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Old 19th July 2019, 13:22   #1351
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

Quote:
Originally Posted by tarik.arora View Post
Add to this, MG has said that they will not share Wholesales numbers with SIAM.

They will reveal the numbers whenever they feel like. So, we might never come to know the actual scenario.
In that case one is then free to Quote Any Number... after all who will be there to verify it?
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Old 19th July 2019, 13:27   #1352
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

Quote:
Originally Posted by arungeorge View Post
From TOI front page.

Attachment 1896174
(From the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing - Al Ries, Jack Trout)

Law No. 20: The Law Of Hype
  • The situation is often the opposite of the way it appears in the press.
  • When things are going well, a company doesn’t need the hype. When you need the hype, it usually means you’re in trouble.
  • Real revolutions in the industry don’t arrive at high noon with marching bands. They arrive unannounced in the middle of the night and sneak up on you.

BTW the FRONT PAGE of TOI certainly won't come Cheap.

Last edited by payeng : 19th July 2019 at 13:49.
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Old 19th July 2019, 13:45   #1353
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

Quote:
Originally Posted by arungeorge View Post
From TOI front page.
Aha, two things that stand out.

1. Bookings were still open at the time of placing the ad. Stimulating a "last day" rush?

2. No mention of when they will re-open. Now, MG knows how many bookings it has and how many cars it can produce. The company could easily say that bookings will re-open in 3 months (example). But it has reserved that privilege for itself.

Quote:
Originally Posted by B103 View Post
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.
Tata claimed the Harrier had 10000 bookings (link). The falling factory dispatch numbers tell an entirely different story.
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Old 19th July 2019, 14:09   #1354
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

MG seems to be following the other Chinese brands like Xiaomi & Oneplus. Create a lot of buzz and hype around the sales numbers (booking in this case), do flash sales, make people believe that its the best bang for the buck and increase market penetration.

Hope they realize cars are not sold like mobile phones
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Old 19th July 2019, 14:22   #1355
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

Quote:
Originally Posted by chaotic View Post
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.
. I think this might be the reason for closing the booking.
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Old 19th July 2019, 14:46   #1356
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

Having booked 1 top end Petrol Auto which has a waiting of 5 months, it is clear to me that the deliveries until December seem booked. Does this mean, they are closing bookings for the year 2019?

Maybe expect another grand announcement that "Booking commences for 2020" soon enough

I saw 1 MG hector white in Navi Mumbai so deliveries have started here.
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Old 19th July 2019, 15:11   #1357
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

Quote:
Originally Posted by volkman10 View Post
Hector bookings stalled temporarily. Bookings cross 20,000+ in 45 days since opening. Petrol variant in demand.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gururajrv View Post
I just comprehend the fact Hector bookings have skyrocketed and it’s closed for 2019.
Quote:
Originally Posted by payeng View Post
Issue I have with the "Bookings" is that is there any 3rd party who validates/audits these "Bookings"? Where is the proof?
Quote:
Originally Posted by GearHeadGarage View Post
On the contrary, if it is indeed a bloated number what could MG potentially gain by closing the bookings?
Quote:
Originally Posted by sandhyab View Post
Not sure about their thinking and I do not have many examples, but in 2013 even Ford closed bookings for ecosports since the wait period went to 8 months
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pulse500 View Post
Many prospects make provisional 'pre-booking' before TD or announcement of prices. I am sure there will be a many cancellations of Hector when Seltos is launched, and when real user feedback for Hector is available (FE, Niggles/reliability, service center experience etc)
Quote:
Originally Posted by FIAT3031 View Post
I feel this is just another marketing gimmick...
So why exactly did MG (just a day after Seltos Booking numbers) decide to stock out their models for 2019 ?? Well not too tough to guess, just to prevent customers from deviating to Kia Seltos... so MG pulls the rabbit out of the hat and declares booking closure..& they get the much desired numbers in July .. I feel, MG had planned this strategy when Kia announced their launch / showcasing right after MG events
Quote:
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.
Quote:
Originally Posted by srishiva View Post
Why are questions raised on number of bookings ? Wouldn't we ultimately know based on sales numbers and production capacity how many were booked since they are saying 2019 capacity is done with?
Quote:
Originally Posted by surjaonwheelz View Post
I have very simple question: What would the newly launched MG Showrooms be doing? Giving Test Drives, showcasing the vehicles and say, "Sorry, we're sold out for 2019, please come next year!"
Quote:
Originally Posted by tarik.arora View Post
Add to this, MG has said that they will not share Wholesales numbers with SIAM.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aditya_Bhp View Post
Its nothing but a marketing ploy! They don't even have the capacity to produce more than 2000 cars a month now! May be they used up all the money on ads instead of improving the capacity. This is just poor planning.
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. I have yet to see a Hector on the road whereas the Venue was available straight after the price announcement.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GTO View Post
Aha, two things that stand out.
1. Bookings were still open at the time of placing the ad. Stimulating a "last day" rush?
2. No mention of when they will re-open. Now, MG knows how many bookings it has and how many cars it can produce. The company could easily say that bookings will re-open in 3 months (example). But it has reserved that privilege for itself.
As many have mentioned, to me this seems more like marketing gimmick.

