[volkman10]

As launches take time to stabilize it is a perfect time now to see the report card of the cars launched in 2017 based on demand-supply situation.

All new generation cars considered skipping the mid-life refresh ones.



Hyundai Verna: This segment is reeling under the onslaught of MPV's and SUV's. Though not as successful as the 2nd generation it is in close fight with Honda City in a segment currently being led by Maruti Suzuki Ciaz.




Tata Nexon: The most promising brand in recent times Tata Motors with the most anticipated launch , when released, and now is a close fight for the 2nd slot in the most competitive and fast growing Compact SUV segment.




Maruti Suzuki Dzire (sub 4m): With Indian aspirations getting higher the DZIRE is now the largest selling car( sales till NOV-18) in India overtaking the humble Alto.
The closest fight is with Honda's Amaze but is a very distant second and DZIRE shows no signs of drop in sales in the Compact segment.



Tata Tigor: Could not repeat the success of Tiago. A product with under powered engine and body styling is not very well accepted by Indian market. It seems Tigor got some numbers from Zest, and later is pushed into fleet segment.

Volkswagen Tiguan : A product that could not repeat its success as seen globally, even Skoda's Kodiaq is doing better numbers that Tiguan in India.



Maruti Suzuki Ignis: Currently the slowest selling product in Maruti Suzuki's portfolio.
Global product , internationally successful, even with the backing of Maruti Suzuki Ignis is a flop considering volumes as churned by Maruti. Overpriced, quirky design and close positioning between Swift (aspirational) and Wagon R (Value for money) has taken toll on its number.



Volkswagen Passat: In a dying segment, Passat with its bland looks loses out to its sibling Skoda Superb.



Skoda Kodiaq:Overpriced perception and under-powered engine (148 bhp) took a toll on Kodiaq’s number.



Honda WR-V: How long can you sell a car with an additional feature as ' Sunroof '? In a competitive segment WR-V figures are expected to further spiral downwards in coming months.



Tata Hexa: The repackaged ARIA seems to be have met mediocre success in a cost challenging segment.
it may not have performed that well but in isolation it has really done the job what it is meant to, compared to its super flop predecessor.



Jeep Compass: A case study in itself. A great product with superb pricing and exciting sales numbers at launch. Then what is the problem ?

Product readiness was questioned with reported niggles and high maintenance cost and below par channel partners (dealerships),availability of diesel AT are the major reason cited by customers for not going for such an appealing product on paper and in metal.




Renault Captur : The mother of all flops is the Captur. Under the skin of a Duster, Renault had launched the Captur with just exterior changes in a PREMIUM pricing for no apparent reason. The result is seen in the below chart.



Nissan is playing the same trick now with Kicks slated for January 2019 launch. If they price it over ambitiously like Captur, then we know the result beforehand, similar to above numbers.

Source:

[GTO]

Nice one - thanks for sharing!

Originally Posted by volkman10

Could not repeat the success of Tiago. A product with under powered engine and body styling is not very well accepted by Indian market.

The compact sedan segment is pretty much about the Dzire, and a little bit about the Amaze.

Volkswagen Tiguan : A product that could not repeat its success as seen globally, even Skoda's Kodiaq is doing better numbers that Tiguan in India.

It's doing an average of 125 units / month which I would say is pretty good for a car as bland and wearing a 30-lakh rupee VW badge.

Skoda Kodiaq:Overpriced perception and under-powered engine (148 bhp) took a toll on Kodiaq’s number.

I would consider this a success. Skoda went for profits by overpricing it, and the Kodiaq still does 150 - 190 / month.

Jeep Compass: A case study in itself. A great product with superb pricing and exciting sales numbers at launch. Then what is the problem ?

Slow man, way too slow. The market loves its Diesel ATs, but Jeep is sleeping behind the wheel. I think they're now going slow on the marketing too.

[gururajrv]

Originally Posted by GTO

Slow man, way too slow. The market loves its Diesel ATs, but Jeep is sleeping behind the wheel. I think they're now going slow on the marketing too.

A little OT, I presume. This statement in bold caught my attention and a little concerned with Harrier which might suffer the same fate as the compass until it comes out with automatic which should come out next year?

@ Volkman - as always, a nice thread indeed.

Out of hits / misses list, should we consider the Ford freestyle? It’s the first CUV, but I don’t think it’s doing decent numbers? Car is promising in fact. I’m curious to know where it stands considering Tata is coming out with their own car shortly under this segment.

PS:
Happy new year guys!

[neoonwheels]

Originally Posted by volkman10

Jeep Compass: A case study in itself. A great product with superb pricing and exciting sales numbers at launch. Then what is the problem ?

Product readiness was questioned with reported niggles and high maintenance cost and below par channel partners (dealerships),availability of diesel AT are the major reason cited by customers for not going for such an appealing product on paper and in metal.

