[Cessna182]

Originally Posted by theAutomaniac

1. Tata Nano- Hyped for all the wrong reasons!

5. Tata Hexa- Basically just a beautified Aria, the Hexa was waayyy too much hyped by Tata itself! Comfort better than Innova, releasing ads while trolling other similarly priced SUVs (Anyone remembers those- "Takes you anywhere, no Compass required" ads??)

Perhaps OT, but I own both these cars and also cars costing 4 times as much as a Hexa. Hexa is much more comfortable on rough roads. Period. Anyone saying that it was a hype should actually experience it. It is sad that people love to buy a Dzire for 12 lakhs and not a Hexa.

As for the Nano, it remains the most innovative Indian car ever and is taught as a case study even at HBS. Yes the cars failed, but not due to a fault in their genes. Pointing out a sales flop is great, badmouthing it without reason is not. Thanks

[roy_libran]

A lot of products have generated an initial hype and high expectations, but have received lukewarm responses and eventually flopped. So the Hype to Flop cycle was pretty quick for these products.

However, to my mind the one product that generated immense hype since before launch and even managed to sustain that hype for over a decade, despite continuous failure to deliver by the company, is the one still missing from this thread - The Force Gurkha.

I have owned one of their earlier editions for around 5 years, and despite the fact that it was one of the most capable, engaging and enjoyable vehicles I have owned, it was also one of the most painful. On the positive side it taught me a lot of field repair skills which I don't think any other vehicle could have! For a very long time a large part of the community hoped that Force would do justice to the potential of the underlying platform, but it wasn't to be.

[greyhound82]

I think it’s Tata Harrier . With teaser videos it generated a lot of hype and fan following . ‘Land Rover pedigree ‘ become a house hold tag line . But it didn’t create much sales hope the 2020 version will make up for that

[Vibhav-Van]

The Nano really takes the crown in this contest. But there are others as well:

- Abarth Twins: Fastest sub-10 lakh car on paper, but dismal numbers.
- JTP Twins: Same story as above.
- Harrier 1.0: For reasons known to everybody here
- Civic 2.0: The hype was mostly a hangover from the previous gen. Alas, Honda priced it ridiculously and made a mockery of themselves with that 1.6 diesel.
- Fiesta 2.0: High anticipation and hype from the immensely successful predecessor, but the price was simply beyond reach for that segment.

[srishiva]

Guess there will be more from Tata stable ! Maybe its something Tata should do to tone down the expectations.

They give features piece by piece like they are still not done with the engineering design of their cars.

[WhiteSierra]

In my opinion, vehicles which generated a lot of hype among car enthusiasts and in car magazines but became flop are:

Maruti Suzuki :

Maruti 1000 which came with 1L engine. (previous version of Esteem with 1.3L engine)
Zen Classic
Maruti Versa
Zen Estilo
Maruti Suzuki A-star
Suzuki Kizashi

Tata:

Tata Estate
Tata Sumo Grande (New body style did not appeal to masses, felt heavier)
Tata Indigo Marina
Tata Aria
Tata Altroz Petrol
I don't want to include Tata Harrier (V1) yet, we should see V2 sales, as it is basically same vehicle with updates and upgrades.


Toyota:

Toyota Etios Liva
Toyota Yaris

Mahindra:

Mahindra Voyager
Mahindra KUV 100
Mahindra Verito Vibe
Mahindra Quanto

No Jeep model of Mahindra ever failed, even models like Classic, Commander, etc did decent numbers in rural areas and in government force. Thanks to their off road abilities and rough build.

Ford

Ford Escort
Ford Mondeo
Ford Fusion

Hyundai

Hyundai Terracan
Hyundai Elantra
New generation Santro

Chevrolet

Chevrolet Sail twins
Chevrolet Optra
Chevrolet Spark
Chevrolet Enjoy

Nissan

Nissan X- Trail
Nissan Kicks
Nissan Evalia

Renault

Renault Scala (Same as Sunny, while Sunny became a Sales Hit, Scala flopped)
Renault Fluence
Renault Captur

Mitsubishi

Montero
Outlander
Cedia (Ultimate vehicle for petrol heads, my favorite during school days, my friends used to relate it to Mitsubishi EVO from NFS and also used to modify them). I thought this will do great in the market, but only true enthusiasts and Petrol heads could recognize the vehicle's true potential. My friends have 3 of these in Red, Yellow and Black colors. These are the [i] only 3 [/] I've spotted in Hyderabad.

