[wilful]

Voted no.
I buy the car which I like within my budget weighing the pros and cons as per my priorities. Brand loyalty does not really feature there.
I’ve owned cars from Hyundai, Maruti, Tata, Honda & Ford (only including the modern set).

[Chethan B G]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

reliability of the product, quality of the service and clean transparent attitude of the dealerships.

My came from a desire to stick to what works.

Extremely important indeed! Exactly my thoughts! But, I can’t equate it to brand loyalty though. 😊

For me, the products come first. I have find it suitable / meaningful / enjoyable! 👍

I have voted NO.

[turbospooler]

I have voted "No" but it is not just because of our purchase history.

My reasoning is as below:
All business are on the Bell Curve (it starts out slow, makes the best bang for the buck and then loses its core ideology; the X-axis can be considered time and the Y-axis be considered as product innovation or performance) and have their ups and downs.
We can see that from Tata or even Honda. Their market share was bad and a slew of new launches (Tiago in Tata and City i-Dtec and so on) rejuvenated the sales figures for them, which loosely translates to a product which customers wanted.

Now, as time progresses, one company will not be able to keep the pace of the innovation and product development as explained by the bell curve (it is the natural order of things!). We also have a thread titled, "Apple & Honda: Once great companies, losing the edge?" Link: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shift...sing-edge.html (Apple & Honda: Once great companies, losing the edge?)

So, by staying brand loyal, one is depriving themselves of the constant shift in the product and innovation of that particular industry.

In a nutshell, no single company can produce the best product always. So keep on changing the product for what it is and not for the brand it is.

[narayan]

Brand Loyal - I have voted Yes. But more than Brand Loyal - I am a bit particular about buying a product from an Indian/Indigenous car maker if a reasonable choice is available. So even if there are some compromises, I don't mind - I will prefer an Indian car maker first.

It didn't start that way. First car was a Esteem, then an OHC and then an i10. But after that, this "loyalty" came in. Have bought 3 Tata cars post that. Not that I didn't consider Mahindra. They never had a large hatch back option. When it came to the Storme, it was clearly way ahead of the Scorpio.

Even now if I was in the car market, I will consider models from Tata and Mahindra first.

And while we are at it, I don't consider Maruti an indigenous car maker.

These are my views and not really something I would debate as to why I feel this way.

[sridhu]

The last 7 cars in India have 1 repeat - the Innova.

I am not brand loyal. I have very clear requirements and buy the vehicle that best matches those requirements at the time I buy.

So it has been
- 1997 Maruti 800: "The Car". Only one I could afford at the time
- 2000 Matiz: second car. Could park where I was renting
- 2003 Honda City: First sedan. Road trips
- 2006 Innova: Family expanded. So people mover. Road trips
- 2014: Duster: SUV with 3 PPL seating in the back
- 2016: Crysta: replacement for Innova
- 2017 Jazz AT: city runabout. Did not want Honda (bad experience with city service) but turned out to suit my needs best

Looking back, I realise that the total experience matters more to me than just the product. Repeated Innova because the service & reliability were good. Sold the Duster at a loss because service screwed up.

Did not buy the polo TSI because of service & therefore possible dsg issues

Hesitated re the honda because they screwed me over in service

So service matters probably more to me

[SJM1214]

Voted No!

However, so far my vehicles are from two particular brands. RE and Honda for two-wheelers. Maruti and Hyundai for four-wheelers. For me, the overall package is very important instead of brand.

[Sheel]

Guys supporting Ford don't look into the bigger picture. What happens if one fine day your ASC or manufacturer refuses to cooperate/provide assistance on your valid/genuine concerns?

Worse, you sell your Ford and will you still be loyal, why is there a need to be so? Car brands will come and go, friends are for life, support for a good, unbiased cause which is going to benefit one and all.

Link (Ford doesn't have an EcoSport for Team-BHP; Can we please borrow yours?)

This is what I wrote just few days ago and my first ever brand new purchased car brand was a Ford, heck, for passwords too [the first car you own] I write down Ford.

I prefer Japanese vehicles, especially as far as Motorcycles go and will stick with that.

SUV's..? Japs yes, but a Mahindra Scorpio or a Tata Safari Storme too is a good compromise or maybe a Jeep Compass Trailhawk as would be a Kia Mohave.

Cars..? Japs as well as Europeans, the ones which have more character.

But overall, I will prefer and be biased to functionality over form, prefer reliability over feel.

[arvind71181]

I thought I would vote no, but thinking back, the cars I have owned are:

1. Maruti Esteem (first car, bought second hand, did not know anything about cars)
2. Maruti Swift (always a soft corner for this car and was a no brainer)
3. Suzuki S-Cross (liked what the car offered, fit my requirements)
4. SX4 (My dad bought it second hand when his i20 was totalled).

So was it due to brand loyalty or lack of choices? I would like to believe it was the latter . I don't think my next car can be a Suzuki anyway as I have reached their pinnacle !!

So is it a Yes or a No? Confused

[rajchetan]

I voted NO, We have 3 Honda, 2 TATA and 1 Maruthi car to date, but post Omni, all cars have been purchased based the best car based on family needs.

But in INDIA most of the people buy cars based on family or relatives inputs and hence induced purchase.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by turbospooler

In a nutshell, no single company can produce the best product always. So keep on changing the product for what it is and not for the brand it is.

