[yashg]

Originally Posted by saikarthik

I would like to quote Amaze.

Yes. Amaze lost out to DZire and Xcent when launched. Now, it is selling as many units as City for Honda.

[Sarinkrc]

Few vehicle names which come to my mind , Maruti Versa when launched was a flop due to high prices and after relaunching the vehicle as eeco it found success. Another was Wagon R when launched was selling slowly & after a few years and tweaks car started selling well & lastly I remember Indica when launched had lots of issues, & after launching V2 Indica car sales started picking up

[R-Six]

Not sure why no one mentioned the most sort after CSUV that Maruti is selling in the market today! The Vitara Brezza.

When the OG Maruti Grand Vitara was launched in the Indian market, it hardly made any movement in the market.

But we all know what happened when they went back to the drawing board and came up with a smaller India market specific Vitara Brezza in 2016. Since the CSUV segment was booming by then, the Brezza was a run away success and Maruti went laughing all the way to the Bank!

Cheers.
R-Six

[sukhbirST]

What about turnaround in later years by launching a different model altogether. Case in point is fantastic old Baleno sedan not selling much but new Baleno is topping the charts.

[DriveOnceMore]

In my opinion one more addition to this list is Tata Tigor.
Tata Tigor did not do well despite of being a most beautiful (personal choice) Compact Sedan.

Thankfully Tata did not give up and now after launching it in EV and CNG powertrains it is doing well.

[josetom89]

Originally Posted by achyutaghosh

Suzuki WagonR too. Dont think the first versions (1999) were that successful. The Santro was more popular during that time. Think it picked during the 2nd gen (2010 models), and further in the 3rd gen version- its grown dimensions no doubt helping the cause.

+1 to that. When my father got his Wagon R back in 2002, he was ridiculed by almost everyone for not going with Santro. However six years and almost 150,000 kms later, we were the one's smiling after selling that same car for 2 lakhs.

[TorqueIndia]

Definitely Harrier is the one that suits this title the most in the recent times.
After its launch in Jan 2019 it shared showroom floor with the mighty Hexa and it competed with the outdated XUV 500. But the feature rich Kia Seltos, MG Hector launched later in few months crushed the Harrier that was available only with a humble 140ps MT diesel powertrain. The sales figures dwindled to as low as 300 units per month. TML then woke up and had a quick fix with 2020 version throwing in 170ps, AT and pano sunroof, the rest was history. Sales picked up, launch of SAFARI further boosted the sales. The combined sales of the twins were consistently on the higher side at 5K units per month beating MG Hector and XUV, occasionally beating the Innova crysta too. Mahindra regained the top rank now with XUV 700 and Scorpio but TML and its constantly updated portfolio is too hard to beat today.

[porsche_guy]

I think a lot of us are jumping the gun on this thread. We should look at sales numbers more relative to the segment due to the unusual circumstances in the past few years for the industry. Otherwise, as of now you can't really call any car as a flop in the market.

Originally Posted by R-Six

Not sure why no one mentioned the most sort after CSUV that Maruti is selling in the market today! The Vitara Brezza.

When the OG Maruti Grand Vitara was launched in the Indian market, it hardly made any movement in the market.

But we all know what happened when they went back to the drawing board and came up with a smaller India market specific Vitara Brezza in 2016. Since the CSUV segment was booming by then, the Brezza was a run away success and Maruti went laughing all the way to the Bank!

Cheers.
R-Six

I really wouldn't count this honestly. Both are very different cars from completely different segments. The nameplate isn't shared either. The Grand Vitara was always the more premium brand as we can see now with it coming back as Maruti's flagship.

[NarediAni7518]

Can we consider limited-run vehicles as well ? If yes then I guess the Polo GTI too was initially a flop, but once its price got reduced, it sold in good numbers. Correct me here if I’m wrong, but also, the last Gen Hyundai Tucson, when it was launched initially, it wasn’t sold in great numbers, but after a few years it sold well.

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by josetom89

+1 to that. When my father got his Wagon R back in 2002, he was ridiculed by almost everyone for not going with Santro. However six years and almost 150,000 kms later, we were the one's smiling after selling that same car for 2 lakhs.

I was in the same boat back in 2002-3 and went ahead with the Santro. But to the best of my knowledge , while Santro was a very popular car, it never outsold the Wagon R, despite Hyundais marketing efforts.

[Torq]

Originally Posted by fazayal

Let us take example of Tata Nano.

Tata gave everything and more

While I am by no means an expert here to comment on all things automotive, let me just point out here the big big blunder that TML did.

We owned a Tata Nano from the first lot, that is, bought in mid 2010. While we did end up paying 1.80~ lakhs for it, everywhere dad went, the first question was "Oh so this is the one lakh rupee car". Nano was absolutely nimble, agile and a frugal machine but ended up in the dump only because it was always advertised and labeled as a cheap car!

[josetom89]

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

I was in the same boat back in 2002-3 and went ahead with the Santro. But to the best of my knowledge , while Santro was a very popular car, it never outsold the Wagon R, despite Hyundais marketing efforts.

True, however in Kerala V1.0 Wagon R was a flop. It started picking up with V2.0 (the one with black strip on boot door) and became a block buster with V3.0 (the one with chrome strip on front grill). Santro definitely outsold V2.0 in the initial phase atleast in Kerala.

[peterjim13]

The car that came to my mind on reading the headline was Indica.
No better story for a flopped car to come back by sorting issues + more customer focused with a Version 2 (literally).

I learned driving on Indica, it was a workforce for our small family for over 7 years.

Adding
Tata Aria and Tata Hexa
Tata Safari & Tata Safari Dicor (not sure I can term Dicor a success, but somehow saw more Dicors on the road than the original Safari)

[CarguyNish]

Adding to the list, if I recall are

Tata Harrier V1 > Tata Harrier V2 (2020)
Hyundai i20(i gen) > Hyundai Elite i20
Maruti Baleno (Sedan) > Maruti Baleno (Hatchback)
Skoda Superb (2003) > Skoda Superb (2009)
Ford Endeavour (2002) > Ford Endeavour (2016)

[AZT]

Originally Posted by Torq

Nano was absolutely nimble, agile and a frugal machine but ended up in the dump only because it was always advertised and labeled as a cheap car!

This was also pointed out to Tata by a consulting firm they hired to analyze why it failed.

Tata Nano was marketed as the cheapest car, thinking that it was enough to motivate people to buy it. But people did not want to be associated with a cheap car. Also, people thought that cost-effectiveness would come with quality compromises. Thus, bad marketing caused Tata Nano's failure. The fire incident was blown out of proportion and was the death knell.

I remember the launch event and Ratan Tata's speech about making an affordable car for the masses. Such a proud moment. Wish this car would have succeeded.