[AMG Power]

Suzuki Kizashi










Looks yummy in red doesn't it?

This was a car that would NEVER have failed IF:

(a) Wasn't imported as a CBU hiking the price to unrealistic levels

(b) Suzuki went through with its deal with VW having access to the 1.8 TSI engines

(c) Probably didn't have the Maruti tag

Maruti started off well even having dedicated personnel to attend to Kizashi customers.

The manual was an extremely competent car.

Somehow none of this worked.

[revvharder]

If counted as blunder then how can we forget the latest one by Ford not offering Ecosport to teambhp and Ford kept dilly dallying Mod GTO by not giving any answer to him and the CEO then invited a member and told him there are some issues and he does not want to discuss it publicly.

[DeepakMenon]

Lets not Forget Triumph and its so called 100 BHP Street Triple;

Though the brand has really recovered from there and love the guys at the dealership

[prashanthyr]

I think Tata probably takes the crown for the most blunders. Apart from the Nano, I think they also blundered in not nurturing either the Sierra or Safari model ranges.

Aria - Overpriced, badly positioned dud. I couldn't believe how they essentially killed a competent product on launch
Sierra - they discontinued after just one generation - could have easily resurrected a new version in the last 5 years as a life style vehicle (low volume, high end - could even have contracted out the manufacture)
Safari - They needed to retain the key elements of the shape (the stepped roof comes to mind), but essentially upgrade the vehicle to a new version. They took the easy way out and applied make up.

[kiku007]

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...enefitted.html (10 years of the Small Car rule (<4-metre, <1.2L petrol, <1.5L diesel) : Has India benefitted?)

10 years of the Small Car rule (<4-metre, <1.2L petrol, <1.5L diesel)

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

To sum up:
- The sub-4 metre rule did not reduce congestion on our roads;
- The <1.2L/1.5L engine rule did not improve fuel consumption or fuel import bills;
- Buyers shifted from 2-wheelers to 4-wheelers with rising affordability;
- India-specific small cars were created which do not have any export potential.

[aniyo]

I think Tata made a big mistake for not targeting the bolero market. They had the sumo and could have done better with it.
It was a cash cow for sure if done right

[Mr.Boss]

Few from my side,

1) MS discontinued 1.6L S-Cross (discussed few posts back) A competent package gone missing in the market
2) Fiat, Nissan - Living with (only) 2 models, and they are already close to a decade old
3) TATA - Pathetic A.S.S, and the history continues

[dailydriver]

1. Hindustan Motors failing to capitalize on the prestige and popularity associated with the Contessa.
2. Ashok Leyland debuting the LMV market with Stile
3. Master Builder Maruti destroying the Zen brand with the Estilo and doing almost the same with the Celerio diesel.
4. Maruti's predilection for popularising and benefiting from Kitna deti hai? and Hyundai's disinclination to do the same.
5. The TATA-FIAT marriage.
6. On a lighter note, the hubris of an American origin car maker in denying a test car to an independent forum that is credited with redlining the Indian automotive scene.

[avdhesh15]

Honda changing its strategy from the City being the cheapest car, to now the City being most expensive. That itself diluted the brand. They should have continued like Hyundai with cars from 3 lacs to 30 lacs.

On the quality part, living with the 4th Gen City for almost 5 years, the car seems to be built to last. In my opinion, Honda skimped on the aesthetics but kept the car reliable as ever.

[Geo_Ipe]

Hyundai Getz failing to capture the B Segment Diesel hatchback market before the Swift arrived!

Hyundai had launched the Getz ahead of the Swift, but only with the mediocre 1.3 lit petrol engine. They were already selling the Accent with the 1.5 lit 3 cylinder diesel mill - which was a runaway success at that time! I've never understood why the Getz wasn't launched with that diesel mill ahead of the Swift, which wrote it's own course in history as we all know!

By the time Getz got launched with the Verna's 110 BHP rocket of an engine, the Swift had already captured the market and the 1.3 MJD had earned the National Engine nickname! It was just too late and the Getz died a slow and painful death!

[gupta_chd]

Originally Posted by smartcat

Shall we make this the "Biggest Blunders in Indian Automobile Scene"?

