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-   -   Maruti Baleno will now be available from both, Arena and Nexa showrooms (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/241524-maruti-baleno-will-now-available-both-arena-nexa-showrooms.html)

As if the NEXA strategy wasn't already flawed and confused, I'm getting confirmed reports that Baleno will soon be available at Arena showrooms too. Some sources in the know opine that this may be temporary and only a way to increase sales and profitability of Arena dealers who aren't enrolled with NEXA.

Also there are rumors that MASS(Maruti Authorized Service Stations) which were not authorised to service NEXA cars till now, may get the permission soon.

The Baleno wasnt really that much above the Swift that it needed to be in the Nexa group. S-Cross, Ciaz, may be the Ignis. And the Jimny for sure - if it comes. But not the Baleno.

Possible that Arena dealers have been losing business and there's pressure on Maruti to make changes. And that pressure could have come from customers asking why they need to visit two showrooms for the similar sized models

So Arena showrooms will have two new additions soon : All New Celerio and the current Baleno. This makes me wonder what volumes Nexa will have if Baleno is shared with Arena. Baleno is biggest seller for Nexa and one of the best sellers in India. With shared business model for Baleno, Nexa will face lower sales. So by any chance, are we looking at new Baleno which would be exclusively Nexa offering and current Baleno sits with Swift in Arena ? New Baleno = Premium, current Baleno and Swift in Arena, one having more space on offer and other being more sporty ? This is a random thought coming out of the fact that Maruti long ago stated : as long as customer is coming to Maruti, internal cannibalization of models doesn't affect them much. Add to this note the volumes these cars bring in plus same platform. Maruti wont be worried much with Baleno and Swfit sharing showroom floor space coupled with more footfalls.

Like I said earlier, I bought the Ignis at Arena dealership whose owner also owns a Nexa Dealership some 115+ kms away.

I get my servicing done here with and it probably costs me cheaper than the Nexa Exclusive one.

The service stamp and everything has Nexa on it. The salespersons for Nexa were in Nexa uniform and delivery experience also was on similar lines.

Also, we have lot of Nexa cars here just in my society so that ensures that the servicing and support all is good.

What's missing is the "lounge" experience but I knew all that before my purchase. Works fine for me. So the above news is now just like it's being done "officially" for at least some of the dealerships.

Couple of possible scenarios here I feel:
1. The new crop of SUVs that need a premium positioning may be retailed through NEXA.

2. The new facelifted Baleno may be sold through NEXA while the old version may ne sold through Arena.

The Nexa service center that I frequent services the Arena Maruti model as well especially since Covid.

Drive on,
Shibu.

If true, then they might follow, similar to what Ertiga, XL6 represent currently.

However, I think this is not needed at the moment since they have the upcoming 60% production cut due to chip shortage. This move I feel unnecessary.

I am servicing my Baleno on Arena service centre only from day one and they are charging close to 8-10K for the service. I am not finding the arena service centre that cheap.

Wow now this is going to turn out interesting, at my place in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai there is one Nexa and one Arena dealership just 300 meters apart, both owned by two different entities. When I was looking for a car 4 years ago, I had pitched them against each other and asked the Nexa guy for a better quote on Baleno, or I will go for Dzire. Eventually I went to Tata with both the quotes and my check book, and booked the Tigor with free insurance and 5k rupees discount, overall saving 32k.
Now if Baleno comes through the Arena channel then are we looking at a price correction too, even a tiny bit? We know Nexa cars are overpriced for the 'premiumness'.
On the other side what I see is between all this, Maruti stands to gain, as there are many smaller tehsil and taluka places and some bigger villages where you dont have Nexa but there are regular Maruti sales outlets, this is where they will probably attract footfall with the Baleno.
So we are looking at different scenarios in metro cities vs smaller towns, as to the impact of this. In larger cities Arena and Nexa will compete, but Maruti will be the eventual winner. In smaller cities Arena will increase sales for Maruti with the Baleno, so a win win situation for Maruti at the end. We kept talking about product overlaps and self cannibalisation by Maruti, they have taken it to another level :).

Most probably, MS will sell the Baleno in smaller towns through the regular showrooms where there is no Nexa outlet. There is nothing in terms of infrastructure they need to do.

Just re-route some Balenos there and enjoy the sales.

So, Baleno will be the car sold through the most number of showrooms: Arena, Nexa and Toyota!!!

Does this mean we can expect current Baleno to come with CNG as well? Since all almost all Arena models are coming with CNG or are expected to come with CNG soon.

Good piece of information.

One thing I'd like to add though, there were rumours earlier that Maruti is into development of a Baleno based CSUV.

So, might be the case that, that CSUV is retailed through Nexa channel and the upcoming (regular) New Baleno is sold via arena channel, all speculation though!

Also, they can't run both the newer and the older models side by side due to many factors, one of them being that both are very high volume models and running them side by side would require great amount of resource planning at MSIL's end and, at their respective supplier ends.

The NEXA strategy was not completely flawed in my opinion.

They did provide some differentiation when compared to the standard ARENA showrooms, like for example,

1. A slightly more pleasant buying experience due to lesser crowd.
2. Some feel good events like Cake Cutting, etc.
3. A dedicated 'flood-lighted' space for final delivery. (This results in wonderful photos).

However, I do agree, that there is no point in restricting the Service Centers.

I remember reading somewhere the the Baleno was originally not planned to be a Nexa offering, but when the S-Cross flopped they had to change strategy to please the dealers who had invested in the fancy showrooms ! The Brezza which was originally planned to be sold via Nexa went to the regular showrooms.

Now with a new Baleno and a new Brezza on the cards, I see this as the first step towards this exchange as was originally planned - New Baleno will most likely be Arena exclusive and the new Brezza via Nexa.

WA Status by a friendly Arena Sales Executive:


PS: Kindly ignore the poor English :)

This is much better proposition as it will be more affordable in towns/districts far away from metro cities. The Nexa service was always a premium even for Ignis. Good move for now.