats City and Verna hands down. Linea, who on earth did buy those 10 units?

6. D1 Segment – Innova sells in numbers which make one feel as though they were looking at the B1 segment charts. Very promising numbers by the Compass that are almost at par with the mighty XUV, period.

7. D2 Segment - It’s Fortuner all the way and no one close to the sight.

[abhi7013]

I understood classification based on what is listed in this link:-
www.prokerala.com/automobile/cars/

But clearly, TeamBHP doesn't seem to match to what is there.
Is there a reference as to how we segment the cars?

For example, B2 says MUV but we have listed hatchbacks. C2 is sedans and we have scorpio!
Do we segment based on price alone? If so, is it a standard way of segmentation?

Hope this is not OT as am trying to better understand the monthly sales figures and this segmentation confusion isn't helping!

[ashokabs]

Originally Posted by jaganpec2002

1) Preferring Maruti for reliability/service and preferring Maruti blindly are two different things.
2) Sitting on their laurels? Who has been the most active manufacturer in the last 3-4 years? Their future plans speculated to include Vitara S, Grand Vitara, Innova Competitor, electric vehicle etc., What else you expect from them? One thing you can't complain about Maruti is that they take their top position for granted and being complacent.
3) If it is not for Maruti, do you think Hyundai would have made two airbags, ABS as standard in the facelift i20?

Maruti is on the top and would continue to be at the top because of their efforts. And if the other so-coalled superior manufacturers put in their efforts they will be rewarded by our market. TATA is the prime example of that.

I don't know how old you are but at 72 yrs I know most of my friends and those around 60 would go blindly with service and reliability which has been a reputation built over years by Maruti.

Granted that they have been very good with marketing and sussing out the trends that will work well in the Indian market. However, their upgrades are all in reaction to the work done by the other manufacturers particularly Hyundai and now Tata Motors. Their safety concerns have only now come to the fore after other manufacturers have taken a lead. Even in EVs they are following and not leading.

I think in the next two or three years their citadel is going to be under heavy attack and let's see how they weather the storm.

[romeomidhun]

Originally Posted by ashokabs

I think in the next two or three years their citadel is going to be under heavy attack...

These kind of doom says for Maruti are there whenever the players like hyundai or VW or Tata rolled out every model, but we know what happened actually - Maruti going from strength to strength, and competition is either running away, or accepting their inabiliity to fight with the volumes of Maruti, or shifting the ground of fight to 'books'...

[TaurusAl]

Originally Posted by jassi_jeeper

I wonder what interest Mitsubishi has in India. Why don't they pack their bags and leave? How can they sustain selling 35-40 cars a month?

Same goes with FIAT. I wonder what their top management is thinking considering the current figures.

[abhi7013]

Originally Posted by romeomidhun

These kind of doom says for Maruti are there whenever the players like hyundai or VW or Tata rolled out every model, but we know what happened actually - Maruti going from strength to strength, and competition is either running away, or accepting their inabiliity to fight with the volumes of Maruti, or shifting the ground of fight to 'books'...

With the new generation of buyers who would value a product more than the brand and are more of risk takers by nature, i would say in a decade, Maruti's market share would definitely not be as high as it is today.
Granted that they have actively reacted to the market. But it is only those who lead and innovate who would be well rewarded.

[volkman10]

SIAM releases the Auto Sales( all categories) data for Jan-18,

[S.MJet]

One observation, Nexon (which we can now say is a success) has not impacted KUV and TUV sales at all. Both being Indian OEMs with a similar segment of market and reputation for reliability etc., I was thinking Nexon could dent some sales from Mahindra’s KUV and TUV, both of which falls in/overlaps Nexon’s price segment. But the fact is these two have also grown after Nexon launch.
Happy for both Indian manufacturers.


This clearly suggests that Nexon is attracting customers from premium hatchback segment in the overall positive consumer sentiment towards SUVs/Crossovers.

[jaganpec2002]

Originally Posted by ashokabs

I don't know how old you are but at 72 yrs I know most of my friends and those around 60 would go blindly with service and reliability which has been a reputation built over years by Maruti.

Dear Sir, knowing your age, I wouldn't argue with you. But what I meant was blindly buying Maruti or blindly trusting Maruti's service and reliability are two different things. Do your friends regret their decision?? I guess not.

I think in the next two or three years their citadel is going to be under heavy attack and let's see how they weather the storm.

I have a similar opinion about Hyundai and Honda. In three years Hyundai would have become VFM once again and Honda would be fighting for its relevance in the market. Maruti followed by TATA would be the primary reason for that. Let us wait and watch.

Originally Posted by abhi7013

With the new generation of buyers who would value a product more than the brand and are more of risk takers by nature, i would say in a decade, Maruti's market share would definitely not be as high as it is today.
Granted that they have actively reacted to the market. But it is only those who lead and innovate who would be well rewarded.

If you check the roadmap of Maruti a few years back even they didn't anticipate such a market share. They predicted Indian automobile industry would reach 5 million per annum by 2020 and they would have around 2 million in that. They are going to reach their target so others, in general, have failed? If Innovation is one thing, execution is another. They may not be as innovative as others but their execution has no competition.

[abhi7013]

Originally Posted by jaganpec2002

They are going to reach their target so others, in general, have failed? If Innovation is one thing, execution is another. They may not be as innovative as others but their execution has no competition.

