[ambujlal]

Its the same story with Fiat/Jeep stable products. All excellent cars right from the days of Palio to Punto to Linea and now Jeep. What lets them down is Fiat's after sales support, a network of service centers which mostly is aloof to customer grievances, lack of spare parts etc. I have been hearing not so good stories about the service support from my few friends who bought Jeep. The news does travel fast these days. Maybe I am reading too much into it but numbers do tell a story! An excellent car being let down by after sales?

[mxh]

Yaris sales are pretty much a disaster. Why is it so difficult for Toyota to understand that they need to add 20 BHP to the Yaris? Just doing this will solve all their problems.

[ramji_or]

1. Every month, I will have this question, Can Maruti be any more stronger? And boy, they always respond to it with the next month sales numbers.
2. Honda has hit the bull's eye with Amaze. Poor Ameo and Aspire took the hit. Dzire being the best seller and Xcent with its taxi market is not affected by the Amaze. Honda is #3 in the big list and they could have achieved this a long back, if not for their flawed strategy behind previous gen Brio and Amaze.
3. Freestyle is losing numbers after it has claimed the same from its own brother Figo. And Figo does not seem to recover either.
4. City continues to be on top with Verna on its toes. New Ciaz would have to do a lot to reclaim the spot.
5. Mahindra is still winning it with the decade old designs while their newer designs are losing steam. Why do they have Nuvosport still on their lineup?
6. Fiat stopped bothering about the puntos and lineas even before the Jeep launch. Now the Compass's numbers are dropping inspite of the discounts and offers. Do they think, Renegade will save them?
7. Volkswagen and Skoda are content with their miniscule market share.
8. India does not seem to bother about Nissan and so the Nissan about India.

Overall, the market seems to be pretty healthy, which is good news for us.

[dark.knight]

While the information presented in this thread topic monthly is no doubt, useful.. I still cannot go to the extent of considering them absolute sales within that single month i.e 30 days, they are after all.. factory dispatches to the dealership.

Maruti has 1800 outlets, Hyundai 512, Mahindra 291, and Honda 265 outlets. These numbers are based on a ToI article from 2016, lets assume the numbers grew by 10% in these 2 years.. still :

Maruti : 77 cars per outlet.

Hyundai : 77 cars per outlet.

Mahindra : 78 cars per outlet.

Honda : 105 cars per outlet (this figure is higher due to the introduction of the new Amaze which will have higher sales to start off with and settle at around half)

Things become much more enlightening when dividing the sales by the number of outlets, AND assuming 10% outlet growth in the past 2 years.

Again, the numbers in no way or form constitute final sales because from whatever I've seen of dealer stockyards, at any given time there is a parking lot of cars varying from 20 to over 100 depending on the orders given per month or estimated demand for that month.. much of those may be placed without having a sale in hand.

Overall the sales figures should be accurate when panned out to 12-13 months, more or less.. this is why dealerships have massive discounts come year-end because they need to not only exhaust factory production cars of that manufacture year, but also of their own. On a monthly basis though, factory dispatch numbers are a very rough estimation.

[jayram.r]

Originally Posted by mxh

Yaris sales are pretty much a disaster. Why is it so difficult for Toyota to understand that they need to add 20 BHP to the Yaris? Just doing this will solve all their problems.

They also needed to introduce a certain Wow factor in the design considering the segment they are catering to. They are no longer targeting the Ola Uber folks here!

[rajamuneeb]

One thing I noticed is that there are no numbers for Mahindra Thar. What happened to Thar? Has Mahindra stopped manufacturing it or is Mahindra not even able to sell Thar in single digits?

[MaxTorque]

Originally Posted by dark.knight

While the information presented in this thread topic monthly is no doubt, useful.. I still cannot go to the extent of considering them absolute sales within that single month i.e 30 days, they are after all.. factory dispatches to the dealership.

Very true. But unfortunately, we don't have the registration data accessible to analyze the actual monthly sales.

Setting up dealerships/service centers/sales points in every nook and corner of our country is a commendable effort. Also, I doubt dealers will carry excess inventory for a very long duration. Ultimately (my understanding is) the dealer has to buy cars for inventory from the company at a wholesale price and have to pay the amount in an agreed timeframe (in many cases one month). The dealers will be cautious while carrying excess inventory so that they have better working capital.

I feel Maruti is smart enough to bring products that appeal to their customers. They smartly entered other players market with appealing products like Brezza and Ertiga and exited segments that are not worth (Kizashi). While some of the products are decent, the rest are not. But again they manage to bring the product as a complete package at a somewhat reasonable price point. Also, there is a myth that Marutis are cheaper to maintain. But again it a debatable topic.

