[Arwin07]

"Dianne Craig from Ford’s International Markets Group has revealed that the company has to assess its capital allocation in India."

Releasing statements like these once every few months has been hurting (already poor to begin with) Ford sales in the past few years. People who genuinely considered Ford have skipped the ship to buy a VW or Tata because of fears of Ford leaving India.

Ford has done nothing to allay their fears.

With the resultant lower than expected sales, Ford global HQ makes such statement again and the vicious cycle continues.

[pkk077]

Originally Posted by ulhas.ahirrao

Look at the financial numbers

Wow! Off topic but Toyota Kirloskar Motor has operating profit margins in the single digits - same as Ford and Honda - and people keep blaming Toyota for being greedy and pricing their products too high.

[Slowjet]

I see some criticizing Maruti even in Ford quitting India thread. I fail to understand what you want Maruti to do. If they have 50% should they relinquish it so that other companies also make profit? Maruti is what it is for the efforts they have been putting and the trust they have build over the years. They have a products that appeal to masses for variety of reasons. They are blamed for lack of safety, no product innovation and what not. But they have the largest portfolio in the country (though they may share the engine and other parts) and different price points. Why other manufacturers have not done that? Has anyone stopped them? Ford has been here close to 3 decades and yet unable to read and understand the market? Same applies to Fiat. What happened To GM....they could not even have BS4 engine for Tavera and I think had to tie up with Sonalika. Some global manufacturer still think that they can sell any product in India (attitude.......like we are .....) but they have got it wrong. How could Hyundai or Tata or Renault or MG read the market better as compared to others?

Many say that Maruti is tin cans. I would say if they comply with the government norms why blame them. There are options available if the product is not as per the liking.
A product positioning is based on the market segment you want to target. Why blame Maruti for that?

Note: I do not have any cars from Maruti nor intend to purchase one but blaming Maruti for someone else's failure is simply wrong

[clementw]

I hope Ford stays in India. They have built a great ecosystem here and have spent enough time to understand the market. As they have used the base for exports they should continue with export volumes leveraging on the strengths of the country.
They can possibly explore a tieup with a Chinese manufacturer to explore volumes and new products for sales in India. That may be a win win for both parties.

[PrideRed]

I am not the decision maker and I cant say for sure if they will stay or not, but messages like these is definitely pulling the brand down. They stay or not, what was need to create a suspicion when the decision to make is couple of months away! Breakup with Mahindra has rattled Ford, they are are now running around for future models. Sad part is despite 20+ years, they are yet to learn- Create confusion, lack of new models, feature deletions, variant rejigs, stupid price corrections wonder how long will they take to stabilize!

[Shashwat.75]

Originally Posted by Slowjet

Many say that Maruti is tin cans. I would say if they comply with the government norms why blame them.

I totally agree with the points you’re making except for this one. I believe this is exactly why Maruti Suzuki does not bother making more 4/5 star rated cars. (Just because consuming tobacco is legal does not make it healthy)

Don’t want to sound rude, but this is the way it is

[ulhas.ahirrao]

Originally Posted by Slowjet

I see some criticizing Maruti even in Ford quitting India thread. I fail to understand what you want Maruti to do.

Absolutely agree with you. The fact that even after all Global biggies trying for decades, Maruti is where it is...I have great respect for the company.

We can't blame Maruti for Ford's or anybody else's failure!!

Maruti story is made up of - massive product portfolio, continuous portfolio upgrade and churn, value for money pricing, efficient vehicles, huge dealer network, a new premium GTM created from scratch (NEXA), creating new segments altogether (Ertiga), responsive customer care, tight grip on dealers.

How much of this Ford/others have been able to do? Not much IMO.

[dragracer567]

IMHO Ford isn't still dead in India. There is still exceptional brand recognition for Ford and every 90s kids (the ones who can buy a car now) will recall the Ikon and Fiesta as iconic cars of their childhood. While the Fiesta name-tag has been diluted due to the atrocious and ugly second gen (the hatch would've worked better), the Ikon name-tag still has excellent brand-recall. I think the best shot for Ford would be to bring back the Ikon name-tag, perhaps as a crossover. Enthusiasts will cry fowl but Ford has already done it with the Mustang.

