[talkingpebbles]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

Simple - Kerala has a history of taking up new stuff faster, whether these are FMCG Goods, Consumer Durables or Vehicles. Which is why you see a lot of product launches or 'feeler clinics' (whatever they are called) in this tiny state. Ask Ford, Hyundai or Skoda. The only cars that dont do quite so well in the state as they do outside are the Hondas - Kerala is more of a Toyota country, probably because of the large 'Gulf' influence.

I am not sure if they take up new stuff real fast! I see the note about seeing a lot of verna's on kerala road. I travelled down south almost the whole length of kerala including Cochin and I hardly saw a max of 5-6 vernas on the road versus around 40-50 fiesta's on the road. May be as someone said, January might churn out the Verna's more out on to the roads. But from what i saw, i think people are a lot more comfortable with Fiesta as of now in Kerala.

[vivekkr_99]

Even I saw 4-5 Vernas on my trip from Trivandrum to Bangalore, in the second week of December. I saw around 8-10 Fiestas also on the way. talingpebbles, it is really amazing if you found 50 fiestas on your trip through kerala roads in a single day...

[Surprise]

Originally Posted by rohitbagai

Also got 23,000 discount from dealer (10,000 cash discount + 50% ins. i.e. 13,000). Also I got the car financed through ICICI and got it before the interest rate hike of .5. ..And I knew that introductory price may end soon..so saved 10000 there too.
Thanks
Rohit

Is that 10k loyalty bonus or exchange bonus? If it is, that discount would have been there even in Jan'07. Also I hope the finance deal too would be there (50% off on Insurance value).

Only hike would be the price revision. My preference would be to go in for 2007 model paying that extra 10k.

More importantly wanted to have a wider network of buyers later (i.e dont want to get rejected by buyers with criteria "2007 & above models only" )& to a small extent of resale value

[MalluDude]

Originally Posted by Rodeo

Kerala is a Diesel market and thats why no hondas and more of Ford, Hyundais and skodas...

Spot on.

And let's not forget that Fiesta's been here for much longer.

[rohitbagai]

Originally Posted by Surprise

Is that 10k loyalty bonus or exchange bonus? If it is, that discount would have been there even in Jan'07. Also I hope the finance deal too would be there (50% off on Insurance value).

Yea there will be a bit price difference when and if I sell. But the discounts I got were nothing to do with financer. I got it from dealer. The 10000 cash discount has nothing to do with exchange bonus as I sold my car to someone I know directly. So it was the year end discounts that I got from dealer. Also to party 31st on my new car was also exciting!!

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by vivekkr_99

The ex-showroom price of Fiesta 1.4 TDCI ZXI is 7.63 lakhs (Mumbai) and that of Verna 1.5 CRDI is 7.71 lakhs (Prices before revision)
The Fiesta comes with speakers and HU compared to Verna. Suppose you need an average ICE setup, it will cost around 15-20K (at least for me). So, the total difference (with ICE setup in Verna) comes to around 25K between similarly positioned models of Fiesta and Verna. But, Verna has got a superior engine with more power and capacity compared to Fiesta.

Now the question is, whether 25K is such a HUGE difference when
a) you compare the engines of Fiesta and Verna?????????
b) you compare the spare parts costs?
c) you compare the maintenance and service costs?
d) you compare the A.S.S of Hyundai and Ford?

Sorry, I didn't make it clear in my post. I was comparing petrol Verna-i and diesel Verna - same specs and only difference is the engine. Ref: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/299551-post130.html

Diesel Verna (with VGT) costs 1.3L more than petrol Verna (with VTVT engine). A propective buyer would look into this aspect and considers whether a diesel engine would cost that much more than a petrol engine.

[jeetu4444]

well guys if yourl know verna sold more than fiesta last month.........so its doing very well and i quess demand is more and supply less = waiting period..........

[typeOnegative]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

And a 10,000/- rupees hike, hardly warrants a reaction.

Very true. But what will happen when the JTD comes out? Not just on the Fiats but on the Swift and maybe the Baleno (that will be awesome no)? I dont think that the Verna is a flop, but the position on incremental sales will have to be judged once the delivery backlog begins clearing.


And regarding Kerala - along with Gujarat it is one of the regions where manufacturers plan their test markets. Early adopters, Gujjus and Mallus.

[adarsh76]

The reaction of Senior Team Leader of Popular Hyundai (Cochin) on news from Business Standard that Verna was a flop was "Hyundai might not have given them their quota (money)".

Well don't know if its true but no other news agencies have given a report like that. Dealerships are saying that they've no cars to deliver to customers because of low production. They have huge waiting lists.

[iraghava]

Originally Posted by adarsh76

They have huge waiting lists.

That is true even for Delhi, not sure about the reasons but mostly attributed to low production.

[vivekkr_99]

Originally Posted by msdivy

Sorry, I didn't make it clear in my post. I was comparing petrol Verna-i and diesel Verna - same specs and only difference is the engine.