Saw full cover page ad on today's newspaper (TOI) that bookings are open till today midnight. How many times have we heard of advertisements for stopping bookings, that too giving one more day (last chance in near future) for booking. Trying to pull in more numbers via artificially crated last minute rush ??

Basically indication to fence sitters, who might be waiting for Kia Seltos pricing or undecided between Hector, Harrier or Seltos or may be even aged Creta.

From Livemint : Link
Quote:
MG Motor’s manufacturing plant in Halol, Gujarat, has an annual capacity of 84,000 units, but it has been slowly scaling up production, and expects to roll out 3,000 units per month by October.
Ramping up current production of only 2,000/month to only 3,000 / month ?? Doesn't that show lack of MG's confidence in it's own product, planning only 2~3k per month at launch.

Quote:
It is looking to increase its dealer network to 250 by September.
so 21,000 bookings, at current rate of production it's 8 month volume.

21000/8/250 = 10.5

so MG is planning with around only 11 car sales per month per dealer. I wonder how much margin dealer is making per car. Did they really sign up for this.

If someone has close contact with any MG dealer, it may bring out the projected numbers and margin on which the dealers signed up.

Sorry for this rant, but story just doesn't add up.

Last edited by moralfibre : 19th July 2019 at 15:45. Reason: Fixing quote tag.
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Old 19th July 2019, 15:20   #1358
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

Quote:
Originally Posted by AutoNoob View Post
Ramping up current production of only 2,000/month to only 3,000 / month ?? Doesn't that show lack of MG's confidence in it's own product, planning only 2~3k per month at launch.
Those numbers are pretty much at par, and above for the segment. TATA Harrier, for example, has about 1.5k units on an average, and touched a peak of only 2492 units till date.

Once the initial rush is over, Hector will also settle down into this territory. No use ramping up production to huge numbers based on just the initial demand.

Last edited by CrAzY dRiVeR : 19th July 2019 at 16:24.
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Old 19th July 2019, 15:35   #1359
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

Quote:
Originally Posted by chaotic View Post
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.
And I guess most of their service centers are not equipped or ready yet, spares/materials not stocked, insufficient trained staff, ill equipped to troubleshoot or handle most customer queries especially on the automation/internet connectivity. Systems are not fully tested / ready for commercial operations yet.

Till last week nobody had answers about service intervals. I received a message finally this week stating service interval for Petrol variants as 10,000 Km and Diesel 15,000 Km.

I also overheard the 5 year warranty on vehicle excludes electronics and touch screen. Still waiting for official confirmation about what is excluded.

