[dular]

I am truly impressed with what Tata has done in the past few years. Building a complete portfolio of cars for each segment is not an easy task. Also, with a variety of engines for petrol, diesel and CNG. Keeping the prices in check and by providing good quality robust cars, what Tata has achieved is truly remarkable. The last thing Tata needs to do is to improve its ASS image. I wish them all the best for the future.

[amods]

I could witness the *Trend* myself when I got a chance to visit a TATA Motors showroom(for the first time ever) past weekend for doing the PDI of my friend's Safari dark edition top end version, as he is in Indore and needed an inspection before he could proceed for registration.

Called up the sales advisor at Adishakti Motors at Veerannapalya in Bengaluru. He was courteous enough and called me at 4PM. When I reached the showroom, I thought I have arrived at the launch of a hot property in center of Bengaluru It was heavily crowded.

The showroom was modern and had a great feel to it. There was an army of salespersons(I could count at least 25 people) nicely dressed and attending to customers. I was attended promptly by a coordinator(who checked on me at least 10 times in 40 minutes I waited there), since the SA was busy and was finalizing a booking, he requested me to wait for sometime. I was okay with the wait because I did not want to bother him in his sale. Meanwhile I checked on to all the excellent products on display.

It took him 40 mins to complete the booking, and he apologized to me for the delay and immediately drove me to his stockyard some 10kms away in company car and allowed me the detailed PDI. He was there with me the entire time and encouraged me to check everything to my heart's(checklist's) content. Again drove me back to showroom and was courteous all through.

Based on this experience, If I were to upgrade my car, I would definitely give the particular dealer a chance. I agree that most people don't second my thoughts on the experience, the current bunch of above par products are making people flock the showroom as I saw that day and they are happily putting their money on TATA.

If the dealers make the experience as good as mine was, it will definitely add to the success story.

[AntPaul]

Some of the recent sales success must be attributed to their ability to balance supply and demand better than most. I know at least a couple of friends who ended up purchasing Harrier's because XUV700's waiting periods are not reasonable. Overall, I think TATA commands lowest waiting lists among major manufacturers. This helps attract customer. It helps they have decent products too.

Another case in point, the Ignis AMT I booked a month back (and still waiting) has a waiting period of 2-3 months in a color of choice. A Swift AMT could be had in a month or so despite it outselling Ignis by at least 400%. It show that Suzuki plants are running at full steam and yet unable to meet demand, hence prioritizing cars with FAT margins. I did not consider TATA for the small automatic city hatch requirement due to their 1.2 3 pot NA engine that is perhaps the worst of its kind on sale.

[negi15]

Going by the way, Tata and Mahindra are getting their acts right in product definition, sales and A.S.S department(still a long way to go), I would not be surprised if today's reliable brands like Toyota/Honda/Hyundai/Suzuki face the heat in next 2-3 years. Once reliability and A.S.S. terms are tagged to Tata/Mahindra, competitor's cannot back on these terms alone for selling their product, which is currently the situation and I have experienced this. first hand at Toyota showroom recently, before I went and bought my new Tata Safari Dark Edition. Hope Tata and Mahindra do not deviate from their current track and we will see a battle in auto market in coming years, out of which customers will come out as real winners.

[Sebzgeo89]

TATA and Mahindra are definitely upping the game. As customers this is exactly what we always wanted.

Slightly out of context, I have never owned a TATA or Mahindra yet. But purely from going through Team bhp threads I’m getting the idea that Mahindra after sales experience is a better one compared to TATA. Maybe people who own cars from both companies at the same time can attest to that.

[AROO7]

Apart from regaining a sizeable market share due credit needs to be given to Mahindra and Tata duo for changing the Indian automotive narrative from 'Kitna Deti Hai' to 'Kitni Safe Hai'. That said, both the brands still have a long road ahead and I wish they slice off more share from Maruti and Hyundai as the volume sellers from these brands are still not the safest options in their segment.

As for the international market presence, I guess Mahindra has the upper hand over Tata. But both need to bring more competent EVs (and dedicated platforms) to compete with giants like VW, Toyota, Honda, Ford, GM, GWM, etc in developed markets.

[BigB]

Without any doubts, both TATA and M&M have come out with excellent products with great pricing. There is absolutely no taking away any credit from them.

However, one small but significant change that Corona has brought about in some peoples thought, is to prefer local brands. People have also noted significant "help" from domestic companies during Corono time to India, as compared to foreign MNC's. From soaps to SUV's, many of us have started to prefer local brands.

"Vocal for Local" call from GoI and designing safer vehicles from both the Indian manufacturers have added fuel to the fire.

[Asoon]

An the good part is both have significant portion of portfolio in the higher segments (8L+/10L+/15L+) so its not just pricing or VFM strategy (which worked well for KWID)

Both of them have launched segment shaking, they are the benchmarks in the segments they play in. A decade back who would have believed that TATA with Nexon will start 5 Star obsession in the auto market, with EV tech become most successful EV in India in no time, Launch best looking cars (Harrier / Safari). Thar / XUV with their respective offerings in premium feel, capability, engine & gear box are generations above compared to second player. Who would have imagined Autocar doing an episode on POLO GT to XUV drag Race or NEXON EV to THAR Drag race. Segment/ a segment above has no answer to M&Ms 2.0 Turbo Petrol / 2.2 Diesel.