Yes, but for some reason that is the trend followed not only by Hyundai, but other manufacturers also.. pricing the diesel variant well above the petrol counterpart. In the case of Ford Fiesta, here is the difference in price (ex-showroom, Mumbai) between the respective petrol and diesel models
1.4 EXi and 1.4 EXi TDCi - 1.16 Lakhs
1.6 ZXi and 1.4 ZXi TDCi - 90,000/-
1.6 SXi and 1.4 SXi TDCi - 90,000/-
Here also, the difference is around 1.16 lakhs in case of same engine capacity. Even between the 1.6 Petrol and 1.4 Diesel, the difference is close to a lakh.

Originally Posted by msdivy

Diesel Verna (with VGT) costs 1.3L more than petrol Verna (with VTVT engine). A propective buyer would look into this aspect and considers whether a diesel engine would cost that much more than a petrol engine.

You are absolutely right. I really dont know whether it is indeed necessary to price the diesel that much above the petrol. May be it is because of the concept that diesel cars are run as taxis and hence recover the difference easily.

[ravibhat]

Verna has won car of the year 2007 by Overdrive, It deserve for its class, I liked its Petrol variant's pricing and over all its good car in its segment.

Hyundai Motor India

I wish Verna CRDi priced bit less than what it is now. or at least If they offer top end Verna CRDi it would greately help Diesel lovers since its great Diesel car.

Ravi.

[adarsh76]

I guess the following story will put light on the issue.

Source: Hyundai India can't meet demands! : HindustanTimes.com

It is a problem car companies in Detroit would love to have these days: not enough cars to meet soaring demand.


But that is exactly what is happening with Hyundai Motor India Ltd. Insufficient capacity is crimping the carmaker's ability to meet domestic demand as well as serve export markets from its Chennai plant. As a result, the car giant has to revise downward its India sales growth expectations this year to a five-year-low: down 5 percentage points compared with 18.5 per cent last year.


The Indian unit of the Korean carmaker is running at a full capacity of three lakh vehicles at its Chennai plant that makes cars for both the home and export markets. Hyundai is working on adding a second manufacturing facility in the same city that will double capacity. The only catch: the second factory will only be operational 11 months from now, in November.


"On hindsight, we have miscalculated" the demand and capacity match for the cars, said Arvind Saxena, vice president for marketing and sales at Hyundai.


Hyundai, which makes the popular Santro model in India, sells 1.86 lakh cars a year making it the No 2 seller in India. The rest of its production out of India is currently exported.


Market leader Maruti sells half of the passengers cars bought in India's 10 lakh-a-year market. This market is forecast to grow at 15 per cent to 18 per cent in 2007 with vehicle demand hitting two million units by 2010, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.


In a market where 2,740 cars are bought every day, the capacity bottleneck may hurt Hyundai's market share, analysts say.


"Domestic sales (for Hyundai) might get hit unless they have flexibility on export orders," said Ashutosh Goel, auto sector analyst for broking firm Edelweiss Securities.


But Hyundai uses its Indian factory to make all the Santros it sells worldwide. The company is also India's largest exporter of cars, even though the Chennai unit makes only 11.2% of the 2.6 million cars it makes globally. And Hyundai says it already has an export order backlog from Chennai of 18,000 vehicles.


So, Hyundai employees are putting extra effort to get more cars out of its existing factory.



Many Hyundai employees in India are sporting badges that say CC34, for Challenge and Change 34. The internal target: produce 3.4 lakh cars a year from a factory that is built, under normal production conditions, to produce three lakh vehicles. "We will do our best to make sure we won't lose market share" said Saxena.


While India is a strategic market for Hyundai, any decline in growth rates is likely to have a small impact on the parent company, Hyundai Motor Co. That's because India is a small part of overall sales of Hyundai globally, notes Sanjeev Rana, an analyst with Merrill Lynch in Seoul. He currently has a neutral recommendation on Seoul-based Hyundai Motor Co.

[Equus]

Hmm... Why are they giving discount on the Verna? rohitbagai got "10,000 cash discount + 50% ins. i.e. 13,000"..

I, for one will never trust what HMIL says, although I like their products.

PS: I am a fairly satisfied Hyundai customer for almost 6 yrs now.

[supremeBaleno]

Anyway, the article still does not mention anything about Verna supply not meeting demand. It talks in general and the emphasis seems to be on their best seller Santro.

I don't really get Hyundai's strategy w.r.t the Verna.
1. For a car that is supposed to be an upgraded version of the Accent, the price difference with the Accent was measly.
2. Any new product is usually priced at a premium and when sales grow, they decrease the price a bit to attract more buyers. Here they launch it at supposedly low intro-prices and then hike the prices. And all this, while there are rumours of it not making a big impact in the market.
3. They seem to be playing it carefully by not stopping the Accent. Sort of like cautious thinking that what if verna does not make the bar. Then we will be left with neither this or that.