FIAT

Fiat Palio Weekend
Fiat Petra
Fiat Avventura

SKODA

Skoda Octavia Combi (Estate)
Skoda Fabia
Skoda Yeti (Extremely Powerful and capable vehicle for its size)

I honestly think Honda is the only car manufacturer without any flop car in Indian market. All their cars in general bring in lower numbers due to the premium amount they offer in a similar segment compared to other brands. I personally hated V2 of Honda City, the dolphin shaped one, but it too did good numbers. Latest Honda Civic and Accord are also market leaders despite their low numbers as the segments they cater to in general have fewer buyers. After Toyota, Honda is one brand to blindly trust on reliability. Even recent Jazz, WRV, Mobilio did decent numbers. If we have to pick a car and name it as a flop from Honda stable, it would be Mobilio, bit it also did decent numbers (coming from Honda brand, where people are comfortable with Sedans and Hatchbacks) when compared to likes of Marazzo and Carnival. (MPV league)

other vehicles :

Subaru Forester (Great, extremely capable AWD vehicle), we took a test drive and loved it.

ICML Rhino (Came after Qualis was discontinued, many thought it'd do a Qualis on sales charts, but people were intelligent, bought Innova instead of going for this Sonalika

Premier Rio

San Storm (Was a Sensation for its sport car looks, but its poor build quality made it an instant dud. I remember seeing this in auto magazines back then)

DC Avanti

Opel Astra

Daewoo Matiz

Force Gurkha (Extremely capable vehicle, Pitched against Thar, but did not even do 1/4th of Thar's numbers)

Ashok Leyland Stile MPV

MG Hector, Hector Plus, Gloster - I see hector doing decent numbers, but regarding upcoming Gloster and all MG products, MG's fate in India will be decided probably in the next 1 or 2 years on how Indians receive it with on going Indo-China geo - political conflicts and MG being owned by SAIC motors which is in turn owned by Chinese government. Based on my interaction with people and online forums and website user comments, I don't see many Indians being comfortable in buying an MG car whose parent company owners are working against interests of India.



From all the above information, I guess people look for niche products from particular brands

1. People want SUVs and MUVs from Tata, Toyota and Mahindra brands as they have tried and tested products and services , changes to adapt to newer SUVs and MUVs. Aria and KUV are one off, but in general people like bigger and tougher cars from the above brands. People liked Indica from Tata 2 decades back, now they are liking Tiago, but they LOVE SUVs and MUVs from Tata.

2. People like Smaller and less expensive vehicles from brands like Maruti and Hyundai. I don't think Hyundai can bring in Genesis and sell high end cars, and people buy them. Tucson and Kona are struggling to bring in good numbers. May be that is the reason they can launch cars like KIA Stinger etc from KIA's side, as they did with Carnival. I think we need some more time do decide if Carnival is a Hit or a Flop. As of now it is going towards flop side, I hope they bring in the latest global updated version to Indian market. Again Indians like Body on Frame RWD SUVs and MUVs, but this is changing with XUV5oo and now Carnival.

3. India is a market for MUVs but not Estates. MUVs like Sumo, Qualis, Innova, Tavera, Xylo, Marazzo, Hexa, Innova Crysta became HITs, while MUVs like Tata Estate, Fiat Palio weekend, Tata Indigo Marina, Skoda Octavia Combi, Subaru / Chevrolet Forester failed to capture Indian market.

4. Van culture in India is still in Initial stages. Back in the day, other than Ambassadors and Premier Padminis, big joint families used to go around in Maruti OMNIs (fondly called Maruti Van), while small nuclear families used to go around in Maruti 800 (fondly called Maruti Car). With Introduction of MUVs like Sumo, Qualis etc, People moved on to Safer, bigger MUVs and ditched poor built Omni. Even Mahindra Voyager Van did not do well when it was released in 2000's. Maruti Versa also failed despite having Big B and Jr B as their brand ambassadors. Only bigger Mercedes Benz Van did well with rich and elite people who were looking for a family mover for long distant travels. Even latest Vans like Nissan Evalia, Ashok Leyland stile failed to impress the market. Eeco is doing well as an urban cargo, parcel and ambulance vehicle. Carnival has Van like rear doors but is a premium MUV / MPV in design, if it had regular doors, may be (?) it could have done well in the market.