5/6 years back I used to wonder "How can someone (looking for personal car) spend 20L+ on brands like TATA / Mahindra" and Today I am evaluating XUV / Safari / ScorpiaN for upgrade.

India is a big market wit a lot of opportunities, With this headstart, I expect Indian auto makers (both 2W & 4W) to create global brands

[ArTigor]

Something that blows away my mind is how Tata rose back from selling around 10k-14k cars per month half a decade ago to constantly delivering 40k+ cars.
The tagline 'Rise' is apt for Mahindra given all their products are now aspirational products which sell in big numbers.

Key aspects that came up as game changers for Tata

• New design language: Zest and Bolt were the baby steps, but the leap began from Tiago-Nexon and after the punch they are literally sprinting.
• New robust engines and refined gearbox: all their current engines are reliable, yes I accept that the NA 1.2L petrol or even the 1L Revotorq diesel(discontinued) were not really rockets but they have emerged as reliable no nonsense engines.
• Safety: Tata has literally become synonymous to safe cars.
• Footfall benefit: Tiago, Nexon, Harrier, Punch helped to attract footfalls to Tata showrooms, and what this does is essentially gives leverage to even the non sellers like Tigor, last year Tigor was selling average 2k units per month. Now it is reaching 5k units per month, essentially the same car, same engine (yes I understand there is some push from the EV and CNG variants).
• Price tag: Tata cars are competitively priced, they undercut rivals by great margin.
• Customer experience: Today Tata showrooms and service centers are way more customer friendly than what they were a decade ago, although there is a great scope for improvement.
• EV image makeover: The Nexon EV has single handedly helped Tata to a great extent with its image makeover.

Key aspects that came up as game changers for Mahindra

• Design language: the XUV 500 was the beginning of the story but the current Thar and XUV 700 shows how Mahindra have matured in their designs. The Marazzo was indeed a well baked product and the XUV 300 has one of the best fit and finish in its segment.
• Engines: Mahindra is one car maker which almost hits the ball out of park with right engine and gearbox choice for its cars.
• Safety: Mahindra is shoulder to shoulder with Tata in this aspect
• Pricing: They just killed competition in segments above and below with their VFM pricing.
• SUV portfolio: Its is a SUV dominated market today and Mahindra portfolio is currently all about SUV's, caters to what the people want.
• Apart from the above, it is expected that mahindra will rise higher in its design with Pratap Bose joining them.

I hope both these homegrown automobile manufacturers take the right path to growth in the future.

[alokk0912]

Absolutely. Incredibly proud to see both of the Indian manufacturers doing so well.

Apart from ASS issue with TATA, I think they could have done better with their product management after looking at what they did with ARIA and HEXA. Mahindra has done much better here where they have continued cashing on their long running brands and coming up with versions which are at least couple of gens ahead of the previous one; Scorpion N being a prime example.

Indian manufacturers need to work on ASS and make their vehicles a bit more feature rich; although they have done a fabulous job compared to their previous versions. If these 2 things are brought at par with koreans, sky is the limit for them. Outside of this, FE is the only differentiator left for Suzukis and Hyundais of the world at least in SUV space.

[shobhit.shri]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

I get it the former is owned by an international MNC

Suzuki owns approximately 56% of Maruti, the remaining is owned by Indian stock market entities. In my humble opinion, it will be unfair to put it in the same league as other foreign manufacturers.

[Mechanto]

I was just thinking about this a month back. International players with deep pockets, both existing and newer ones, churning out product after product. But Tata and Mahindra are able to give the international players a run for their money. This is not just about being vocal for local, but the sheer quality of the cars and the importance to safety. Let this trend continue, and wish to see Tata and Mahindra become No 1 & 2 very soon.

[RGK]

Kudos to M&M and Tata.

Given that most firms have begun shifting away from diesels, one of the key factors in their success is the availability of models with diesel engines.

Hope they enhance the servicing methods as much as they can to the level of global manufacturers so that owners have a pleasant and problem-free ownership experience.

[Turbohead]

Now only if Tata and Mahindra lobby hard to remove the lousy taxation based on length and engine displacement, it would incentivise them to create products of global standards that it can be sold both here and across the global while making global products from the foreign giants viable in India.

The winners in this case would be the customers, ancillary industries and the big manufacturers as we get to buy world class products while they get to sell Indian products across the world at larger numbers than ever before. Currently none of the vehicles made for the local market are sold anywhere else thanks to the lax standards followed here to make up for the huge taxes levied.

It's high time this happens.

[Geta]

Originally Posted by shobhit.shri

Suzuki owns approximately 56% of Maruti, the remaining is owned by Indian stock market entities. In my humble opinion, it will be unfair to put it in the same league as other foreign manufacturers.

Indians owning 44% of Maruti-Suzuki did not help our country one bit in the international auto scene. For the last 10 years Indians have been buying at least 100,000 Maruti cars per month but despite such high turnover and sales, Maruti didn't develope products which can be sold across the globe. Worse, they only concentrated on India centric products. Whatever little sales the brand had out of India, it was projected as a Japanese brand. So no chest thumping on that regard.

Tata and Mahindra, despite having sales of less than 1/10th of Maruti at one point, have really come up with products which make us proud as Indians. I only wonder what would happen if Mahindra has a guaranteed 100,000 sales per month in India. For the risk appetite they have shown to possess, I wouldn't be surprised if they would use the Indian market to get catapulted into a truly global auto maker, which Maruti never tried, in my humble opinion.