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Old 19th July 2019, 08:09   #1336
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

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Originally Posted by Durango Dude View Post
Looks like the initial Xiaomi sale
Exactly! However, i believe their motivation is more grounded. New cars do garner a lot of bookings in the early days which are cancelled in months to come. For MG, Kia Seltos announcement may have led to a higher than usual cancellation rate and just like any other commodity, they are creating supply crunch to both keep bookings (atleast from fence-sitters) and get realistic production estimates.

Hector is not BS6 compliant, overproducing the car and getting stuck with inventories (especially at dealer ends) could be disastrous to a new company with a fresh distribution system.
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Old 19th July 2019, 08:38   #1337
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

I'm looking to replace my 7 yr old Duster by early next year & have been following both the Hector and the Kia.

As of now, I'm leaning towards the Hector as it's bigger and has more boot space.

Will take a final call once the Official reviews from Team BHP are in along with some user reviews for both.vehicles.

I assume by then the initial rush should be over & both cars available sooner upon booking.
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Old 19th July 2019, 09:56   #1338
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

IMHO this "bookings stopped" news is a major marketing ploy. For one, I don't believe that any Rs 15 - 20 lakh car will be overwhelmed by demand in this sluggish market. Second, MG Motors knows that the one way to boost its image is by screaming "demand has exceeded supply". If there is a guaranteed way to attract Indians, it's by telling them everyone else has beaten them to something. FOMO (fear of missing out) is built into our DNA.

MG still has a bit of a complex about its Chinese ownership. I feel this "sold out" news was always part of the original brand-building strategy.

They've got a big plant at Halol and the Chinese are grand-masters of manufacturing at high volume. There's no way they can't meet any expected demand.

Agreed with Viddy. It's a stupid announcement, considering the Kia Seltos is launching soon.

And if MG is so confident of its demand, the company should start sharing its factory dispatch numbers (missing here (June 2019 : Indian Car Sales Figures & Analysis)).

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Originally Posted by Vid6639 View Post
If this is a marketing ploy by MG, it's not a very good one. The guy who came up with this idea needs a reality check.

With Seltos around the corner only a fool would stop further bookings and let people move to Kia and book Seltos or Harrier.

Last edited by GTO : 19th July 2019 at 10:32.
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Old 19th July 2019, 10:05   #1339
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Originally Posted by GTO View Post
MG still has a bit of a complex about its Chinese ownership. I feel this "sold out" news was always part of the original brand-building strategy.

They've got a big plant at Halol and the Chinese are grand-masters of manufacturing at high volume. There's no way they can't meet any expected demand.

If I remember right, MG said that that they have an annual installed capacity of 84000 vehicles a year. The press release now says that they are producing 2000 a month and will be upped to 3000 per month from October.

Do these companies always ramp up in phases or can they go full steam from month one ?
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Old 19th July 2019, 10:31   #1340
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

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Originally Posted by GTO View Post
I feel this "bookings stopped" news is a major marketing ploy. .
Well, the ads announcing this came out exactly a month after the prices were announced, on prime ad spaces which is tough to reserve at short notice, unless it is a government advertisement. MG should give us numbers - Production capacity is XXXX but booking total is YYYYY

I have yet to see a Hector on the road whereas the Venue was available straight after the price announcement. Once thing that I will credit Hyundai is that the time to market for their cars after announcement is almost lightning speed.
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Old 19th July 2019, 10:33   #1341
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

We have seen lot of cars having issues during launch. Mostly it happened with Maruti and they never stopped taking orders. I am not sure a car company can increase production easily. The complete supply chain needs to cope up with it.

One has to agree that response has been really good for the car. I would give benefit of doubt to MG and not belittle them saying its a marketing ploy. You cant also go overboard and increase the production numbers since it might not sustain later. Only solution would have been to build up a inventory initially.
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Old 19th July 2019, 11:09   #1342
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

It sounds very fishy to announce from top of the house that bookings will now be stopped due to over demand. At the most what can happen is the waiting time will increase, why stop booking?

When Fiat Uno was launched it had record bookings, but no one stops booking!

I'm in market to replace by 10 year old linea (which is still rattle free) and Hector was one which I had shortlisted. But with each passing day, looks like Hector is dropping from my mind.

Could it be that there are some quality issues which MG wants to now fix? Never know.

Will wait for the Team-bhp's review. But sure some alarm bells are already ringing for Hector.
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Old 19th July 2019, 11:12   #1343
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

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Originally Posted by sreejinair View Post
Can you provide any other details, like vehicle number, name of showroom where its parkled, owners details, anything will do
I've asked my colleague to source the details including images
Hopefully once I receive I shall post them here
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Old 19th July 2019, 11:17   #1344
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

Vanity matrix is what we call such stunts!!! Like 2L people visited the site but then you make only 1% of sale .

With the given monthly sales numbers, I wonder where these 20K people came from jumping on a car costing 15-21L. Then we have people who book to make sure they get car from first lot for that novelty factor but after price announcements and TD, cancel the booking.

Lets see how much Hector clocks month on month for some time and the truth will be out. I hope we would get to see the sales numbers in our monthly sales thread.
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Old 19th July 2019, 11:19   #1345
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

Quote:
Originally Posted by ajmat View Post
Well, the ads announcing this came out exactly a month after the prices were announced, on prime ad spaces which is tough to reserve at short notice, unless it is a government advertisement.
Please share pics! I don't read (print) newspapers.

