[fhdowntheline]

I guess this is what happens when Sales and Marketing convince Finance with all sorts of fancy numbers and charts and the Production stays silent in the meeting room. Each group has to show that they are achieving or exceeding targets.

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by armaan_singh

Though what makes matters worse in cases like Tata is the sheer price differential in the different sub variants of the XZ moniker, starts around 10L and goes up to 14L, which is huge for a car of this segment, not that it's very important but nobody wants their neighbour thinking they went for 10L car when they actually spent nearly 1.5 millions rupees.

Well that is partially taken care of now, with car makers doing away with the variant badging altogether from the cars. There is no mention of XE/XM/XZ whatever on the car at all. Gone are the engine name plates too. And that's seen across all car makers now since some months. So now an ignorant neighbour has no way to decide whether the person has acquired a base petrol variant costing 8 lakhs or a top of the line diesel automatic costing 15 lakhs .

P.S. - I really hope to see a day when people buy cars without the intention to impress their neighbours and peers.

[armaan_singh]

Are you sure that's the case with Tata too ? I know Nexa doesnt put the badges, but I do see Nexon's with the XE, XM, XZA badging often enough

Same with MSIL, the arena variants, do have the Lxi, Vxi, and the navy blue logo for AGS as well.

[turbo]

Tiago XE has internally adjustable Outer Rear View Mirror stalk-knob thingy.
Altroz XE does not. The only way to adjust the outer mirror on the Altroz is to roll down the window, put your hand outside, adjust it by manually pushing the glass (and thereby putting fingerprints on the mirror, and dust on your fingertips), and then rolling up the windows. This is grossly unbecoming of a car that calls itself "gold standard".

Also why does a budget smaller tata hatch get this, and their premium offering doesn't? Both being the base XE variants being talked of here.

[bf1983]

Originally Posted by Reinhard

So now an ignorant neighbour has no way to decide whether the person has acquired a base petrol variant costing 8 lakhs or a top of the line diesel automatic costing 15 lakhs .

Hyundai makes it very easy for people to know the top end variant. I once saw an i20 and I was confused which variant it was. It was an older model and had mostly basic stuff. That was till I saw it had a rear wiper. Now that ultra premium feature is only reserved for the top end variants of Hyundai cars.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by turbo

Tiago XE has internally adjustable Outer Rear View Mirror stalk-knob thingy.
Altroz XE does not. The only way to adjust the outer mirror on the Altroz is to roll down the window, put your hand outside, adjust it by manually pushing the glass (and thereby putting fingerprints on the mirror, and dust on your fingertips), and then rolling up the windows....

I'm no feature snob who wants fancy ORVMs (though I absolutely love the 'point kerbside one downwards when reversing' feature on some cars), but who puts 'tilt the actual mirror by hand to adjust' ORVMs on a modern car?

[TrackDay]

Originally Posted by bf1983

Hyundai makes it very easy for people to know the top end variant. I once saw an i20 and I was confused which variant it was. It was an older model and had mostly basic stuff. That was till I saw it had a rear wiper. Now that ultra premium feature is only reserved for the top end variants of Hyundai cars.

I have felt this too. Many a times the rear wash/wipe only comes on the top variant. And that is not something that is easy to install on the lower variants. Even on the Seltos/Sonet automatic options one has to go for the higher variants just for this.

[pk1972]

When I bought my Creta in 2015, I wanted the top variant with all bells & whistle, safety features and automatic. Hyundai launched the automatic in lower variant and not on the top SX(O) variant (to keep costs down). Eventually I had to pick safety over comfort (automatic) and lived with an manual variant for 5 years

[Shiftlock]

Originally Posted by pk1972

When I bought my Creta in 2015, I wanted the top variant with all bells & whistle, safety features and automatic. Hyundai launched the automatic in lower variant and not on the top SX(O) variant (to keep costs down). Eventually I had to pick safety over comfort (automatic) and lived with an manual variant for 5 years

They've done the same thing this time with the Venue. The top end automatic comes with a Sun roof and a DCT gearbox but no rear wipers and only 2 airbags.

[vivekgk]

One thing that I have found frustrating is that the automatic option is reserved for the top two variants in every make and model. Maruti used to offer an LXi AGS variant of the celerio, and it was in huge demand. They abruptly stopped that variant for no reason. Now you have to spend 6 lacs plus for even the cheapest new automatic car, and that's either an Spresso or a RediGo depending on your region.

I'd rather have a bare basic WagonR, Santro or Tiago with AMT as a second car rather than a fully loaded Spresso any day. Even in the higher segments, I wish there was an option for Automatic transmission with just the essential stuff.

[RavSam]

Originally Posted by vivekgk

Maruti used to offer an LXi AGS variant of the celerio, and it was in huge demand. They abruptly stopped that variant for no reason.

Well there were few reasons for them to stop that.
1. The Celerio was the first car with AMT
2. Since it had to grab attention, the LXi AMT was there for getting the lowest price point possible for an "all new" technology
3. Once they had the demand, they realised more profitable is the VXi one and even more is the ZXi one. Hence they discontinued it and introduced the ZXi and then ZXi plus later on.
4. The Alto K10 had the AMT which I think covered the price point of the base Celerio LXi AMT.

Remember that the base variants are least profitable. It's just there to show the low entry price point. Once the customer wanting an AMT sees that price he enters the showroom which is their prime intention. Hence, putting an AMT in the base variants doesn't make sense for them.

[PetrolheadRup]

When we bought our i20 Sportz trim in 2012, another family was taking delivery of an i10 Sportz, and I saw that the cheaper i10 had a rear wiper but our car didn't. Needless to say, I was very upset about this glaring omission.

Another not-so-logical feature distribution was that Sportz/Asta diesel got disc brakes on all 4 wheels, but the 1.2L petrol didn't. This is still forgivable because of the large price difference between the two variants.

Things are just going downhill, a basic feature like spring-loaded grab handles
can be had only on the 14lakh asta(o) in the new i20 . The only silver lining is that now automatic transmission is available in more variants.