[warrioraks]

Originally Posted by manjunathkl

Coming to Tata, with the above understanding, did you notice, Tata has nothing to offer in CompactSUV space?

Thanks for responding. I now understand the gap you were referring to in the previous post. I have a slightly different perspective on Tata’s SUV product line.

By end of this year, Tata would have 5 cars of SUV/SUVish type in their portfolio - Hornbill, Nexon, Harrier, Hexa and Gravitas.
Additionally, I know people around me who are planning to buy Seltos/Hector, are actively considering Harrier as as one of the options which is practically the CSUV space.

Overall which leads me to believe that Tata has got a good coverage of products to ride the SUV wave in sub-20 lac range. In fact just looking at the number of offerings (not sales), they are doing better than Top 2 in the market.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Believe there are no plans for the Jimny, at least for the foreseeable future!

Maybe. Maybe not.

I was one of those eager beavers ogling at the Jimny last Sunday. And then I got pulled aside by a pretty girl from some market-research firm, who have been appointed by MSIL to take feedback from potential Jimny customers. She handed me a 4-page questionnaire to fill up.

Quite a few interesting questions there (I should have got a copy of the sheets, but forgot).

- Your age. If you are below 25 and above 55 years, skip answering the questionnaire! MSIL thinks folks above 55 are not potential customers for the car. I just made the grade by a few years! Other inane questions about the number of km I drive, in city and on highways, number of members in my family, etc. etc.

- Where did you hear about the Jimny?. I'd walked into a Suzuki showroom in Melbourne in July last year, wanting to buy one - and was told there is a 1-year wait list for the car, and no cars to TD, thank you. Oh well, that got their interest.

- A few questions on configuration: Would you prefer a 5-door car rather than the 3-door car displayed? Would you prefer a diesel, petrol or CNG engine? Don't change anything on this car, just give it to me as it is!

- What about safety? How many airbags do you want? I thought this to be a bit funny. My Scorpio didn't have airbags, neither does my Thar. My Ciaz has just 2 of those. But I'd like my Jimny to come with the front and side curtain airbags, plus ABS, EBD, AEB, ESP, rollover protection, lane departure warning, hill hold, hill descent control and brake-based LSD, as they sell the car in Australia/New Zealand. With all that, it just makes it to 3-stars in the ANCAP. But All of it for my expected price!

- Expected pricing? Well, the Jimny in Australia costs ~24,000 AUD, which converts to 12,00,000 INR - and I'm not willing to pay any more money than that for the fully specced Sierra version with manual transmission. Ideally, being sub-4-metre, thre should be tax breaks for the car in India, but I don't want the engine to be downsized to a 1.2L (or, Heaven forbid, a 1.0L) petrol.

- What price would you expect to pay for a 5-door Jimny? Nothing, IMO. Stretching the car might not be such a great idea, and I'm happy with the neat and cute car as it is.

The pretty girl was joined by a young man, who was reading my answers on the questionnaire quite keenly, even as I was writing. He then asked my permission to videograph me, and asked pretty much the same questions all over again.

I wonder if anyone at MSIL would ever read my answers, or watch that video. But I think they are setting up manufacturing of the Jimny in India, at least for their high-demand markets in Australia, NZ, South Africa (and EU to some extent). Maybe they'll start making a hack-job of a Jimny for the Indian market based on their market survey, with a silly 1.2L underpowered engine on a stretched 5-door body, and most of the safety kit gone, and sell it for 10L INR or so (and I'd rather not buy that!). Heck, I presume they'll chuck out the headlamp washers first!

Or maybe, just maybe, we'll get lucky and get the exact car they sell in Oz (but they'll ask for stupid prices, I guess).

But I consider the Jimny as it is now, to be a perfect replacement for my Thar after the end of 2021.

Fingers crossed.

[sridhar-v]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

- Your age. If you are below 25 and above 55 years, skip answering the questionnaire! MSIL thinks folks above 55 are not potential customers for the car.
- What about safety? How many airbags do you want?
- Expected pricing? but I don't want the engine to be downsized to a 1.2L (or, Heaven forbid, a 1.0L) petrol.
Maybe they'll start making a hack-job of a Jimny for the Indian market based on their market survey, with a silly 1.2L underpowered engine on a stretched 5-door body, and most of the safety kit gone, and sell it for 10L INR or so (and I'd rather not buy that!). Heck, I presume they'll chuck out the headlamp washers first!
But I consider the Jimny as it is now, to be a perfect replacement for my Thar after the end of 2021.
Fingers crossed.

Yikes!! So as a 61 year old young at heart, like yours truly, is not supposed to drive a 4x4 and do off-roading/badroading.
And if they do launch a hack-job I will blacklist Maruti for ever.

[Sutripta]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

I was one of those eager beavers ogling at the Jimny last Sunday.

I thought you had sworn off AutoExpo. What happened?

Anything interesting in the components section. To me that is far more interesting than the main section.

Regards
Sutripta

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by Sutripta

I thought you had sworn off AutoExpo. What happened?
Anything interesting in the components section. To me that is far more interesting than the main section.

I had. Was there for a very short while (less than 2 hours), to take a look at the Jimny mainly. Also enjoyed seeing a cutaway of the 1.3L TC petrol engine that Renault is putting into the BS6 Duster.

Was also expecting a lesser crowd on a Sunday due to 2019n-CoV. In any case, the images and write-ups on Team-BHP and elsewhere give us a good ringside view.

Didn't go to the Components Fair.