1) Bajaj Auto exiting scooter segment because the segment was shrinking when Rahul Bajaj took the decision. Now scooters account for 30 - 35% of all Indian two wheeler sales.

Not at all. It was Rajiv Bajaj who took the decision to exit from scooters segment. I remember the interview many years back just after the decision was made. Rahul and Rajiv, both were present. Rahul was publicly in disagreement with Rajiv Bajaj over this decision. He even said these young people think they know everything or somethimg similar.

[arjab]

- The launch of the Zen Classic and it's spectacular flop. India does not require a "retro-looking" car when the entire country is - well - quite "retro" in many ways!

- Hindustan Motors not picking up the ISUZU Gemini sedan when it was offered to them by ISUZU in the early 1980's. Things may have been very different if they had.

- Hindustan Motors' failure to capitalise and refine their Trekker. A brilliant concept let down by complete lack of will on the company's part to take the product to its next level of iteration.

- Standard Motors launching the Standard 2000, (nee Rover SD series), powered by the asthmatic Standard Vanguard engine.

- The crafty politicians denying Tata Motors the production licence to build and market the 1984 Honda Accord in India. The luxury sedan market would never had been the same if TML and Honda had joined hands. In fact things were at such an advanced stage that Honda had shared all the drawings of the Accord with TML for them to study and start the process of production planning.

- Mercedes-Benz's insecurity/lack of confidence in itself to make a small "A" - segment hatchback for India in the mid to late 90's. In conjunction with Tata Motors, a massive market survey was done and invaluable insights gained about us, Indian's , attitude towards a "potential" new small car. The German OEM however chickened out at the last moment. TML decided to go solo and the result - you guessed right - was the original Indica.

- Maruti displaying at its road shows across the country in the mid 80's, the Suzuki Carry, the small commercial vehicle with drop-side load body based in the Maruti Van, but never productionising it - because they couldn't package a diesel engine in it ( they didn't have a diesel too!)

- Yamaha launching the RD-350, "Yamdoot", when it was too ahead of its time for India. Let Yamaha do it now and buyers would swamp their showrooms.

- Maruti's stoic reluctance in not packaging the 1.3L Multijet diesel in the Gypsy in a north-south configuration when a glut of aftermarket guys were doing the same. Just check out the number of "diesel-ised" Gypsy's scampering around Delhi's Mayapuri area. The excuse given by MUL was that the engine would have given rise to unacceptable NVH levels. Am sure a bit of clever engineering would've brought it down.

- Ford overpricing and confusingly positioning it's Ford Fusion in India. A brilliant croossver - much ahead of its time !

That's more or less what an old fogie like me remembers! Will pitch in with more if I remember more.

[thehighwayman]

To add a few:

M&M Quanto - What were the designers thinking?

Daewoo Nexia - Did anyone even buy that car?

Chevrolet SRV - Not necessarily a bad car, but priced incorrectly. It could have passed off as a poor man's Subaru Impreza WRX.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by thehighwayman

M&M Quanto - What were the designers thinking?

The Quanto and its later avatar, the Nuvosport, are both spawned by the application of the sub-4m rule, in an attempt to make cheap 7-seater SUVs. After those experiments, Mahindra finally got it right with the altered body-style in the TUV-3OO, although it took some time for them to get the engine and suspension tuned correctly.

Originally Posted by thehighwayman

Daewoo Nexia - Did anyone even buy that car?

The Cielo and later, its verion 2, the Nexia, were great cars, well ahead of their times. Even today, they would have been pretty contemporary cars. They didn't sell in huge numbers, but that wasn't a blunder from Daewoo's side. It's just sad that the company folded.

[BeantownThinker]

Here are a few more blunders:

1. The odd-even rule tested by the Delhi government (Thankfully it did not survive the test phase)
2. Maruti recycling the Zen, Baleno and Vitara brands in completely different segments than the original segment it belonged to.
3. Manufacturers choosing not to provide full safety gear in AT Variants (6 airbags, to name one among others)
4. The pussy-footing attitude of GM with regard to the Indian market first with the Opel line-up and then with the Chevrolet line-up
5. The sub-4 metre rule that has spawned ever increasing ugly looking models and has single handedly contributed to an abnormal spurt of cars on road