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-   -   The Biggest Blunders in the Indian Automotive Scene (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/202358-biggest-blunders-indian-automotive-scene-5.html)

If i remember correctly, initially VW had claimed that the GTI was sold out as they received 100+ bookings even prior to launch.:D

One of the biggest blunders some car companies have done is failure to react to changing market dynamics.

1. Honda at one point did not have any diesel engine for Indian market when people were buying diesel engine cars by truckloads because of the high price difference between the two fuels. They are finally launching an SUV with a diesel engine in 2018 in India when the price difference between the two fuels is lowest :Frustrati, not to mention stricter emission norms by 2020. Imagine how much money they could have minted if it was done earlier.

2. Similarly, Mahindra failing to get a good petrol engine for their small car project along with some ambitious design of the car meant the combo never took off, they are still in 'trial-and-error' mode. Tata was in a similar situation but has managed to get out of it successfully.

a.) Hyundai's decision to put the rear wiper of i20 only on the Asta (o) variant. The Asta costs some 10.5 lacs on road and drives around half naked without even a rear wiper.

b.) Verito Vibe - Mahindra insisted it is a sedan and it clearly looked like a hatch. Identity crisis did it in.

Please, Verito Vibe was clearly a Sedan it had fixed rear glass and 35 mm of horizontal metal on the boot. :uncontrol

Another blunder that Maruti did along with the ugly Zen classic was the Zen Carbon and Steel edition which did not have rear doors. Also, it was extremely difficult to get in the rear.

Tata's blunder didn't stop at Vista and Manza; in fact it continued over to the Bolt and Zest. These two shared an uncanny resemblance to the Vista (which was linked to the Indica).
In fact I considered the Bolt as a replacement to my A-Star and one fine day while driving on the road a Bolt comes in the opposite side and we wondered if it was a Bolt or an 'Indica' vista.
A decision was taken at the moment.

Not sure whose blunder this is, the Government or the carmakers but ordering 10,000 EVs without a proper charging infrastructure and then crying about its limited range :Frustrati is one the most recent blunders in the Indian auto industry.

Zen carbon & Steel - Blunder? I think not.
It was a masterstroke by MSIL selling the export surplus cars (originally intended for some European country IIRC) which were picked up like hotcakes and now a days command a premium in the used car market.

Bot & Zest were stop gap measures to keep the company in business having models in contention, which allowed breathing space for the engineers to come up with Tiago & Tigor, and finally the Horizonext models.

Well, this thread not only serves as the blunders but also as a guide to any of the enthusiast wanting to do a project in a different manner in the college citing all the fiasco’s done by respective manufacturers:uncontrol

GTO - you can infact share this thread with all the manufacturers so that this will go down their memory slot and get saved to ensure to refer to as a learning lesson for the forgotten times on their side. This thread can help them avoid a similar failure in future as I see a lot of valuable insights.

Since my fellow bhpians have already listed the blunders, I am going to attempt at doing another but from my own experience with Pulsar 220 FI model from 2007 from being discontinued in just 2 years from the launch.

They did retain the overall looks and engine setup except for fuel injection system making way to carburettor. Though, the move was justified back then with technical incompetency from the relevant dealers, Bajaj could’ve still retained or reintroduced the FI system after 2012 when things in tech world started to bloom and most of the service centre’s were equipped with tech to cater to FI systems. 220 Pulsar has come a long way in eating up the competition without even getting a facial makeover. Even though it’s not a blunder, it’s still qualifies to be one because of taking away the ride pleasure FI system gave. Hope Bajaj brings back FI tech to 220.

But Laura itself was never a blunder, was it one?I too had one and people never replaced an 'R' with a 'D' other than a few (very few indeed) instances when my friends used to tease me.


Anyhow, here is one which I well recall:
The Tata safari Petrol!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHslMUxUjh4


Mahindra Nuvosport


'New' Mitsubishi Montero and it costs double too! :uncontrol


Hindustan Motors Veer! :Frustrati We have seen companies running from pillar to post when they see the demise coming, Hindustan motors did this; they actually deserved to get where they actually got to at ther end!

I would say launching the Etios twins were not exactly a blunder. Instead of calling it a blunder, i would say, the outdated looks and the spartan interiors as the negatives.

But in return, it offers 4* safety ratings, spacious interiors with comfortable ride, reliability, low maintenance cost, huge boot space, an abuse friendly built & good performance from the petrol with an economical diesel.

This car is a hit in the cab segment. The popular Verito, Indigo had to move out from the market just because of the Etios. Now the Dzire tour is also a hit in the taxi market though.

At the time of the launch of Etios, the other sedans launched were the Vento, Sunny, Scala, Ford Classic. If we see the sales chart, all these cars now sale less than 1,000 units and the production of few of them has already stopped, but still the Etios manages to sell around 1800-2200 units per month.

After using a petrol Etios for 7 years, i can vouch for it.
At this juncture of time, if i need to buy a car at a budget of 7.5L, i will keep the Etios under consideration once again, though i will prefer the Freestyle diesel more, just for its punchy performance!:D

Regarding the blunders by manufacturers, my take will be -

1) Yamaha stopped the production of Rx100.

2) Fiat took huge number of bookings for the Uno but could not deliver. Even some rogue dealers coned the customers booking amount. That sealed the fate of the car.

3) Bajaj not moving out of the Pulsar tag for a long time, just like TATA sticking to Indica.

4) Zen not equals to Estilo!

5) Renault Kaptur not equals to Renault Captur!

:OT Just thinking, how about a new thread stating the 'smartest moves by car/bike manufacturers'?

Chevrolet were doing well till 2012 with Spark and Beat, then they launched the SAIL twins and completely neglected the Spark. This decision backfired and they never recovered from this disaster.

Not sure about the Carbon and Steel, but that Zen Classic looked like something that should be in the weird and whacky mods thread!

A blunder indeed from the pricing point. But a blunder which I almost ended up bringing home (and wouldn't have regretted it, if I had). I loved the car (in Black) and the CBU was actually a plus-point for me, given the quality that came with it. And I had no issues with the 2.4l engine or the Maruti tag.

Just that I couldn't reconcile with the premium they were charging. And to top it, they weren't giving test-drives. The dealer at Velachery (Popular) had not only parked the lone specimen on the first floor of the showroom, but was hesitant to even let potential customers look around the vehicle in the showroom itself.

I owned the Estate and it was a great car. The only issue I had was the electrical system and no FNG had ever worked on an injection engine. I never found the power to be less. The Sierra was an absolute fun car and I would borrow my neighbors for most Firday night trips to town.

Thanks for bringing old memories back.

Regards
RoS

Some that I can recall:

• Bajaj launching and relaunching bikes every few months. While the company has been doing R&D and coming up with improvements in their products, not holding on to its portfolio doesn't inspire confidence in the mind of the buyer. Ford seems to be inspired by them now.

• Restricting the local sales of Bajaj Wind 125 and focusing on export only. If I am not wrong, that was a good model and had very good demand in local market.

• Extremely slow product development schedule at Tata Motors, during 2000 - 2015.

• Maruti's extreme focus on FE has made their cars feather light.

• Hyundai is slowly but steadily over-pricing their cars while removing certain features with every refresh. Tata is doing the same but getting noticed.