[Gansan]

I am particularly happpy about Indian two wheeler companies, the way they are giving the Jap brands a run for their money. Not only in the domestic market, but also in export markets.

[PetroHeado]

I would be pissing off many of my fellow "Indian car Nationalists." I prefer to be strictly quality-focused when it comes to a product. Be it a phone or a car. Off late synonymous words like "Make in India" and GNCAP rating is vastly defending the homegrown manufacturers. I have come across people who just chuck out car brands from their recommend lists just because they are not Indian-made or they did not score well in a simulated crash at 60 kph inside a closed facility. Companies like Tata have a long way to go in terms of reliability in comparison to Japanese makes. I wish buyers would stop running for marketing words and look if the car meets their needs and is VFM w.r.t to their budget rather than going behind emotions. Because at the end of the day they are all businesses waiting for a chance to loot their customers.

Rather than feeling a sense of pride, we all need to be sensible customers and promote competition among manufacturers than protecting a handful for emotional sake. Because only when there is competition, manufacturers are encouraged to provide their best and we the customers have a lot of choices to put our money into.

[Kosfactor]

May the best product win!

You CAN come to our country as a new brand and win with a good product, You CAN release a good product and win despite being an unpopular brand.

The opposite of this can also happen if OEMs become lazy.

MG needs to tell us what happened to Hector diesel AT, it's just so dumb not to release one.

[fhdowntheline]

This may sound a bit OT, but the real question , as someone put it , is why is the Indian car market, not able to get the very latest models/ tech to the consumers so that home grown OEMs can be benchmarked. We are still under a cost/ tax structure that penalizes the most consumer friendly powertrain i.e. hybrid transmissions. Even though we are within the top 5 or 6 automobile markets of the world , the very latest cars are first launched in South East Asian markets. Its not so much about supporting a manufacturer of Indian origin, it is about giving ourselves more importance as an automobile consumer society. It starts from wearing a helmet or a seat belt. If we respect our own lives and our choices, the other stakeholders will do so.

[Sran]

Do we count Maruti Suzuki as Indian or foreign brand? Do we consider JLR as Indian becuase it is owned by an Indian corporate? Tata has owned JLR far longer than BMW and Ford.

Suzuki motors alone minus India is a small player in global automobile industries. It's sales are miniscule and however hard they try to boss around here in India, they will die in a minute without Indian market. Indian R&D is also done locally. India accounts for 51% of its global sales and its home country Japan contributed only 20%.

I am definitely proud of Mahindra but can't say the same thing about Tata motors yet, although their taming of JLR is pretty good. More domestic manufacturers are definitely a good sign for economy and self sustainability. But I also think Indian domestic manufacturers are lazy and they do not invest in R&D and work on technology sharing with global manufacturers which ultimately is net negative. Ancillary manufacturing is far more important than car manufacturing. Technology transfer can stop anytime.

https://www.globalsuzuki.com/globalnews/2022/0427.html

[INJAXN]

It does. As an Indian, Indian brands flourishing anywhere in the world will make us happy only.
The real question is whether your next car will be from an Indian manufacturer for one single reason? I guess No. Its a very competitive market and any brand, be it home grown or a foreign one will have to come up with good and VFM products for them to survive.

[shancz]

These manufacturers have proved the popular opinion wrong. To me folks/institutions/companies who keep the hope alive for decades and then come out with flying colours deserve every bit of credit, respect and accolades.
They've fought hard and earned it

Today when we see them leading the safety and innovation fronts in a much diverse market this makes me feel happy and proud.
But they have to be cautious in not letting it get to their heads.

Second the opinion on all the success stories having a visionary leader behind them.
Not well versed with the pre-90's so will skip those but for the remaining:
- Sid Lal taking helm of RE and completely changed its course since the 2000s with the most important launch of the Classic 350 which making RE more accessible to the younger generation and they haven't looked back since.
- Rahul Bajaj taking on the highly consevative "cc" game with the Pulsar twins.
- TVS's relentless focus on quality which although delays new launches but just look at their portfolio now and most importantly ride their motorcycles.

The same applies to cars but enough has already been said so will skip those.

[DicKy]

Buy domestic or not, can't understand being agnostic about our own companies doing well. The jingoism is not an Indian thing or a recent phenomena. Look at any car producing nation (their own brands) and there will be a certain level of pride in their own brands.

We lost half a century to the license raj. The European and American brands had a pretty huge headstart. The East Asian brands had heavy protectionism in their favour, it was just that our protectionism killed off any chance of innovation or export opportunities. TATA could have very well folded up their passenger car division if it was not for Ratan Tata's vision instead of just looking at the redline in the books. Mahindra could have continued to make jeep derivatives or concentrated on tractors. I have nothing but respect for the brands that survived the 90s liberalisation, in the same level I have no sympathy whatsoever for Hindustan Motors and Premier Automobiles Ltd. Agreed they couldn't do anything till the late 80s, but even after the markets opened up their actions speak of the lethargic attitude. What do they do when broadbanding happened? Launch decades old cars!!! Of course one couldn't fault them as the government was hellbent on protecting Maruti. Still their story shows what happens when there is no passion and vision, but just plain profit.

