[prakash_ajp]

After breaking my head over this for days, I finally have a theory on why Tata is doing this. Perhaps they went through the discussion on The most useless features in cars on our forum and took it a bit too seriously?

[amit_mechengg]

This is totally disgusting. Someone in the marketing department is surely smoking weed.
Are you serious, you take out illumination on the door/window switches? Having worked with oems and ancillaries I know the price on these, or cost to the company is surely not more than 10rs.
Now when you start doing these cheap tricks customer who bought the car for its value for money proposition discovers these exclusions sooner or the later and starts feeling ripped off.
Sorry TATA, please for gods sake, these are not the values of the organization. I hope someone at tata motors reads this and slaps the marketing department with code of conduct.

[Mad Max]

Meanwhile Captain MBA at the Department Exec review presentation

"From our switches department, after having done a deep-dive six month engagement with an international consulting firm, we have saved 90% cost due to the re-design recommendaton.. "

"How much did you save?"

"47,500 Rs"

"How much did the consulting firm charge?"

"600,000 USD"

"Congrats! wow! we should do more of this"

[jayded]

This is a very unfortunate coming from Tata. For sure, this is a result of people less passionate about automobiles and less customer-centric running the show. And the entire scenario is contradicting with the launch of JTP series from the same stable. The "Customer feedback" mentioned is a total eyewash and defies logic. It's not as if they removed the features to make the pricing more competitive, but just to increase their margin. This is something a Maruti or Toyota can afford to do, though unwelcomed, but certainly not Tata who is just rising up from it's ashes and still have a long way to go before taking such questionable steps.

[GTO]

Well, Tata strikes again. We are extremely disappointed with this cheap cost-cutting by the company.

Now, the Hexa - a car many BHPians like & own - loses small bits here & there. Just makes us wonder how many rupees has Tata saved by cheaply cutting such features. 500 - 1000 bucks on their flagship car which has variants costing over 20 lakhs on the road? I don't think Tata understands the definition of a 'premium product'. Here's a list of features just deleted:

- Dual tail-pipe converted to single tail-pipe in the XE, XM, XMA, XM+ and XT variants.

- Chrome deletion from the drive control switch - Lower Ring in the XM & XM+ (Rs 75, we're guessing!!!).

- Deleting the side a/c grill bezel, door trim strip & glovebox strip in piano black IMD.

[ksameer1234]

Wise customers wait for a year or two before buying cars so that the initial niggles are sorted out. Well this doesn't apply to Tata Motors. Anyone interested in Tata cars should buy from the very first batch. One can't be sure of what features will remain 1-2 years down the line.

[rovingeye]

Jeee, that's ridiculous!! Are they desperately deleting anything that might remotely make the Hexa a bit "premium", so that the Harrier can stand out in comparison?

I think its time we deleted the Hexa from our list too.

[hiren.mistry]

Jeez, talk about being penny wise and pound foolish. Would really like to understand the rationale behind this penny pinching. Yes, JLR's sales woes are not helping but cutting such features that cost insignificant amounts (compared to the price of the vehicle) simply defies logic.
Features such as lit power window switches as mentioned a few posts up cost next to nothing but it's provides so much convenience to the customer, brightens up the cabin and enhances the ambiance.
Tata's reasoning might be that since these are not provided by competitor vehicles, so why bother... I hope common sense prevails and there are no further feature deletions.

[rovingeye]

But the competition offers much more - cornering lights, puddle lamps, keyless entry, push button start stop, AWD + AT, hill descent control, etc. etc.

Besides, Tata is providing all of the above (except for AWD, AT) and more in the Harrier, which they are apparently pricing below the Hexa. I just hope they don't start deleting these from the Harrier 3 months after launch!!

[amit_mechengg]

Originally Posted by GTO

Well, Tata strikes again. We are extremely disappointed with this cheap cost-cutting by the company.

Now, the Hexa - a car many BHPians like & own - loses small bits here & there. Just makes us wonder how many rupees has Tata saved by cheaply cutting such features. 500 - 1000 bucks on their flagship car which has variants costing over 20 lakhs on the road? I don't think Tata understands the definition of a 'premium product'. Here's a list of features just deleted:

- Dual tail-pipe converted to single tail-pipe in the XE, XM, XMA, XM+ and XT variants.

- Chrome deletion from the drive control switch - Lower Ring in the XM & XM+ (Rs 75, we're guessing!!!).

- Deleting the side a/c grill bezel, door trim strip & glovebox strip in piano black IMD.

Its so frustrating to see this happening. Some sick minds in marketing are taking this stupid decisions. Infact tata should start adding more parts in same price to add value and wow factor to boost dropping sales.

I do manufacture parts for OEM and believe me these parts costs peanuts to the company. For example a part that these manufacturers buy from me at Rs.680 are sold for Rs.3800 in the box.

Chrome - Rs.7 to Rs.8 max. Tail pipes - Rs.300 max

[Motard_Blr]

Originally Posted by amit_mechengg

...

I do manufacture parts for OEM and believe me these parts costs peanuts to the company. For example a part that these manufacturers buy from me at Rs.680 are sold for Rs.3800 in the box.

Chrome - Rs.7 to Rs.8 max. Tail pipes - Rs.300 max

Internal mindset: We sell 1 lakh Tiagos per year. So if I remove 100 rupees worth parts or features then I save 1 crore! Yippee!

Customer reaction: I'm paying 7 lakhs for this car and you are deleting such cheap features?! Why are you such cheap idiots? Don't you know how much we like that feature?

I would like to see what's in the boot when I open it in the dark.
I would like to see the window switches in the dark.
I would like the engine to be quieter inside the cabin.
I would like the hat rack to lift up when I open the hatch and stay up while it is open.
If my car costs 20 lakhs, I want it to look like that if not like a 30 lakh car!

Clearly, the voice of the customer isn't being heard or it is being deliberately ignored. With so much competition, this is the time to improve their cars, not make them worse!

[HappyRoadie]

At a time when all car manufactures are giving additional features in their vehicles for eg Toyota recently added many features in Fortuner and Innova Crysta GX variant, here Tata is deleting features from their cars. This won't do them any good. Infact it will lead to lower sales and customer drifting away to other vehicles in this segment. I sincerely hope Tata realise their mistake.

[lazybird]

This is disappointing, what are they up to?. It is not that they are selling these in huge numbers and will make a difference to their balance sheet.

As many pointed, if anything, they should be adding features to their lower end variants so it makes sense for people to make quicker buying decision.

[Asish_VK]

Whats up with TATA ? Are they finally going to delete the whole car ? parts by part in few years ?

I guess this is TATA's procedure of phasing out a car

[prakash_ajp]

Originally Posted by GTO

Well, Tata strikes again. We are extremely disappointed with this cheap cost-cutting by the company.

GTO, is it possible to get in touch with the Tata folks responsible for this stunt and get some response to this? I am not saying it's our responsibility, but just curious about their side of the story.