[Axe77]

Originally Posted by 1.2TSI7DSG

A lot of speculation about Yaris changing the game of the Ciaz-City-Verna dominance.
My 2 Cents:

From the previews at least I am getting a feel that Yaris is to be positioned as the feature-rich car in the segment. Going by the Toyota Pricing standards, It may be priced well above the segment altogether. There is a gap of a worthy sedan in the 15- 20 l segment.

The City is already pretty expensive and given that unlike Honda, Toyota actually has the Altis being retailed as well in the entry D, I can't imagine them to price the Yaris well over the City. I'm sure they'll shoot for bang on competitive pricing to the Honda City. Makes more sense for the Yaris to take that segment head on without putting itself at a price disadvantage as well as cannibalising / being cannibalised by its own sibling.

[PrasannaDhana]

Yaris is one pretty ugly car when compared to segment rivals. Pricing it over Ciaz(let alone City) will not find many buyers.

[roamer012]

Originally Posted by GTO

A look at some of the tricks that manufacturers use while reporting numbers.

Source & Full Article

Interesting read. However i feel this is the case across marketing industries. Companies want to show themselves as no.1, rather the executives want to project themselves as performers. One might project themselves with highest growth in MOM basis instead of YOY or highest growth in volumetric percentage instead of market share growth.
In certain industries, the top bosses do not even share their exact market share (leave alone growth compared to industry) with the field staff. Only targets based on one's own performance are taken.

[bhavik.1991]

Unless VW threw some pretty decent discounts on Polo, we can conclude that our junta is still obsessed 'Kitna deti hai'. After the introduction of pathetic 1.0 MPI engine, the sales number significantly grew!!

[srishiva]

Is Hyundai growing well ? They are being kicked down from the top positions by Maruti. If you look at the top 20, Elite i20 and Grand i10 are doing good. Creta of course has been good in the segment that it seems to have owned. There are not much of other cars from Hyundai compared to Maruti who seem to be having every type, size and priced car.

[The Rationalist]

I think we can predict the beginning of a recession if Toyota Innova and Fortuners sales fall. I have zeroed in that parameter as I can’t find an easier choice. Every month beginning the pessimist in me rushes to this thread suspecting the beginning of a recession! Will have to wait to see if my bet turns true.

[Sayeed]

1. The sales of Alto & Omni are simply shocking. It looks like right now there is no stopping any product from MSI.
2. Hyundai seriously needs to now come out with more cars fast, they give an impression that they are happy sailing with what they have. The Creta's success is being downplayed by the market as well as Hyundai themselves, to sell so many numbers continuously every month in this price range is simply superb.
3. Tata Motors needs to keep the momentum going, now that have at least two winners (Tiago & Nexon) and a good flagship (Hexa). They have to consider plonking the 1.3D in Tigor as the under-powered diesel engine is it's undoing, discouraging potential buyers.
4. Renault should launch the new Duster in India quickly if they don't wish to lose their market share further.
5. The time is not far when Nissan will have to take a call just like Chevrolet did here, as their dealer network seems to be disappearing and there is no improvement in spite of having good cars like Sunny & Micra.
6. Volkswagen & Skoda should combine their dealer network and start selling together, will certainly give them better volumes due to the reach.
7. Everyone is looking forward to Toyota Yaris, which actually is a old product being brought here in India after years of selling in other markets, but yes it could give an option for buyers who look at the T badge and good competition to the H badge.

Drive safe, be happy.

[romeomidhun]

Originally Posted by Aditya

These manufacturer-reported sales numbers are factory dispatches to dealerships.

Hi Aditya,

There seems to be some issue with the "Manufacturer Sales - YoY Change (%)" chart. For example, for the last few months, Maruti is shown with 0% change while the change is not flat for sure. Can you please check it?

January 2018:


February 2018:


March 2018:

[Hrishi_111]

Ignis has settled at the bottom of the MSIL stack (only to beat Gypsy). The premium pricing is killing this otherwise competitive hot hatchback.

All the hype about the car being a 'vehicle for the millennial generation’ seems to have settled down now with millennial generation turning towards other options in the segment.

I have very limited knowledge about ‘branding & marketing’, however I personally think that this car would have been in a slightly better position if it was launched as replacement (or perhaps next generation) of Ritz under Maruti Suzuki dealerships itself.

