[SoumenD]

Originally Posted by Reinhard

By the way - hadn't we received the super cool looking Altroz model along with the official media drive invitation?

We did. But IMO half a day or few hours time isn't enough for usual level of detailed review we see here & hence mods expect TATA to give the car for more time.

Most of the youtube reviews were from that same event. People driving it from morning till evening & creating a video out of it. More like First look videos. None of them are full blown reviews.

Originally Posted by roy_libran

YouTube gets far higher viewership and reach, and hence companies would give them the first preference over a medium like TBHP now.

+1 to this. With free internet all around youtube videos are available at the back of your palm and saves the pain of reading through text. So indeed they are far more popular.

But then I guess that's what separates this forum from others. Team-BHP was never about following the crowd else we would be bombarded with ADs and stuff already

[octane_100]

Maybe Tata Motors is jittery about Team BHP's unbiased approach. Especially after our critical review of Harrier when almost every other media house went ga-ga.

[ashvek3141]

Originally Posted by GTO

Tata has dispatched 4,500 Altroz’ in January (source) and we can safely assume, another 2,000 by mid-Feb already. Despite the parent company having its headquarters in Bombay, and having shipped ~6000 cars, Tata hasn’t kept aside a measly 3 – 4 examples for their media fleet. I also fail to understand how Tata can have several cars available at the media drive event, many more for test-drives at its

One of the many reasons why TATA is a disaster in Passenger Car market. Their Sales & Marketting team is by far the worst.
This definitely ain’t a good start TATA Motors for your ‘good loking’ Altroz. Remember, good looks alone cannot sell a car. Shame. Yet again.

[n_naik]

Altroz availability issues apart, I am happy that Team-Bhp is back to those good old days when a new car used to be reviewed within few weeks of its launch. Many enthusiasts like me used to eagerly wait for team-bhp reviews. But of late, the delay was getting longer and longer. ( Renault Triber was reviewed after 5 months of its launch !!) The fact that i need not have to wait till May/June for Altroz review is in itself a big relief.

Waiting for a beautiful review (as always) from Team-Bhp.

[sarath_online]

Hi All,


I will get my Altroz XZ delivered tomorrow (Kochi, Kerala) and I would be happy to give my car for Team-BHP review if location isn't an issue (Sorry, I am a new member and I don't have the direct message option). I have been searching through Team-BHP forum for official review of Tata Altroz since official media drive in December and it is very sad to know that Tata hasn't arranged this yet. I have also shared the forum post on two Tata Altroz owners/fans Facebook groups and I hope someone from Maharashtra will be able to provide his/her Altroz soon.


Sarath

[parth.jain]

IIRC Tata has done this earlier also, I don't remember which car it was for.

What I remember is, in the year 2015 when I bought my Zest, Tata was very proud to advertise on banners in the showroom that Zest is the "Team-BHP car of the year".
I think for a car to become 'Team-BHP car of the year" , T-BHP needs to review it

[mpshah68]

It is surprising, unnerving and frustrating for the mods here at Team BHP. In today's day and age when the level of customer reviews and service have risen as compared to the days of the Tata Sumo in the mid ninety's Tata's should have ensured that the car is available for a detailed review. Non-availability raises a frown. My personal experience with Tata's has not been good but again that was in the mid ninety's when I had bought a newly launched Tata Sumo. With the competition that is in the market today I can say only one thing -- Wake up Tata if you need customers.

[JithinR]

Originally Posted by sarath_online

Hi All,
I will get my Altroz XZ delivered tomorrow (Kochi, Kerala)
Sarath

Congrats on the car sir. Please post some pics.

[Kishen.padiyar]

Originally Posted by GTO

P.P.S. We’re also waiting for the Nexon EV & I hope the media car comes before Indian law mandates BS7 emissions, 6 airbags & ESP as standard.

Attachment 1970761

Appreciate your sense of sarcasm though I honestly did not expect something like this from the moderation team.

If I were in your place, I would try and understand what is the reason behind this. Today, every Tom, Dick and Harry are out there with their go-pros to go and have a review. Before you conclude, no, I am not comparing apples to apples. But from a manufacturer's perspective, it is not possible for all of them to reserve 100s of cars for media reviews. Today you have an article that is live complaining that you do not have a car for review tomorrow it will be someone else.

Threads like this will definitely hinder the high levels of quality and credibility this forum is known for. Again, this is just my humble opinion as a member from the last 6 odd years.

PS: I really appreciate your intent in providing all of us a detailed review for each and every car out there and I can imagine the amount of effort that goes into the same. Kudos for that.

[JithinR]

Originally Posted by Kishen.padiyar

If I were in your place, I would try and understand what is the reason behind this. Today, every Tom, Dick and Harry are out there with their go-pros to go and have a review. .... But from a manufacturer's perspective, it is not possible for all of them to reserve 100s of cars for media reviews.

Those video reviews you are referring to on YouTube are from content creators who directly work with dealership guys and get a test drive vehicle. TATA doesn't have to do anything extra for that once they dispatch the dealership the test drive vehicles.

As far as the media drive goes, mods have already explained that Team BHP was invited to it. But unlike the other guys who want to get the content out first (for maximum views) they need the car for multiple days for a full blown review.

If you like, you can search for long termer reviews on YouTube where manufacturers provide the car to these channels for weeks/months at a time from their media fleet. The lack of an Altroz in this media fleet is what the mods are talking about.

This is not specific to Team Bhp but rather for any channel operating out of Mumbai.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by Reinhard

By the way - hadn't we received the super cool looking Altroz model along with the official media drive invitation? Or we don't get enough time for the full review to happen in that window & need a keeper car for another week or so to complete the full review? Really weird prioritization if they arranged for 2 golden coloured wine glasses to be sent but not a car to keep for a week.