There is more to cars than just a depreciating transportation device from A to B which we will sell off in five years. There is a whole cultural and economic aspect behind it. That is what keeps the identity of Rolls Royce, Range Rover, Volvo, Lamborghini intact even if their ownership changes. That is what keeps American still buy American brands eventhough it was the same market which allowed the Japanese and Koreans to grow. That is what makes the British go all snobby for Rolls, Bentley and especially Range Rover even if their own industry was killed off by labour unions. And what keeps the Japanese car market dominated by the Japanese themselves even if they have opened up their market decades ago.

Though to be frank, until the Altroz, XUV700, Thar and ScorpioN arrived, I was proud of our car brands but not impressed by them IRL. Even today am not mighty impressed by the products, but then I could say the same for most cars below 30 lakhs from all international manufacturers sold in India.

[RedTerrano]

Hell Yeah!
The words Made In India make me immensely proud.

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

More so, for the Indian car industry mainly, that was a caged and immune to any foreign competition and onslaught till the mid 1990's.

I wouldn't call it caged. Protected (monopolistic arrogance thanks to license Raj) is the correct adjective.

Earlier, in the two wheeler segment the competition heated up by mid-1980's.This is when two wheeler majors like API, Ideal Jawa Ltd and Scooters India Ltd and its offshoots (or tributaries??) along with other smaller players felt the heat. They all perished either within a few years or a decade or so. Bajaj Auto, TVS and Royal Enfield endured and grew in strength.

I am old enough to remember my Baba booking his second scooter (Bajaj Super, the first being the awesome Lambretta)
Forget test drive, you were not allowed to even touch your prospective ride. All scooters were paddocked behind the fence and you had to tell the Bajaj fellow with the clipboard that one in the 3rd row. Yes the creme coloured one.

After some years, he booked his first car, a Premier Padmini. Things had changed a bit. Baba wanted bucket seats and floor shift gears (a high tech thing for those times) and I remember he had to pay a premium.

[/quote]
Coming to the car scenario, we have Mahindra and Mahindra, Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland as homegrown survivors from the onslaught, while Standard Motors, Premier Automobiles and Hindustan Motors have perished. [/quote]

In my opinion, these companies survived because they innovated. Keep an ear out to what your customers want / need and try to make something which also fits in the economics.
Tata of course now owns Jaguar Land Rover! M&M, not the one to be left behind hit the jackpot with the original Thar and turned that brand into a lifestyle vehicle. In more recent times, they have poured million$ in Formula E which will lead to innovation being carried over to our everyday cars.

[giri1.8]

I would happily support home grown products, only if they are actually good! I am particularly happy about the way RE is moving forward with their lineup, they have come a long way in quality!

Same cannot be said about my previous car from a Desi car maker, sold it just after covering 22k on the odo. Horrendous quality, poor quality control, bad customer service! That 1.2 felt decent during the TD, but on the open highway it was neither efficient nor fast, just the worst car ownership experience so far in our family!

[GTO]

Yes, seeing Tata & Mahindra do what they do makes me incredibly proud because:

- They are fighting with the best global car companies, and even beating them in many segments. The fact is, Tata & Mahindra have a fair share of best-in-class products (e.g. Altroz, XUV700).

- Before, they used to fight & sell just on price or value (e.g. Indica, Bolero). Today, cars like the Nexon, Thar, XUV700, Scorpio-N, Safari etc. are selling well even with a premium price.

That being said, we shouldn't buy a car just because it is from an Indian company. MNCs like Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Kia & others also employ thousands of Indians, invest thousands of crores in India, engage with thousands of vendors & greatly contribute to this country's economy.

[car_crazy]

Ofcourse, needless to say I will vouch for Indian brands any day. I know they have got their own set of quality issues but that's how every brand has evolved over time. And IMHO it is fair to give first chance to homegrown brands so that they can iron out issues and then go multinational. Call me Patriotic but I am proud of who I am.

[dragracer567]

One of the biggest lies from the license raj was that Indian brands need to be constantly protected to survive. The Indian car industry right now is an anti-thesis to that notion - competition has been a shot in the arm for Indian brands - the ones good enough to survive that is!

[richie4u]

As long as a brand serves my purpose, the quality isn't compromised and I'm not being used as a guinea pig for a half baked product, I would consider a product made by any country. Yes, if I had to make a choice between two products that fulfill the above conditions, I would proudly go for the one Made in India.

The only hitch I see and that has to change is that any Indian brand once purchased has really bad after sales,no matter how expensive this product is. It makes one feel that you're being taken for granted just because you're one of the fellow countrymen who will "understand" the (non) functionality of the system and will "adjust" to the situation. That makes my heart pain and I believe looking at the above replies of fellow members, what makes us consider "Made in India" as a second choice to a product made in a different country.

[ellip5i5]

Good that we have home grown players. I will be happy when they are sold on par with Hyundai, Toyota and others across the world