We have seen GM exiting from our market, while VW, Nissan and a few more on the verge of exiting or scaling down their operations in India. These companies have a better technical, monetary back up compared to Maruti Suzuki. But they are struggling in our market. Same story with Toyota.

I think the real challenge for Maruti would be Kia. Once they start their operation in India, the sales may drop slightly. I have driven some of the Kia products, I feel they are perfect products to compete with Maruti. One of Kia's USP is 7 years unlimited warranty.

While I appreciate the dominance of Maruti in our market, I am equally worried about the reduction of the options for us in coming years.

[sarthakgupta]

Originally Posted by Dr.Naren

Few Points :

... The new launch Yaris is doing just average.

I think Yaris sales are decent considering its a petrol only model with above average price for its segment.

Lets see facelifted Ciaz numbers after August 20 launch since its also coming in a petrol only guise.

[nikhilck]

I'm amazed that 14k people bought the Wagon R. A new model is coming up soon. Goes to show how few people keep in touch with automotive news.

[manojas]

Originally Posted by The Rationalist

Look at what a facelift has done to the fortunes of S-cross! It looks like a premium car and if Suzuki badge wasn’t there, it could easily be passed down as from a premium manufacturer. Hope they equip it with an automatic box though.

It looks really cool in person. A better engine and automatic can make it even more appealing

[turbospooler]

Originally Posted by nikhilck

I'm amazed that 14k people bought the Wagon R. A new model is coming up soon. Goes to show how few people keep in touch with automotive news.

I think it is something to do with Uber/Ola or customers who got a pretty sweet deal as stock clearance discount.
Of course, there will be people who don't keep track of news as well.

[mxh]

Originally Posted by nikhilck

I'm amazed that 14k people bought the Wagon R. A new model is coming up soon. Goes to show how few people keep in touch with automotive news.

Many people in India buy cars without even test driving. My cousin bought an Alto before even learning how to drive. Herd mentality is rampant in India and Maruti benefits from it. It's a sad situation.

[vharihar]

Originally Posted by nikhilck

I'm amazed that 14k people bought the Wagon R. A new model is coming up soon. Goes to show how few people keep in touch with automotive news.

India is by and large a "herd mentality" country. Most people are not aware of things happening in auto sector, and just buy based on seeing what their friends and relatives have bought.

That explains why Maruti has been and will be the top seller for a long time. Sure, their products are good, but not good enough to have such a huuuuge lead over the runner up. The "herd mentality" explains their situation.

[PrideRed]

Originally Posted by vharihar

India is by and large a "herd mentality" country. Most people are not aware of things happening in auto sector, and just buy based on seeing what their friends and relatives have bought.

That explains why Maruti has been and will be the top seller for a long time. Sure, their products are good, but not good enough to have such a huuuuge lead over the runner up. The "herd mentality" explains their situation.

Not entirely. For many, buying a car is not just about the product, but the availability of after sales and service. People living in tier 1/2/3 cities wont have this problem with many manufacturers. However India has quite a large chunk of population living in towns and villages and many these folks would not want to travel 100KM to get car buy/serviced. Availability along with competitive product is something that is helping Maruti.

My apartment complex has about 800 families and I see hit cars from major manufacturers in healthy numbers. First Brezza came to our apartment only a week back, which was a surprise. Back in my hometown, every second car is a Maruti, and Brezza for instance can be found in big number. The reason is pretty clear, people in Bangalore have easy access to A.S.S of all major players while in my hometown, A.S.S is available only for Maruti (Tata/Mahindra to some extent).

[Dr.Abhi]

Originally Posted by PrideRed

Not entirely. For many, buying a car is not just about the product, but the availability of after sales and service. People living in tier 1/2/3 cities wont have this problem with many manufacturers. However India has quite a large chunk of population living in towns and villages and many these folks would not want to travel 100KM to get car buy/serviced. Availability along with competitive product is something that is helping Maruti.

The reason is pretty clear, people in Bangalore have easy access to A.S.S of all major players while in my hometown, A.S.S is available only for Maruti (Tata/Mahindra to some extent).

I dont agree here. Life is nothing but priorities. If one can manage to watch a movie in multiplex once in a 6 months (which are also not there in small towns), he can definately manage once a year visit to car service station.
Imo, only two things work in favour of Maruti. One is better resale value (again because of herd mentality), second is unmatched mileage figures (here again more priority is being given to money over safety). Otherwise in all other aspects at least Hyundai products are better than Maruti ones in their respective segments and Hyundai is present in 85% of locations where Maruti a.s.s is available.
So it is definately because of herd mentality that Maruti is maintaining more than 50% share in Indian car market.