[07CR]

Originally Posted by Vibhav-Van

- Civic 2.0: The hype was mostly a hangover from the previous gen. Alas, Honda priced it ridiculously and made a mockery of themselves with that 1.6 diesel.

I feel you are confusing car not being upto the expectations, with the car being a sales dud. Incase of Civic, its the sales leader in it's segment, and by quite some margin.

[Sahil]

Originally Posted by Asmt_b

The latest Honda Accord too seems to deserve a spot here considering how well the earlier generations did but at almost 45-50 lakhs now it really doesn't sell well.

The latest gen Accord created no hype, it was dead on arrival. Honda didn't even bother marketing it strongly as it was a passing wind. It was launched and discontinued in India within no time.

Originally Posted by GTO

From back in the day, the Daewoo Matiz would qualify. Where the Hyundai Santro was all ugly, the Matiz was a beauty. But unlike Hyundai which localised the Santro heavily, the Matiz had high import content. Daewoo priced it astronomically for a hatchback and offered it only in the higher trims initially IIRC. End result, a car with so much hype flopped.

I remember as going to the Daewoo showroom at the corner of Pali naka in Bandra, opposite where gold's gym is today to check out the Matiz. I wondered why the headlights are projecting upwards and found the car very quirky. However, the hype was so much that I nagged my father to buy one. Thank god he didn't listen to me

[Chinmay]

I can think of two Indian examples:
Premier Rio
Back in the late 2000s, this was a radical design-high GC, SUV-ish stance, and the works. Would have become the first compact SUV. Sadly, this did not translate into significant sales volumes. Perhaps, because of the Premier tag.

San Storm
Perhaps, India was not ready for this. Also, brand image was something that stopped its success. I don't think it was marketed well.

[motorworks]

I dont think the topic is purely about cars that flopped, but rather about cars that generated lot of hype or expectations and later ended up being a sales dud. In that regard, I think it has to be the Nano. Such hype, but a huge disaster! Similarly even the Harrier, great amount of expectations and ended up being a sales dud. It could improve from here, one can never say.

Similarly, I can recall a lot of hype around the Renault Logan but in its original form it failed to click with the personal car users and later found acceptance only from fleet operators.

[sv97]

Toyota YARIS

I don't if this has already been mentioned but it created a lot of hype and I expected a lot out of the car based on the initial features list and the Toyota brand value it carried.

But the astronomical pricing for higher variants, Toyota not being able to capitalise on the safety aspect and the non-functional front armrest were some of the major reasons for it becoming a sales dud eventually.

[AZT]

Originally Posted by RaghuVis

All said and done, I find it very hard to believe that there was a hype for Mahindra Quanto!
A close relative of mine was still working in Mahindra when this was launched and I remember him telling that there was no other car Mahindra ever made which made their own employees cringe with embarrassment.

I hope the Xylo would also be in this list

[R_R]

How is the Mahindra Alturas missing from this list??

I actually think it's a great SUV but probably priced a couple of lakhs higher than it should have been. Unfortunately, with the Mahindra-SsangYong relationship in the ditch, the fortunes of the Alturas will probably will never recover. The vehicle deserved better, I think.

[Navs]

The list of cars that comes to my mind, which are overhyped before launch and sales don't justify the hype after launch.

• Opel Astra
• Skoda Octavia combi
• Tata Nano
• Toyota Etios Liva
• Maruti Suzuki Ignis
• VW Tiguan
• Mahindra XUV 300

[TorqueSteer]

I would like to add Tata Bolt to the list. Tata marketed it as a completely new product with new design language alongside Zest. Many were excited when announced. Tata even denied commercial registrations to keep these cars away from taxi image. Fast-forward, Bolt failed miserably while Zest managed decent sales and is sold as taxi today. This is mostly because Bolt & Zest resembled Indica & Indigo which is a bummer. Quality was definitely improved from previous cars. Tata even planned on launching a sporty turbo charged version of Bolt & Zest. Sales made the plans shelve.

Does anyone remember Hyundai Sonata? Not today's one. Hyundai launched a Sonata long back with round headlights that looked like a Mercedes knock-off.