[paperweight]

There are 34 million two wheelers on the roads in India. I wonder if Tata is going to bring out an ad mocking those people - 37% of all fatal accidents in India were in 2 wheelers and 17% were pedestrians. The major causes of safety issues are - 1. BAD driving. 2. BAD roads. Let's work towards addressing these issues before we go about mocking others on build quality. Sure, its important but we really are missing the elephant in the room. How many times do you see trucks using the right lanes of highways - are they being fined? How many times do you see stop line violations? Why aren't speed breakers properly marked? Why are there potholes on the roads? While we can congratulate Tata on getting good results in safety tests, we would rather not comment on many other aspects of their sales. But most of all it is not appropriate to mock any manufacturer. Is a reversing camera a safety item or a luxury feature? Do ALL base models of Tata cars have reversing cameras - that can help protect the life of a child who runs out behind a car?

[OSH]

Originally Posted by paperweight

There are 34 million two wheelers on the roads in India. I wonder if Tata is going to bring out an ad mocking those people - 37% of all fatal accidents in India were in 2 wheelers and 17% were pedestrians.

Is Tata competing with 2 wheelers ? No. Has Tata said something about 2 wheelers ? No. Why is this whole 2 wheeler-4 wheeler comparison being brought up here ? God knows.

While we can congratulate Tata on getting good results in safety tests, we would rather not comment on many other aspects of their sales.

There are plenty of threads that are running into pages and pages where this concern can be voiced. This particular one is related to safety and hence everyone is just staying on topic.

Is a reversing camera a safety item or a luxury feature? Do ALL base models of Tata cars have reversing cameras - that can help protect the life of a child who runs out behind a car?

Even if you do consider this as a safety feature, a good branded one can be bought and fitted very easily by a qualified technician. Worried about reliability and warranty ? Buy it from the genuine accessories that the manufacturer provides.

Can you do the same with the car's structural members and chassis ?

[Cessna182]

Originally Posted by paperweight

There are 34 million two wheelers on the roads in India. I wonder if Tata is going to bring out an ad mocking those people - 37% of all fatal accidents in India were in 2 wheelers and 17% were pedestrians. The major causes of safety issues are - 1. BAD driving. 2. BAD roads. Let's work towards addressing these issues before we go about mocking others on build quality. Sure, its important but we really are missing the elephant in the room. How many times do you see trucks using the right lanes of highways - are they being fined? How many times do you see stop line violations? Why aren't speed breakers properly marked? Why are there potholes on the roads? While we can congratulate Tata on getting good results in safety tests, we would rather not comment on many other aspects of their sales. But most of all it is not appropriate to mock any manufacturer. Is a reversing camera a safety item or a luxury feature? Do ALL base models of Tata cars have reversing cameras - that can help protect the life of a child who runs out behind a car?

1. Tata spent 6k crores on the Nano project specifically to target two wheeler buyers into getting a safer mode of transport. Turns out, Indian people are happier buying Rs. 2 lakh bikes or a 1 lakh scooter and riding 3 on it than buying an AC car because social image matters more to them than safety. Kudos.

2. As for service, by now there are more threads in recent times here about Hyundai part failures and service issues than for Tata. Hope you count yourself and update your inputs. Tata warranty policy is largely no questions asked. They sometimes screw up in getting parts on time, but that's not uncommon in other makes. Their mechanics need to improve their knowledge, but again, that's common for most makes.

3. As for driving habits and accidents, you might be aware that 38,000 people die in accidents annually in the US, a nation which has one of the strictest license rules and the best road networks. So don't blame Indians alone. Or our roads. Or the bikers. Accidents happen and the safety ratings were invented to prevent fatalities.

Safer cars need to be made. That Maruti and Hyundai are unconcerned about safety and the lack of it, and that they get buyers who claim they don't need safe cars because they also ride bikes, is ridiculous.

Having said all this, I do feel this theme has been exploited enough and Tata should get back to focus on a 15k sunroof and 10k chinese 10 inch touchscreen in the next Tiago to woo the people tired of safety adverts. Style sells in India, substance sadly doesn't and that's a fact applicable to many other models.

[S15]

Originally Posted by Cessna182

1. Tata spent 6k crores on the Nano project specifically to target two wheeler buyers into getting a safer mode of transport. Turns out, Indian people are happier buying Rs. 2 lakh bikes or a 1 lakh scooter and riding 3 on it than buying an AC car because social image matters more to them than safety. Kudos.