The Fiat sourced Diesel engine seems proven reliable, so most of my worries would be about electricals, automation + ICE electronics, suspension and the hard clutch.

No manufacturer would like to take huge risks with too many vehicles facing initial niggles with inadequate bandwidth or expertise to resolve those or handle customers at service centers.
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Old 19th July 2019, 17:54   #1360
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

I have seen around 8 hectors so far, this is the 5th one which had extreme uneven panel gaps. Note for those who are going to comment on this, the keyword here is Uneven

Look at the video, the gap on the right side of the car is acceptable, the gap on the left is not. Thats the unevenness which I dont like, looks like the QC in MG is really crap.



Please note the above video is unlisted and can only be viewed if you have the link
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Old 19th July 2019, 18:18   #1361
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

Quote:
Originally Posted by sreejinair View Post
I have seen around 8 hectors so far, this is the 5th one which had extreme uneven panel gaps. Note for those who are going to comment on this, the keyword here is Uneven

Look at the video, the gap on the right side of the car is acceptable, the gap on the left is not. Thats the unevenness which I dont like, looks like the QC in MG is really crap.

Please note the above video is unlisted and can only be viewed if you have the link

I saw this exact same panel gap difference in the right and left bonnet lines in the black show piece car inside MG showroom in Ghaziabad , and i thought it was a one off ! For that matter, the stitches on the seat fabric were loose. e.g. on the arm rest they stretched really far on putting arm/elbow pressure (deleted the pics of this from my phone).


Secondly if they were overbooked , why give one more day (till midnight) to get more bookings ? Have been personally put off by all this.Waiting for the the Seltos TD

Last edited by moralfibre : 19th July 2019 at 18:26. Reason: Removing embedded video from quoted post.
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Old 19th July 2019, 18:26   #1362
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

Quote:
Originally Posted by drasitkhanna View Post
I saw this exact same panel gap difference in the right and left bonnet lines in the black show piece car inside MG showroom in Ghaziabad , and i thought it was a one off ! For that matter, the stitches on the seat fabric were loose. e.g. on the arm rest they stretched really far on putting arm/elbow pressure (deleted the pics of this from my phone).
I also noticed the stitching issue on the rear seats near the seatbelts. I've booked the Hector and the Seltos, waiting for Seltos TD. I'm sure the quality of the Seltos will be much better.
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Old 19th July 2019, 19:43   #1363
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

Quote:
Originally Posted by GTO View Post

1. Bookings were still open at the time of placing the ad. Stimulating a "last day" rush?
This is exactly what I thought when I saw the ad. I expected a near stampede like situation . It will be interesting to find out how the scene turned out in the dealerships. May be they will 'extend the deadline due to popular demand'?
This is almost similar to the 'flash sale' by Xiomi or OnePlus and it is bound to create some impatience in the mind of the potential customers. Many of them who were sitting on the fence before, may have taken 'positive' action today!
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Old 19th July 2019, 19:52   #1364
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

Remember XUV500 story anyone?
XUV500 when launched was overbooked as per the company. They stopped bookings soon but restarted again within few months.
As far as I remember, the owners of the first batch had to face niggles and most were planning to sell off immediately.
The second owners might be the one who were on the waiting list or couldn't book the XUV on time. These buyers were desperate enough to own the vehicle even if used and cancelled there bookings.
Suddenly Mahindra found that the bookings were getting cancelled and had to reopen it as soon as possible.

If MG is honestly revealing the truth about over booking and if the first batch is full of niggles, then there might be many used Hectors available immediately within days of its launch with all this hype will fading away.
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Old 19th July 2019, 20:10   #1365
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Re: MG India's first SUV named Hector. Edit: Launched @ 12.18L

Quote:
Originally Posted by GTO View Post
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........
Hmmm....a marketing ploy to hype a product in this sluggish market. Definitely a HUMAN Thing

Last edited by srvm : 19th July 2019 at 20:11.
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