So Hindustan Motors has finally awoken from its deep snoozing session, and has launched the Lancer 1.8 INVEX (Some short form for the auto+manual gearbox). Regular Formula Inders will remember that we had covered this atleast a month back, but Hindustan Motors has done the dreaded and launched this potentially fantastic vehicle with a kill-joy automatic transmission.
Even the pricing is not competitive at all, its all of 10 lacs on-road in Mumbai - a move which takes it straight on into Corolla, Octavia and Optra 1.8 territory. All of these cars are decidedly a generation or two ahead of the Lancer 1.8 and I cant wait to see how it fares against such competition. But someone from HM quoted that they are aiming for 1000 - 1500 cars ONLY per year (Thats roughly 120 odd cars per month). ####, even the cut-priced Baleno now sells more than that.
I really want to know what the marketing department at HM has been smoking of late...
GTO |