[PetroHeado]

Hello BHPians. I would like to share my perspective here. I am taking a different stand here and focussing the less spoken blame side on us the consumer. And reasons, I have explained this in the form of a rant below. I hope this may help some prospective buyers too.

Off late, I do feel that the Indian car scene has had a paradigm shift to "Make in India" products. People are willing to ignore niggles on Indian brands and depart with tons of cash, even though deep inside they know that the other manufacturer offered the best that suited them, because they are "Made in India." I have read through some car-buying threads where people have just ignored brands because they are from other manufacturers outside India and even on youtube I came across similar spoken people. And I am genuinely concerned with the trend. At the end of the day, I feel that, like every other car brand even TATA and Mahindra are profit-oriented entities(businesses basically and boy are they making the most of this opportunity). And it's at the customer's discretion should they choose a product from the competition. I can also reassure prospective buyers that, the reviewers in the Team-BHP forum are an amazing bunch of enthusiasts who are unbiased and provide reliable reviews. I bought a Mahindra XUV300 after testing 12 other cars from various segments that fell in my price bracket (yes it took around 6 months of pain). I zeroed in on Venue and XUV300 as final contenders. But Mahindra offered me better features for the price I paid and the space and comfort were much better in the latter. But, I was skeptical about their(MM's) service history. After deep research into the car ownership threads, I was reassured that in recent times Mahindra is focussing on providing excellent after-sales experience to their valuable customers ( I can vouch for this as my cousin is part of the main Service team in Mahindra). And I genuinely appreciated this. And trust me, through all those times, safety rating or Indian make image was only my second priority. The top priority was genuine value for my money, peace of mind in ownership, and comfort for me and my family inside it.

On the same note, TATA has been pushing loads of cars into the market, and heck some even come with issues right from day 1. And people knowingly buy them. I guess we should genuinely consider other manufacturers and give them a chance rather than just go by the Made in India sentiments. I persuaded one of my friends who was looking to buy a city-focused hatchback. He initially zeroed in on Tiago and i10. I instantly threw him posts about TATA's after-sales service-related threads from Team-BHP and he instantly booked the i10. His words "I guess at the end of the day, I am a consumer in the market and I deserve the best for the money I pay."

Just like in the USA in the past times (where imports were heavily restricted, I am guessing it's still there), we Indians too seem to miss the cream of cars that are loved and worshipped by the car community. And I put the majority blame on our people's perception that Indian make should be the ones preferred as Indian brands are the only ones who care for our customers. (I am exaggerating here, but I guess it drives the point.)

And fearing this trend, manufacturers may not be willing to take risks with their expensive models, and yes the tax system on car dimensions and engine specifications sometimes drives me nuts. Now just imagine, you are a car manufacturer and now you have an SUV in its latest gen in the international market and you are planning to launch one in India, because why not? (assume you are gonna manufacture it here). and then you face a sea of taxes like more than 1000cc x tax, more than 4 meters y tax, etc, and in the end, the car you thought wud cost a customer 30 lacs is now costing 40 lacs. So you either reduce your profit margin to cut down the price or simply just don't launch it thereby saving huge piles of cash (setting up manufacturing lines, training service employees, etc.) that can be focussed to provide vehicles to friendly markets outside.

Now I do understand there can be various other reasons but I wanted to point out this to the community. I apologize in advance if I ranted too much, but the pain of Ford departing India still aches. (I was a huge fan of the Chevy Cruze it vanished and now my dream car Endeavor which I was so much waiting to buy after saving the needed amount is no more available!)

Anyway, thanks for reading if you have reached this part of the post. I can't wait to read your opinions on this. Hopefully reactivating this thread.

Happy Motoring!