Attachment 1831423

I am in market for a new car and I fail to buy this statement of Compass being VFM. Even when you spend 24L, you get 2 airbags? So much so for being a safe car with 50 active safety features

I liked the way it rides and handles, also the power and GB is quite decent but then the price is something that puts me off. I hope the launch of Harrier and MG SUV would put pressure on FCA to either drop prices or provide more features per variant.

[volkman10]

Originally Posted by neoonwheels

I am in market for a new car and I fail to buy this statement of Compass being VFM--

When launched in 2017 it was the pricing that stood out as the most desirable SUV.

Back then from our review,

The Jeep Compass is on sale in India at a price of between Rs. 14.95 - 20.65 lakhs (ex-Delhi).

What you'll like:

•--
• We think the Compass is well-priced for what it offers. The driving experience & overall package feel premium

[libranof1987]

So many new cars/generations launched in 2017 and yet, barely any are disruptors. The DZire perhaps deserves to be a case study, much like majority of Maruti-Suzuki products; for the sheer dominance in its segment.

While only the Captur can be called a true failure, most of the rest are doing their bit in enhancing the manufacturer's portfolio. The numbers wouldn't signify but Compass (for FCA), WR-V (for Honda), Tigor, Nexon and maybe even Hexa (for Tata) have quite some significance for their manufacturer.

I believe the same report for 2018 might be quite pedestrian given the overall lackluster performance the industry had (not in terms of numbers).

[motorworks]

Originally Posted by neoonwheels

I am in market for a new car and I fail to buy this statement of Compass being VFM. Even when you spend 24L, you get 2 airbags? So much so for being a safe car with 50 active safety features

I liked the way it rides and handles, also the power and GB is quite decent but then the price is something that puts me off. I hope the launch of Harrier and MG SUV would put pressure on FCA to either drop prices or provide more features per variant.

Completely agree. The Compass seems value for money when you look at the prices of the entry level Sport variants , but when you look at the features they are quite barebones. The 19-20 lakh on road Sport variants have no ACC, alloys and misses out on a host of other features. And if im not wrong the sales of these entry level variants are quite very less. And the mid and high variants are all in the Tucson territory, so no VFM card there.

And coming to the mid variants, they are not loaded like the others in the segment, at par with a 24-27 lakh car. One of my friends wanted to buy the mid variant of the Compass, but instead chose the Octavia since it offered way more features and in fact he felt that the Octavia feels much more plush and better built than the compass. So when a person decides to spend 25 lakhs, he feels the need for the car to be loaded to the hilt, which the compass is not.

I feel that the initial spurt in sales must be due to the build up to the product and all folks who bought in to the brand were either People who had a thing for the brand and some
People who genuinely felt that the product was good. Once this layer of customers are exhausted, then the next level of penetration seems to be the most difficult. The next level of penetration has to happen with customers who are moving up from the Honda citys and Cretas and they may not hold a huge love for the Jeep brand per say. To a lot of these folks who upgrade from C+ segments, Jeep is as much a risk as a Skoda or VW. And the sales performance has been declining in spite of Jeep heavily advertising the product in print, radio, digital and every where.

What can change this is another affordable product from Jeep. That will ensure more walk ins to the showroom and thereby familiarity with the brand. Currently its very difficult to survive with just one market relevant car, other imported cars apart.

[neoonwheels]

Originally Posted by motorworks

Completely agree. The Compass seems value for money when you look at the prices of the entry level Sport variants , but when you look at the features they are quite barebones. The 19-20 lakh on road Sport variants have no ACC, alloys and misses out on a host of other features. And if im not wrong the sales of these entry level variants are quite very less. And the mid and high variants are all in the Tucson territory, so no VFM card there.

And coming to the mid variants, they are not loaded like the others in the segment, at par with a 24-27 lakh car. One of my friends wanted to buy the mid variant of the Compass, but instead chose the Octavia since it offered way more features and in fact he felt that the Octavia feels much more plush and better built than the compass. So when a person decides to spend 25 lakhs, he feels the need for the car to be loaded to the hilt, which the compass is not.

I feel that the initial spurt in sales must be due to the build up to the product and all folks who bought in to the brand were either People who had a thing for the brand and some
People who genuinely felt that the product was good. Once this layer of customers are exhausted, then the next level of penetration seems to be the most difficult. The next level of penetration has to happen with customers who are moving up from the Honda citys and Cretas and they may not hold a huge love for the Jeep brand per say. To a lot of these folks who upgrade from C+ segments, Jeep is as much a risk as a Skoda or VW. And the sales performance has been declining in spite of Jeep heavily advertising the product in print, radio, digital and every where.