[narayan]

Originally Posted by Sayeed

1. Hyundai seriously needs to now come out with more cars fast, they give an impression that they are happy sailing with what they have. The Creta's success is being downplayed by the market as well as Hyundai themselves, to sell so many numbers continuously every month in this price range is simply superb.

Drive safe, be happy.

Just FYI - Hyundai has been running on pretty much full capacity utilisation in their Chennai plant for a long time. Over last few years, they also migrated export manufacturing to overseas plants like Turkey etc and used that capacity as well for domestic. So they just can't sell more cars - and they are smartly using that capacity to sell cars much higher in the value chain.

Additional investment from the group is also coming through Kia which is a great move because in the Indian herd mentality market which goes to Maruti showrooms first, there is no point in selling more cars under the same brand. Its better to launch another brand Kia and try to sell additional volumes through that channel.

[romeomidhun]

Originally Posted by narayan

Over last few years, they also migrated export manufacturing to overseas plants like Turkey etc and used that capacity as well for domestic...

Farce.

The export to Europe was stopped because of the tight safety requirements. Australia decided not to import Elite i20 from India because it was not meeting the safety requirements, and stuck to the old model. Also note that Hyundai is still exporting around 15k cars every month to other countries.

If all your arguments are true, then Hyundai would have a huge backlog for their cars which is not there.

...in the Indian herd mentality market which goes to Maruti showrooms first, there is no point in selling more cars under the same brand.

What is the logic here?

People go to Maruti because they have a lot of options in the same segment, their cars are reliable and fuel efficient, and they have excellent after-sales service.

Hyundai is not far behind in any of these areas, may be except cost of spares.

[SR-71]

Originally Posted by 1.2TSI7DSG

Going by the Toyota Pricing standards, It may be priced well above the segment altogether. There is a gap of a worthy sedan in the 15- 20 l segment. Going ahead with the plans of the single Gasoline engine being launched, it will be difficult though not impossible for Toyota to change the segment dynamics.

It might be an ill-conceived idea to price it a bit too premium in comparison to the current current C2 best sellers. Why would I pay for an C2 Sedan (Yaris), when I can get a D1 Sedan (Elantra) with more features at a small premium. The illusion of Toyota reliability can take it only so far.

The gap between the C2 segment and D1 segment is very narrow. At the top end of C2 you already have the best sellers - Honda City & Hyundai Creta. Then the D1 segment opens up with overlapping / slightly higher price range for the Hyundai Elantra, XUV 500 & Tata Hexa. So Toyota needs to be very careful here. This is not the Innova or the Fortuner which has virtually no competition.

[Aditya]

Originally Posted by romeomidhun

Hi Aditya,

There seems to be some issue with the "Manufacturer Sales - YoY Change (%)" chart. For example, for the last few months, Maruti is shown with 0% change while the change is not flat for sure. Can you please check it?

Thanks. There was an error in the formula. Edited it accordingly.

[avdhesh15]

Originally Posted by SR-71

This is not the Innova or the Fortuner which has virtually no competition.

Totally agreed. The day Innova or Fortuner gets some real competition (by this I unfortunately mean Maruti or Hyundai and not the others), that's the day we will see some rationale in pricing.

With Yaris, they can't do that because City, Ciaz and Verna are well established. They have failed with all their other cars as well apart from the big 2 mentioned above (Etios average 2k and Live average 1k).

Surely they will recognize this and price the vehicle accordingly.

[jpcoolguy]

Originally Posted by avdhesh15

They have failed with all their other cars as well apart from the big 2 mentioned above (Etios average 2k and Live average 1k).

The Etios twins when launched were indeed considered hit (or above average). The Etios consistently sold above 3.5K-4K units for the first 2 years after launch (2011 & 2012) and in the range of 3K-3.5K units in 2013 and finally settling around 2K units since then.

Likewise, the Liva sold in the range of 3K-3.5K units in 2011/12 and in the range of 2K-2.5K in 2013 and then around 2K during 2014/15 and finally settling around 1K units since then.

The fall was mainly due to the new launches in their respective segments like the new Compact Sedans and new B2 segment hatchbacks.

I think Toyota will be happy if they are able to replicate the success of Etios during its initial years.