[GTO]

Added this to the opening post.

Not just us car enthusiasts, even the markets appear to be disappointed in Maruti. Compare Maruti's share price performance to the NIFTY 50. Especially look at the contrast in the recent years:

[Bhupesh_2628]

Wholeheartedly agree with GTO here. The way I see it, Maruti doesn't want to be a first mover advantage. They are observing the market trends and will accordingly bring products but that's too late and nothing exciting. In this day and age, selling 4 speed TC gearboxes in their most expensive cars and no 6 airbags variant in any of their cars.
IMHO, I don't consider Nexa cars as premium ones.

Maruti is sitting in its comfort zone.

Possible reasons could be:

• No Research and Development
• Lack of innovative drive & poor decision-making from high management
• Don't wanna be first mover advantage due to fear of flop products - playing it safe but till when?
• Relying on Toyota partnership for future technologies - I think its the latter that wants to play safe (Toyota has become lazy and uninterested)

[octane_100]

Great analysis. It's bad for Maruti but good for the overall market IMHO. We don't need the Indian car market to be an Oligopoly with top 2 taking away almost 70% of the market. We should instead have at least 5 players fighting it out for the top 80% with a market share between 15-20% each.

[Mafia]

When 'empires' crumble, there is denial among the 'rulers'. It starts small, so easy to deny. Starts at the fringes, so the illusion of power remains. When the crumbling increases, it spreads rapidly and disastrously. Then there is no stopping it.

Maruti is feeling the heat and ignoring it. Suzuki has faded in many markets and is a fringe player in many markets. India is Suzuki's biggest market, 50% almost as far as I know. The strategy is to keep the biggest market starved of updated models and the demand will be satiated with small updates. Keeps the profits high and costs to develop new products low. This works without competition. Now we have some big players ready to offer more. Maruti and Suzuki can't ignore the imminent threat and hope to coast on current momentum till EV's kick in.

The current generation of buyers is very different from their parents. Some will not buy products that their parents bought as the perception is that it is old school. And portfolio Maruti has is old school. The sales will suddenly tumble and no amount of gimmickry will work.

Get in New products or get forgotten.

[dr_TJ]

Yes, I have this same thought lingering in my mind. Maruti products are just boring with just somehow adequate feature list.
It is enjoying good sales but Maruti is falling of the list of probables in the new car buyers shortlist.

My parents are more excited for a 2 door Mahindra Thar over a XL6 mainly because of the Safety ratings. Kia Seltos is also not preferred, again cause of the safety rating.

Maruti Suzuki needs to bring in new cars ASAP.

[Madrasin_selvan]

The slow but steady increase in the Market Share of Tata, Mahindra, Korean duo is going to chip away the market share of Maruti.

Maruti's top sellers are Baleno, Swift, Brezza, Alto, Ertiga and Eeco. In this list there are no competition with similar price range for Alto, Eeco and Ertiga. Maruti will survive through trust they have garnered over these years, unless another giant pitches competition for these models.

Another question we need to ponder over is what has their tie up with Toyota come up to ? We don't see any product sharing from Toyota to Maruti or am I missing anything ?

[gururajrv]

No, we are misguided or misinformed see Maruti’s advertisement on TVs - class leading economical cars!

I did quote once on the forum recently - This decade, it’s all about Tata & Mahindra leading Indian car segment. Maruti is way out of the league. They’ve a lot of catching up to do, but I don’t think they will - if they display mindset as their ad shown tv recently.

[fiat_tarun]

With the auto industry in decline since the peak in 2017, every increasing vehicle & fuel prices and the government is no mood to make vehicles cheaper to own and run, the alarm bells should be ringing at full volume at the MSIL HQ.

Maruti's bread and butter is the entry A & B segments and all the forecasts for the India market pointed to HUGE growth potential. Our car ownership metric stands at around 27 cars per 1000 Indians today and this was projected to grow to around 50-60 in the short term and follow China's footsteps to reach 150-200 in the future. All this growth was to come from the first time buyer graduating from a 2W to a car which was Maruti's turf and hence I think they ignored getting into the >10L market after the initial flops.

The reality today is that the Indian auto market may not really grow all that much and the growth is coming from the same pool of car owners looking to upgrade and hence we see the B & C segments growing much faster than the A segment. Hyundai read this early and all their focus is now on the B segment upwards and are reaping the benefits.

Having said this and because market shares are so skewed here, even today if I want an entry level car there aren't really many options other than a Maruti. I think we will see quite a few launches from Maruti next year - new Baleno, new Brezza which will give keep them going for a few more years. There is also the joint project with Toyota that is in the works (MUV, SUV ?) which could change their fortunes in the 15 - 20L market.