What can change this is another affordable product from Jeep. That will ensure more walk ins to the showroom and thereby familiarity with the brand. Currently its very difficult to survive with just one market relevant car, other imported cars apart.

When Harrier is launched, Compass sales would dip further. Even MG and Kia are planning SUVs around same price point. With sales almost 50% down YoY, I feel Jeep story is going the same way as Linea and Punto.

Longitude O variant of Jeep does not even get basic art leather seat covers . For 6 airbags, you have to go for Limited 4*4 which is around 25.5L in Pune, you cannot have them even in 4*2 avtaar which is 24L.

[tarik.arora]

Dzire is surely a case study in itself. This car alone defines the sub 4-meter sedan segment. For once we all thought that the new amaze will bring in some respite but Maruti shows no signs of de-growth. When i was in the market to replace my Zest, i did test drive the Dzire but was not convinced to spend 1 million rupees on that. My family though, pressurised me a lot to get that car but i was fortunate enough to reason it with them. Its really hard to convince people that there are much better cars out there in the same price range. But, i must admit that the 3rd generation is way better than the second generation. The second generation was very low on rear leg room for tall people but the latest one gives enough space.

[vigneshkumar31]

We must mention the Alturas G4 here.
Launched at the fag end of the calendar, we haven't had access to even the second month sales data to arrive at any conclusions, but the market response has been largely cold.

On paper at least it makes a solid case for itself .Superb safety kit, specs matching most of its competition and even trumping some of them. A rich feature list with few segment first goodies thrown in. A large car with oodles of road presence that shoppers in the segment crave. But what went wrong?

The pricing was over ambitious ..and though the price tag might have been what it's worth, it was not construed by market as what it deserved.

The traumatic past with the third gen Rexton was so dark that it even overshadowed Mahindras badge engineer move to get the market to trust it better in its 4th generation iteration.
The after service shenanigans and competence of M&M in handling the old Rexton was dark rumour.

The drive train is an acceptable ssangyong engine and a MB gearbox but nothing to write home about.

Also the mighty Toyota fortuner is like the burning sun of the segment any thing that's within its radius of influence better have its heat shields up and be worthy to compete, else burnout is certain. The full size premium SUV segment is a cramped 5 lacs wide bandwidth in a 40 lakh neighbourhood, so anyone who lands up there has to deal with the suns glare.




Could a more aggressive pricing moved the G4? We can only wonder, because Mahindra might not actually be looking for volume from this CKD SUV, else they would have been more serious in their push.

The G4 is merely Mahindras attendance in the big boys private school.

[Mukund]

Originally Posted by vigneshkumar31

We must mention the Alturas G4 here.
Launched at the fag end of the calendar, we haven't had access to even the second month sales data.

This thread is for launches in 2017 and not 2018. You should see this in the 2018 look back thread next year end, if it sinks along with the Yaris which clearly has.

[Durango Dude]

Originally Posted by vigneshkumar31

We must mention the Alturas G4 here.
Launched at the fag end of the calendar, we haven't had access to even the second month sales data to arrive at any conclusions, but the market response has been largely cold.

On paper at least it makes a solid case for itself .Superb safety kit, specs matching most of its competition and even trumping some of them. A rich feature list with few segment first goodies thrown in. A large car with oodles of road presence that shoppers in the segment crave. But what went wrong?

The pricing was over ambitious ..and though the price tag might have been what it's worth, it was not construed by market as what it deserved.

The traumatic past with the third gen Rexton was so dark that it even overshadowed Mahindras badge engineer move to get the market to trust it better in its 4th generation iteration.
The after service shenanigans and competence of M&M in handling the old Rexton was dark rumour.

The drive train is an acceptable ssangyong engine and a MB gearbox but nothing to write home about.

Also the mighty Toyota fortuner is like the burning sun of the segment any thing that's within its radius of influence better have its heat shields up and be worthy to compete, else burnout is certain. The full size premium SUV segment is a cramped 5 lacs wide bandwidth in a 40 lakh neighbourhood, so anyone who lands up there has to deal with the suns glare.Could a more aggressive pricing moved the G4? We can only wonder, because Mahindra might not actually be looking for volume from this CKD SUV, else they would have been more serious in their push.The G4 is merely Mahindras attendance in the big boys private school.

Good analysis! I find the MU-X as having the best of all features: Butch, well featured and enough power from a 3.OL diesel. If only they can get a lot more dealerships and service centers they'd be doing better numbers.

[vigneshkumar31]

Originally Posted by Mukund

This thread is for launches in 2017 and not 2018. You should see this in the 2018 look back thread next year end, if it sinks along with the Yaris which clearly has.

Thanks! My bad I mis-read it as 2018 because of the slew of year gone by data flooding us in all aspects in the media.

@moderators: could you kindly move this to the Alturas thread as it is not suitable here. Apologies for the wrong post.