Originally Posted by octane_100

Maybe Tata Motors is jittery about Team BHP's unbiased approach. Especially after our critical review of Harrier when almost every other media house went ga-ga.

Originally Posted by Kishen.padiyar

Appreciate your sense of sarcasm though I honestly did not expect something like this from the moderation team.

If I were in your place, I would try and understand what is the reason behind this. Today, every Tom, Dick and Harry are out there with their go-pros to go and have a review. Before you conclude, no, I am not comparing apples to apples. But from a manufacturer's perspective, it is not possible for all of them to reserve 100s of cars for media reviews. Today you have an article that is live complaining that you do not have a car for review tomorrow it will be someone else.

Threads like this will definitely hinder the high levels of quality and credibility this forum is known for. Again, this is just my humble opinion as a member from the last 6 odd years.

Please read post #38 on this very thread where it is clearly mentioned that we were part of the media drive and once the hype dies down and the car is usually launched, we ask for 1 for the detailed review.

Usually all media is done with the car at this time or there are slots allocated where we get the car.

In this case no media has gotten a car as there is no press fleet after the media event.

[jayguar]

Originally Posted by Kishen.padiyar

If I were in your place, I would try and understand what is the reason behind this. Today, every Tom, Dick and Harry are out there with their go-pros to go and have a review. Before you conclude, no, I am not comparing apples to apples. But from a manufacturer's perspective, it is not possible for all of them to reserve 100s of cars for media reviews. Today you have an article that is live complaining that you do not have a car for review tomorrow it will be someone else.

I believe this is not specific to Team BHP. It was mentioned the media cars are not available for anyone, paid or unpaid, print or digital media. How hard can it be to allocate few cars for detailed media reviews when other manufactures are ready with more than one variant? It could be internal miscommunication or lapse in logistics or could be anything or could even be deliberate. End of the day, they are responsible to show the numbers. Quite a few people check out detailed reviews before they themselves go and check out the cars directly. They have a good product in Altroz. It doesn't hurt them when things are done right.

Originally Posted by GTO

In addition to what Samurai posted:

1. Tata closely follows Team-BHP.

2. It's not just us. As mentioned in the opening post, they don't have the Altroz in the media fleet yet (no one else has gotten the Altroz in Bombay either).

It's just a combination of carelessness + logistics + whatever , but extremely frustrating when you want to review the car.

With Tata, either the car is well marketed & has niggles (e.g. Harrier), or well made & poorly supported (Altroz) .

Edit: Just saw 2 more replies to the same post before I could post. @Mods, if my post looks like just getting the same point across without adding value here, it can be deleted.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by sarath_online

I will get my Altroz XZ delivered tomorrow (Kochi, Kerala) and I would be happy to give my car for Team-BHP review if location isn't an issue (Sorry, I am a new member and I don't have the direct message option).

Thanks a ton for your generosity & trust, man! I will be dropping you a PM if no car pops up in Maharashtra.

We now have a total of 7 cars available to us, and all are outside of MH. There is an 8th car in Pune, but the availability still has to be confirmed with the owner.

Originally Posted by Red Liner

I think his point was for TEAMBHP to add YouTube to its repertoire. We all know what happened to Nokia and Blackberry.

Don't want to take the discussion off-topic, but you are comparing apples to oranges.

1. Despite video reviews becoming popular, the daily post count on Team-BHP actually went up in the year 2019.

2. Videos aren't a "replacement" for long-form text content with supporting pictures.

3. We are of the firm belief that we'd rather do one thing REALLY WELL, instead of trying 10 things and doing all of them in a mediocre manner. Truth is, our Official Reviews take us 30 - 45 days and we don't have the bandwidth for a high quality video (which will easily take another 15 - 20 days, going by the Team-BHP standards).

Originally Posted by warrioraks

I think this is just poor planning from Tata. Your products are hitting the sweet spots, the enthusiasts are all worked up, just stop behaving like a moody girlfriend.

Well said!

Originally Posted by n_naik

Altroz availability issues apart, I am happy that Team-Bhp is back to those good old days when a new car used to be reviewed within few weeks of its launch.

Thank you. Although I'm not happy with the low number of launches (due to the damp market), it has sort of cleared our backlog up.

Originally Posted by Kishen.padiyar

If I were in your place, I would try and understand what is the reason behind this.

Kishen, as an entrepreneur who has never worked in the corporate world, I don't know how large companies work. All that I know is that Tata Motors consistently takes the LONGEST to provide cars to Team-BHP. Again, I stress on consistently.

Just to give you an example : Another car that was launched around the time that the Altroz was, is arriving at our office tomorrow. In fact, it would have been here earlier, if it weren't for the Auto Expo.

But from a manufacturer's perspective, it is not possible for all of them to reserve 100s of cars for media reviews.

You missed the point. Tata doesn't have a single car in its media fleet (read = not for anyone). That's my problem.

I really appreciate your intent in providing all of us a detailed review for each and every car out there and I can imagine the amount of effort that goes into the same. Kudos for that.

Thank you!

[Dieselritzer]

GTO, won't dealers give their test drive cars? I understand you'll will need it for a much longer period, but then it's not something too difficult for them. Have you'll tried this approach?

[Laxman9192]

Originally Posted by PraNeel

4. 3 cylinder petrol engine in Gold Standard Premium Hatchback?

This has been a trend of late in some 'premium' hatchbacks, I noticed this first when I took a test drive of the Ford Freestyle. I believe it has subsequently trickled down to the Figo as well.