Quote:
MG should give us numbers - Production capacity is XXXX but booking total is YYYYY
From their press release:
Quote:
MG HECTOR sold out for 2019; bookings closed temporarily

New Delhi, 18 July 2019: After receiving an overwhelming response for the HECTOR, MG Motor India today announced that it has taken a decision to halt the bookings temporarily, keeping in mind the company’s commitment to ensure customer satisfaction. MG India plans to cater to the increasing demand by raising the production capacity for the HECTOR gradually over the next few months.

The carmaker has already received more than 21,000 bookings for MG Hector, India’s first internet car, since bookings began on June 4. The date of re-opening of bookings will be announced soon.

“Our first product, MG HECTOR, has received an overwhelming response and we are unable to cater to such high initial demand. We are, therefore, closing bookings temporarily as this will help ensure timely and orderly deliveries for our customers who have shown tremendous confidence in MG. We are also working with our component suppliers to ramp up production in a gradual manner without any compromise on quality,” said Rajeev Chaba, President & MD, MG Motor India.

The company plans to increase production for the Hector at its Halol manufacturing facility to 3,000 units per month by October this year. The top 2 variants – Smart & Sharp – have registered the highest demand, with over 50% reservations for the petrol variants.
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Old 19th July 2019, 11:37   #1346
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

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Originally Posted by Arjun Reddy View Post

Do these companies always ramp up in phases or can they go full steam from month one ?
Start of production on a new line is a bundle of surprises. Though the line has the capacity to produce a lot more cars, unless the complete supply chain is streamlined the company cannot reach maximum production quantities.

Considering MG new in market they might have developed their own local suppliers together with overseas suppliers, each supplier has to be equally prepared with their lines to produce serial parts.
A sudden spike in the demand may disrupt supply chain, creating delays. Complexity of electronics further increases supplier product release duration.
I assume MG still hasn't developed 2 or 3 supplier strategies and are currently relying on single sources and this poses serious risk to the company if there is a ramp up. If even one supplier hasn't delivered the parts on time the production line stops the plants operating budget for the year which is calculated on hourly rate has significant impact.

Of course the more they produce the more they can selling if there are bookings but if logistics and supply chain cannot cope with the current demand then even the future demands might be affected. Therefore new companies mostly go for safe-launch strategies and ramping up production starts over the next months and years.

-UB
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Old 19th July 2019, 11:50   #1347
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

I think they are trying to fix the issues, when I first saw the plastic quality pic someone posted. The thing used to cover the metal and which is around the seatbelt buckle. I went to the showroom to check out what it looks like on one of their showrooms. Surprisingly they had the rear seat removed of one of the TD cars, removed as in it was loose and not screwed on. The entire bench was dangling around. I asked them the reason and one of the guys said they came off and we have to screw them back in. This vehicle didnt even have the plastic cover which was posted earlier the one with lots of scratches.

There are no reviews of the Hector DCT on youtube or anywhere else for that matter. Why is MG not providing the petrol DCT to the reviewers? Its been a while now. I read somewhere that 50 to 70 percent of the bookings were of petrol automatic. Everyone here knows that the lag in the petrol DCT is absolutely pathetic. Do you think they are trying to fix the issues in the car?

Another reason could be that MG was expecting lots of diesel hectors compared to the petrol ones and definately not a lot of petrol automatics, they mass produced more diesels and to their surprise recieved more petrol bookings.
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Old 19th July 2019, 12:39   #1348
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

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Originally Posted by sreejinair View Post
Another reason could be that MG was expecting lots of diesel hectors compared to the petrol ones and definately not a lot of petrol automatics, they mass produced more diesels and to their surprise recieved more petrol bookings.
The reason the Petrol is selling is because its got the automatic. Most of the MG showrooms are now located in cities where an automatic is necessary. If they launch the diesel automatic now in full option spec, I am sure, 80% of the bookings would have been for this variant.
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Old 19th July 2019, 12:43   #1349
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

Quote:
Originally Posted by GTO View Post
Please share pics! I don't read (print) newspapers.



From their press release:
From TOI front page.

MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L-mg.jpg

Last edited by moralfibre : 19th July 2019 at 12:44. Reason: Spacing
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Old 19th July 2019, 12:52   #1350
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

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Originally Posted by chaotic View Post
Exactly! However, i believe their motivation is more grounded. New cars do garner a lot of bookings in the early days which are cancelled in months to come. For MG, Kia Seltos announcement may have led to a higher than usual cancellation rate and just like any other commodity, they are creating supply crunch to both keep bookings (atleast from fence-sitters) and get realistic production estimates.

Hector is not BS6 compliant, overproducing the car and getting stuck with inventories (especially at dealer ends) could be disastrous to a new company with a fresh distribution system.
Personally, I don't get much influenced by these initial booking numbers.

Booking is just a matter of depositing 10 or 20 K with a dealer. We, the general public don't get to know the authenticity of such bookings. It may be done by decoys on behalf of the car company. Can be a ploy to create an initial aura and hype without much investment.

Any sensible person would wait and get some reasonable long term feedback before putting 10+ lac on a Chinese vehicle with no history whatsoever in India.
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