I really hope market shares become more distributed in our country as only healthy competition will eventually benefit us, the end customer with better cars !

[YD14]

Originally Posted by Mafia

The current generation of buyers is very different from their parents. Some will not buy products that their parents bought as the perception is that it is old school. And portfolio Maruti has is old school. The sales will suddenly tumble and no amount of gimmickry will work.

Forget about the current generation, even people in their 40s or 50s now want more tech, bling and premium interiors. Everybody uses smartphones these days and decide on their car choice online, where the length of the feature list matters, instead of the showroom where a SA can sell a car by bragging about fuel efficiency. Many people also check out cars on YouTube and in videos premium interiors makes the impression.

A small case study: My father bought Swift Dzire in 2013 because his friend had one. Tomorrow he will take delivery of Creta IVT. Why an automatic? Not because he thinks it will be easier for him to drive but because it is more futuristic tech.

The longer Suzuki takes to pull itself together, the harder it will be to shake off the image of being cheap and boring.

[Sran]

I got a call from Maruti and was asked a few questions as a survey. The questions were occupation, age, daily driving mileage, how often do I use my car i.e. (daily, weekly or monthly), and then they started asking about CNG.

4 straight questions on CNG.
1. Whether I like CNG as a fuel option or not?
2. Would I buy a CNG car or not? I answered no
3. Why would I not buy a CNG? Reasons if any, like cost, fuel buying time, etc..
4. In my estimate what would be a good price difference (increase) -1 lakh-1.2 lakh, 1lakh to 90,000 or 90,000-80,000 between Petrol and CNG that I would be willing to pay for a CNG vehicle?

Then finally the last 2 questions. What would be my next vehicle category be i.e hatchback, sedan, suv. What would be the fuel choice for my next vehicle i.e Petrol, Diesel, CNG or EV.

This makes me think that Maruti is betting on CNG instead of Hybrid or EV. With low price of CNG and good average they are bullish on it as future.

[starter]

Forget R&D. They are so bloody lazy to not sell Jimny inspite of manufacturing it here.
And M&M with Thar is making merry with 75K bookings.
If this does not wake them up, i don't know what will..

[shancz]

This analysis, restricted to MSIL itself, does shed a light of how the market has changed even for MSIL.
Credits to Providers : AutoPunditz

- Alto retracting the most while the S-Cross expanding the most, in percentages of course.
- The market is putting in more money since the relatively expensive wagonR, Swift and Baleno are selling more than the Alto with similar seating capacity.
This shift inside is an indication for sure but nowhere close to what's happening outside the market.

MSIL still leads with the USP of their service and spares network with easy maintenance at FNGs, they should really lead on the safety and innovation front.
High time they wake up and get going.

[SnS_12]

The >12 lac segment still needs a diesel as its dominated by SUV/MPV and that is Maruti's achilles heel.

But the partnership with Toyota is what Maruti will use to address this, which will help them sell bigger cars and also help Toyota to sell smaller successful cars in India.

[abhishek46]

In the A, B Segments, Maruti still holds the lion's share.
It is not hard to find the reason why.

- Smooth & highly reliable 1.2 & 1.0 engines.
- Fuel Efficiency, which is much better than the competitors.
- Good reliability & long lasting mechanicals
- Any major issues if found are Proactively fixed by recalls
- Decent, If not class leading Interior quality

However, things turn upside down, when we move up the Price ladder.
Maruti has dismal presence in this segment, and is on the verge of losing market share in the CSUVs segment as well.

- No Diesel Offerings
- No Turbo Petrols
- No EV Offerings
- No 'Proper' Automatics (That 4-Speed Dinosaur Era thing does not qualify in my books)
- Lame Hybrid Implementation (Problem Prone, adds just 3-5Hp)
- Un-exciting design, inside-out

[Ankur@VNS]

Originally Posted by GTO

Maruti is serving tap water when the customer is demanding bottled water!

The above mentioned quote of GTO, perfectly sums up what Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) is stuck with. When entire industry (HYUNDAI, TATA, KIA, M&M & MG) is trying to converge their entire product portfolio towards next level of product sophistication, comfort & luxury, while MSIL is not only clueless about its in-house BS6 diesel engine, but also, poorly prepared for EV launches.

Needless to say, that Maruti Suzuki, may be market leader by its overall sales, but definitely, a market laggard by its strategy and preparedness to suit consumer choices & tastes.