Yes, agree that their execution has no match. No arguments there. But i still say what I said earlier. You need innovation and just relying on engines and tech from elsewhere will not get you there. Even if they are bringing out new things to the market, it's overshadowed by Mahindra's efforts toward EV, TATA's new engines and designs and mouth-watering tech from foreign brands. The last two auto expos are evidence.
I can hardly remember when was the last time Maruti was vocal of their future roadmap and interest in EVs. Even if they are, given their market share, there's no proportionate knowledge among the common folks!
Bet if Suzuki or fiat had an offering, it would have been lapped up immediately!

As i said a few posts back, if the market share of any other local manufacturer was even half of that of Maruti, it would have helped kick start EV and related infrastructure developments. Its Suzuki that's benefiting from those numbers!
All said and done, they played a huge role in teaching the foreign brands as to not treat the indian market as a testing ground!

[Nav-i-gator]

Originally Posted by abhi7013

As i said a few posts back, if the market share of any other local manufacturer was even half of that of Maruti, it would have helped kick start EV and related infrastructure developments. Its Suzuki that's benefiting from those numbers!
All said and done, they played a huge role in teaching the foreign brands as to not treat the indian market as a testing ground!

+1 to that. MS have their fair share of success in India,and deservingly so. However, their complete market dominance is restricting (or atleast slowing down drastically) the introduction and adoption of new technologies and innovations in Indian automobile sector.

[romeomidhun]

Originally Posted by abhi7013

With the new generation of buyers who would value a product more than the brand and are more of risk takers by nature, i would say in a decade, Maruti's market share would definitely not be as high as it is today.

Myself, now at the 40s, was once known as "new generation" back in the 2000s!

Value product than brand: yes, that is what exactly happens even now. Brands like VW, Honda, Toyota, GM, Skoda, Fiat, Renault, Nissan etc are finding it difficult to sustain against the better products offered by Maruti and Hyundai. Otherwise, all of Maruti's and Hyundai's products should have been success, which is not happening. Remember the numerous flop models from these 2 manufacturers. But those better products from these 2 manufacturers are more in numbers compared to those of others.

Originally Posted by abhi7013

...it is only those who lead and innovate who would be well rewarded.

I'll rephrase it - lead and innovate the way market wants it.

Tata introduced the sub-4m sedans, but it was Maruti who was ticking the right boxes with its sub-4m DZire.
Hyundai introduced the premium hatch with Getz, but it was Maruti again who mastered it with Swift.
Then Hyundai came with i20, but then Maruti trumped it with Baleno.
Story repeats for Ecosport and Brezza.
Fiat came with the 1.3 Diesel, but it was Maruti who tuned it better to suit their cars.
Automatics were there in the market, but it was Maruti in their second term (for automatics) who made it popular with the cheaper AMTs.

[jaganpec2002]

Originally Posted by abhi7013

As i said a few posts back, if the market share of any other local manufacturer was even half of that of Maruti, it would have helped kick start EV and related infrastructure developments. Its Suzuki that's benefiting from those numbers!
All said and done, they played a huge role in teaching the foreign brands as to not treat the indian market as a testing ground!

Originally Posted by Nav-i-gator

+1 to that. MS have their fair share of success in India,and deservingly so. However, their complete market dominance is restricting (or atleast slowing down drastically) the introduction and adoption of new technologies and innovations in Indian automobile sector.

All my argument was that Maruti's position is not by luck but their efforts and deservedly so. You seem to agree to that so I don't want to make any more argument .

Coming to EV and its related infrastructure development - I don't have in-depth knowledge of the automobile industry and who did what. But from what I know the top players in the world are Toyota, VW group, Renault-Nissan, Honda and then we have luxury brands like Daimler and BMW group. All of them have huge R&D budget. So when it comes to EV and its related infrastructure development, the brand that comes to my mind is Tesla. What were the global leaders doing all those days before Tesla? So the argument that if others had half a market share as Maruti would have done so many innovations in India is just a wishful thinking. The facts say otherwise. And even Tesla is having less than 1% share in the US market and what is the total EV share in the US? 5%? So for a market like India EV would take a long time as it is not mature enough. Who would buy EV in India, most of us can afford only one car and would never invest in an EV and the premium that is associated with it? And we would definitely not pay a premium for a Maruti. So they are never going to pioneer it.

it's overshadowed by Mahindra's efforts toward EV, TATA's new engines and designs and mouth-watering tech from foreign brands

What effort is Mahindra putting? I saw e2o some 8 years back and it is still the same. Any groundbreaking initiatives I have missed? And coming to TATA, I am a huge fan of their designs and was super excited seeing H5X. Trust me, I might have even picked Nexon over Scross if it was available then. But what mouth-watering tech have they introduced so far? And the engines? Which ones are you talking about? their petrol engines are adequate in Tiago/Tigor/Nexon and their diesel is ok for Tiago and not enough for Tigor. The Nexon diesel had huge expectations(like a WOW moment) but is only good (In our forum we all had huge expectation for performance but are left a bit disappointed once it is released. Don't you agree?). Then they have Varicor engine but still going with Fiat for H5X and H7X. I am not against Mahindra or TATA but let us not give too much credit than what they have done.