Amazing post - thanks!

Originally Posted by CrippledLucifer

Not really, even though I'll say I'm personally biased towards BMWs.

I have to admit that, whenever I'm looking for my next luxury car, I'll give BMW some brownie points because:

- Their engine + gearbox tuning is the best. Very revv-happy, fast & precise. BMW has an edge on Mercedes & Audi in this area (Lexus & Jaguar aren't even close).

- BMW is the most reliable German brand (second only to Lexus among luxury cars).

- A BHPian - Maverick5490 - is a senior guy at a Mumbai dealer. There's just a comfort level that comes with sending your car to a BHPian.

[mbhalara]

My absolute answer will be NO.

However considering the Indian scenario and the quality of after sales varying from manufacturer to manufacturer drastically, the one who owns a car/bike majorly for daily commute, family use etc (I mean not only for his/her passion) are not left with much options.

It may be varying from state to state and city to city, but I feel many manufacturers try to show-off their products as premium (which they actually are not) and charge the service cost accordingly.

This also does not come at least with prompt and fast service. Seems many of such service centers working with almost zero inventory !!!!! A friend's European sedan's power window switch replacement took two days. Another one's software upgrade took more than a week !!!!! Contrary, a friend's cousin's Japanese MPV met with accident. Entire job was done satisfactory and car was returned in less than three days.

[Utsav3010]

If this question was put forward to my father or grandfather, answer would have been a YES! Reason? Both of them learnt driving on a Maruti 800, and their first cars were from MSIL stable, so they sort of have an 'emotional connect' with the Maruti. May sound absurd but that's just about it.

For me, answer has to be No, because for me, the brand loyalty holds negligible value! I learnt driving on a Maruti Suzki Estilo, currently drive an Elite I20 and I surely don't want another Hyundai in the house. Nothing against Hyundai, but I surely want to upgrade to a better car whenever that upgrade itch catches me off-guard, but something that's really worth upgrading to!

[ToyotaFan]

I guess my handle says it all. I have owned lot of cars but to cut it short in the last 20 years they have been Ford Escort, Daewoo matiz, Wagon R, Toyota Innova, A star, Toyota fortuner and Honda jazz. After having bad experiences with after sales with Ford escort and Daewoo matiz I have turned loyal to japanese car brands. Toyota has given me exemplary service in the last 13 years with the Innova (still drives as good as new) and the fortuner for the last 5 years. I have had to buy cars from Maruti and Honda just because there was no car comparable to them by Toyota in the market. The liva was never a contender with those interiors hence had to betray my brand loyalty.

I guess brand loyalty works if the product that is being offered is atleast 90% of the competition. If there is literally no competition (like liva vs jazz in my case) then I feel it the product which matters at the end of the day. That being said am pretty sure my next car would be the new Toyota fortuner that too without giving the endeavour a serious thought.

[rrsteer]

I am not brand loyal. But I hugely value certainty in todays times.
I read somewhere that brand is just a tight distribution of outcomes and that powerful brands can be built on top of mediocre products, if the outcomes promised by the brand are delivered almost always.

I think Toyota fits the above analysis pretty well. Innova in my book is not the best MPV product, but Toyota has been delivering what it promised to me (tight set of outcomes delivered by a ok to good product) for the last 1.75 lakh kms. So will I buy Toyota again? Yes, I would be highly inclined to buy my next car from Toyota. But do I blindly trust Toyota? No. I will do my thorough evaluation of their products. But certainly if I were to buy a car today, I would knock on Toyota's door first and given two equivalent products, I will choose Toyota.

[NTO]

I am surely not brand loyal. I would blame the manufacturers + ASS combo for my behaviour as a customer.

We had a couple of Maruti earlier as, there were not many options earlier with our last cars from the stable being the swift and the ever popular Wagon R. When we were looking for an upgrade from these cars in 2014, there was just the ageing SX4 in Maruti's portfolio which led me straight to the Volkswagen Chennai showroom to get the Vento 1.6 TDi.

Now when there was a need for a second car at home, we got hit by the dieselgate scandal of Volkswagen and followed by the expensive to maintain behaviour of the brand, I was forced to shy away from the brand and had to get the Fiat Punto. Top contender at this time was the GT TDi.

Now there was a requirement for an automatic petrol hatchback and again, the top contender was GT TSi but, because the interiors were strikingly similar to the vento, GT TSi had a unusable rear seat and the expensive to maintain thought, took me towards the Honda Jazz.

Now I have three cars, Vento, Punto and Jazz which would serve me for 3, 4 and 5 years respectively. When I would plan an upgrade, Vento has no logical upgrade in VW's product list with the Jetta missing in India and Passat making a sparingly used entry level german luxury car seemingly a better economic sense.

Fiat in my judgement would shut shop in India from my judgement. Hear me out.... Fiat dispatches 20 to 30 cars in a month in India and the major consumer of it's Engine, the Suzuki portfolio will we plonked with their rumored 1.5 Diesel. So I'll have to look elsewhere when I have to upgrade my Punto.

Honda Jazz is totally non exciting to drive and own. The best it does is taking you from point A to B comfortably. So, again here, I would be going with another brand at the time of upgrade.