The people who buy a 1 lakh rupee scooter/ two lakh rupee motorcycle are TOTALLY DIFFERENT from the target audience of the 1 lakh rupee car.

Those people buy a Hero splendor. Thats why Hero sold 8 lakh of them in October. https://www.team-bhp.com/news/hero-m...lakh-units-oct

All apartments in Delhi NCR, and pretty sure other metropolitans provide 1 car parking, and virtually unlimited two wheeler parking.
A friend was thus 'forced' to get a Honda CB350 after he realized he had the money to buy a second car, but no parking.



And half of rural India lives in streets and lanes such as this, where not even a Sholay film bullet can fit, leave aside an actual car.

Nano was a great product, just that it was not needed.

[TROOPER]

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...-analysis.html (October 2020 : Indian Car Sales Figures & Analysis)

If you go through the above thread, you'd find that Maruti and Hyundai sold over 1 lac vehicles in the month of October. 1 lac plus vehicles with questionable safety standards.

And that is excluding the Alto, Wagonr and the i10, assuming these are cars mostly purchased by people upgrading from two wheelers.

So this whole argument of "oh we are giving two wheel owners a safer option" falls flat.

What about the remaining cars from their stables? All of them are first time buyers? Can Bhargava come out and say, all of them are first time buyers? Upgrading from two wheelers?

The outrage over here is because these two manufacturers are market leaders. Better was and is expected from them. They should have been the ones leading the charge w.r.t. providing Indians with safe cars. And they're not even making an effort, which is disappointing.

[paperweight]

Originally Posted by Cessna182

1. Tata spent 6k crores on the Nano project specifically to target two wheeler buyers into getting a safer mode of transport. Turns out, Indian people are happier buying Rs. 2 lakh bikes or a 1 lakh scooter and riding 3 on it than buying an AC car because social image matters more to them than safety. Kudos.

2. As for service, by now there are more threads in recent times here about Hyundai part failures and service issues than for Tata. Hope you count yourself and update your inputs. Tata warranty policy is largely no questions asked. They sometimes screw up in getting parts on time, but that's not uncommon in other makes. Their mechanics need to improve their knowledge, but again, that's common for most makes.

3. As for driving habits and accidents, you might be aware that 38,000 people die in accidents annually in the US, a nation which has one of the strictest license rules and the best road networks. So don't blame Indians alone. Or our roads. Or the bikers. Accidents happen and the safety ratings were invented to prevent fatalities.

Safer cars need to be made. That Maruti and Hyundai are unconcerned about safety and the lack of it, and that they get buyers who claim they don't need safe cars because they also ride bikes, is ridiculous.

Having said all this, I do feel this theme has been exploited enough and Tata should get back to focus on a 15k sunroof and 10k chinese 10 inch touchscreen in the next Tiago to woo the people tired of safety adverts. Style sells in India, substance sadly doesn't and that's a fact applicable to many other models.

A remark on your point number 3. The number of road accident fatalities in India is just under 300,000 as compared with 38,000 in the USA and below 3,000 in the UK. The point really is that third world countries are bunched together in terms of fatalities. It is distressing that most people do not realise that safety on the roads is a collective responsibility and not an individual one. Bad drivers, inconsiderate drivers, poor roads, excessively crowded roads, disregard for basic road rules lead to fatal accidents.
As regards your point number 1. Tata is said to have made the Nano to protect motorcyclists. (I don't think they forgot basic business commonsense of making profits on the way). But the majority of Indians simply cannot afford cars and a motorcycle or a scooter is an affordable alternative - hence the 34 million two wheelers. Show me a four wheeler that meets the original promise of the Nano - costing less than a lakh. Even the quadricycles cost more. Maybe the Nano marketing team should have spent 0.5 crore on researching the target market's depth of pocket and saved their 6K crore on a product that didn't sell.
As for your point number 2: It seems to me that what is common in most makes is a justification. That is an avoidance of excellence.

It is very good to see Indian brands scoring high on global safety ratings. However, to use that as a marketing tool is incredibly insensitive in a country which has the highest road accident fatalities in the world. I still think that the main reasons for this are bad, inconsiderate driving and bad roads. I have driven for three years in the US and for three years in the UK and I can say that their driving and licensing standards and the quality of roads are far superior to ours which has a direct impact on the following statistics: India fatalities per 100,000 motor vehicles: 130. UK 5.7 and the US 14.2. What we have in the room is not an elephant but a whale.

[GTO]

Mod Note: With 21 pages of posts, this topic has been discussed enough. It's getting too hot - discussion closed.