While the Indian market is ruthless (and increasingly stagnating - Related thread (Auto industry is a 'vast stagnant market' - India is stuck at 250000 cars / month since a decade)), companies like Renault have been successfully due to outrageously good styling and finding niches like the Kiger, Kwid and Triber. Ford has a chance to replicate that! Remember, Ford scripted the success of Compact SUVs in India with the Ford and had they brought in 2 more crossovers quickly and a successor for the Ecosport on time, they wouldn't be in this mess, Ford had the first move advantage unlike Toyota, Honda, Nissan or VW/Skoda. Ford has two options: Fight like VW or run like GM! Their choice is anybody's guess right now.

PS the Indian government has a stake in this mess as well. Over-regulation, high-taxation, depreciating rupee and general inflation means that the car industry itself is quickly stagnating (like the economy itself). So, while the market stagnated, Hyundai and Maruti along with Tata and Mahindra (who need to stay and fight) have increased their market share leading to the rest fighting for a marginal share of the pie. This is a point of reckoning for the Indian government when it comes to the car industry, last I remember, the car industry accounts for 7% of the Indian GDP, so the government must focus on allowing the industry to grow rather than trying to kill the goose that lays golden eggs. Firstly, simplify and rationalize regulations and taxes for once, secondly stop changing regulations and taxes every fiscal year (stability is even more important than the taxes themselves).

[turbo]

Originally Posted by dragracer567

IMHO Ford isn't still dead in India. There is still exceptional brand recognition for Ford and every 90s kids (the ones who can buy a car now) will recall the Ikon and Fiesta as iconic cars of their childhood. While the Fiesta name-tag has been diluted due to the atrocious and ugly second gen (the hatch would've worked better), the Ikon name-tag still has excellent brand-recall.

I'm not sure if I agree.
In Feb 2012, we were looking for a car, and we shortlisted our contenders down to two. The Skoda Fabia, and the Ford Ikon. The former won.

Almost a decade later, I have ZERO regrets about my decision.

[LEOMAN]

I dont think Ford will exit a market like India. Being an Ford endeavour 3.2 owner me and other co owners had a chance to visit Ford India's Chennai plant in September 2019. Ford exports atleast 20000+ vehicles to different markets of the world.
Fords service has also improved a lot and all wear & tear parts are also aggressively priced compared to the competition.No need to point how well Ford Drives and handles,let it be any product . Knowing Anurag sir personally he is a gem of a person and his vision might make a difference to Fords future in India.

[veyron_head]

It would be simply stupid of Ford to leave India. They have considerable brand recall and trust built in the country over 25 years. And they have had some great cars in their portfolio , like the ikon, first Gen Fiesta , ecosport and the Endy.

They do need a transformative product and sales execution strategy which will obviously need fresh investments. But there is more to gain than lose.

[footloose]

Lackadaisical approach towards launching new cars and complacency has no place in auto industry, especially Indian market where young generation is buying a lot of cars.

Why there are no cars from Ford to take on -

1. Polo
2. Thar
3. Compass
4. City
5. Seltos
6. Harrier/Hector
7. Safari/XUV 5OO

And why there are no next gen
1. Figo
2. Aspire
3. Freestyle
4. Ecosport
5. Endeavour

I am afraid but there's more to Indian driver than what Ford's myopic profiling.

Markets are the great levellers.

[bosem123]

Also, to add to the above, someone please tell me why does Ford eat up so many features? There are just no projector headlamps across the entire range of their cars up to the Aspire. They simply scrapped the base Ambiente and Trend variants (for most cars) and are only focusing on Titanium +. There are no updates to the Freestyle or the Figo at all. The Indian market is about a car in sumtotal- engine + features +dealership network. They just can't hope to sell cars just on the basis of engine. Or else they will be reduced to Fiat's condition!

[Mafia]

I feel whatever difficulties car manufacturers were facing in the pre-Covid era has been compounded many times over in the post-Covid era.

If a manufacturer was not finding traction before, now there are additional problems.

Supply chain, shrinking market, market disruptions(lockdowns), and many other lateral problems that will only show themselves as time progresses.

American companies tend to up and leave very quickly. A prime example was HD.

There is a good chance Ford may close operations in India as the pandemic will continue to be a disruption for a few months at least.

This on top of all the blunders and challenges faced by Ford, I don't see them sustaining in India for long.

[steadfast]

Sooner or later, Ford will go the Chevrolet way. If Chevrolet's numbers improved by exiting few markets then Ford will look in the same direction too as GTO says the Ford CEO is metrics obsessed.