[anjan_c2007]

Since more than a decade ago, CV's and PV's were sold and serviced under a common roof in the same dealerships by nearly all auto manufacturing units in India. Lately, a very few OE's who are both passenger car (PV) and commercial vehicle (CV) makers like Tata Motors have separated their dealerships for these two categories of vehicles. As the clientele and their specific needs for both these categories of vehicles are different it is always preferable to have separate showrooms, which Tata Motors (earlier TELCO) has realised of late. Till their Tata Estate, Sierra, Safari, Sumo, Indica and Indigo years they might have sensed the perils of having two in one, common dealerships, but they have lately separated these. In many cases it is the same dealer who has established his CV showroom in the city's outskirts, leaving the old showroom in the city's prime area for PV's. And there is a rider here. Tata Motors has though kept common dealerships in smaller towns (Tier II,III) where the sales volume is not high which is practical, as one cannot expect a dealer who sells 10-20 cars and trucks a month to have a separate showroom for PV's and CV's.

Contrarily, Force Motors and Mahindra are still selling PV's and CV's under the same roof. But their tractors are sold and serviced in separate showrooms. As far as Force Motors is concerned, they sell very few PV's though. There could again be some unavoidable tractor, PV and CV sales and service of Mahindra and Force Motors under one roof, though in smaller Tier II and III towns, where sales volumes are too low to justify separate showrooms.

The photos illustrate contentions stated in the above paras.



Old Tata Motors showroom (source teambhp.com)



Old Tata Sierra Turbo advt listing Tata dealers in Punjab- most of these also sold and serviced CV's (image source: automotiveinida.com)

Sree Gokulam Motors TATA Cars Showroom Thodupuzha Car Dealer in ThodupuzhaThodupuzha Kerala 685584.j

A new Tata Motors PV dealership in Thodupuzha, Kerala - source Sree Gokulam Motors



Force Motors Tractor showroom- source Adarsha Entterprises, Ranebennur taluq Haveri, Karnataka





Above two image Force Motors showroom- source Keshav Force Motors, Karnal, Haryana



Force Motors dealership source- MM Automobiles, Rewari Haryana



Mahindra Tractors, Palakkad dealership- source dealer

https://smotors.in/

Mahindra Tractors Shahdol M.P. website



Mahindra dealer- all PV's and CV's under one roof - source Unnati Motors, Nagpur

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...ow/9132447.cms

An old newslink above about Tata Motors to sell PV's and CVs at same dealerships in smaller locations (June 2011 TOI)

In the poll, members are requested to vote for their preference, whether they prefer a common showroom for both PV's and CV's sales and services or whether these should be separate.

Also, comments and anecdotes about such dealerships of Tata, Mahindra, Force and also other automakers are most welcome.

[GTO]

Has to be different, indisputably, especially in markets of good size. I can understand a common showroom in smaller cities & towns where one cannot justify the cost of separate channels, but in larger markets, they have to be separate.

It's not just the customer expectations + profile + difference in sales requirements, but even the products are entirely different! As an example, a Tata Ace will spoil the personality of the 2023 Safari Facelift parked next to it, as will a Bolero Pickup next to a 33-lakh rupee XUV700.

The same salesperson cannot sell a Grand Vitara to a family, and also a fleet of 40 Eecos to a logistics company manager. Requires an entirely different skillset. Plus, the former will expect a certain ambience & finesse, while the latter will only care about the price & quick delivery.

[anjan_c2007]

MSIL also sells the Carry mini truck and Eeco Vans (no glass windows beyond "B" pillar) as CV's. These are sold countrywide at Maruti Arena showrooms. Luckily, we do not have "luxury variants" of these two spartan CV's to qualify for entry to NEXA showrooms.

But in many cities and metros these two CV's sell in huge numbers. And apart from this, we have the Alto, Swift, Eeco, Dzire Tour and a few other models selling in huge numbers especially in the metros as taxis. These cater to both the metered taxi and cab aggregators' markets.

Maruti has segregated its dealerships as Arena and Nexa based on their car price tags as a commerciallly intelligent move. "Maruti Tour"(maybe some other name but MSIL likes the word "Tour") dealerships to exclusively cater to the CV market will be desirable.

Maybe, other carmakers too can think on such lines.

[Newtown]

The cross-sell opportunities across both these segments is limited. Hence in Tier 1 cities, it is necessary to have the sales and service for both segments at different locations.

However, once there is more traction gained around software derived vehicles which will include both categories of vehicles, that will be a game changer. That is when I foresee both PV's & CVs being sold & serviced (or let me say updated) under the same roof.

[steadfast]

Originally Posted by Newtown

However, once there is more traction gained around software derived vehicles which will include both categories of vehicles, that will be a game changer. That is when I foresee both PV's & CVs being sold & serviced (or let me say updated) under the same roof.

I am curious . How ?

[furyrider]

Personally, i don't care as long as the vehicle ticks my boxes, but when I tag along my family with me, I expect the showrooms for PV and CV to be different.

I had to drop the idea of purchasing a Marazzo just for this reason. I posted the details a long time ago in the Marazzo official thread. The gist is that I visited a Mahindra showroom with my family to check out the Marazzo. When we mentioned that we came looking for a Marazzo, the showroom staff pointed at a lone M2 on display in the commercial vehicle part of the showroom while the PV section has all other cars from their stable. No one attended us and we were left to roam around the CV section all to ourselves. The experience was sub par and when asked for a quote, they asked if we were looking for a yellow plate. We then visited a Kia showroom and the experience was exact opposite. So much so that we ended up with a Carens instead of Marazzo.

[rakesh_r]

After owning the Gurkha (which is serviced along with the other commercial vehicles of Force), I simply no longer mind, although the Gurkha has a dedicated bay. This is coming from someone who was used to the conveniences of getting his Scross 1.6 serviced at a Nexa service centre. The service centre does not have any fancy stuff, no AC, no WiFi, no fancy coffee vending machines (I do get a nice "Khadi Chammach wali Chai" (read: tea laden with insane levels of sugar) which i politely refuse).
What I do enjoy is having a nice conversation with my Mechanic while he works on my truck. Moreover, i get to personally inspect the vehicle throughly, sometimes even get my hands dirty while inspecting underneath. At the same time, I also strike a conversation with the commercial drivers and get to know lot of stuff.

It doesn't matter if its a nice swanky set up or a tin sheet garage, as long as the job is done good, I am happy.

[Hayek]

In someways, CV sales are a more sophisticated and technical sales process, while PV sales require much better soft skills and an appeal to emotion. If you are selling a Safari, you need someone with an iPad and a jazzy video presentation. If you are selling an Ace or 407, you need someone with an excel sheet which assesses total cost of ownership based on the use case of the specific customer .

There are very few people who can combine both these hard and soft skills - especially in a multi lingual environment like urban India. Hence the need for dedicated sales people and separate showrooms. There is no need for either a PV or a CV buyer to be offended by this .

[V.Narayan]

Hmmmm interesting question. As one of the members who actually sold trucks allow me to chime in. I am a bit outdated having sold Tata trucks 4 decades ago. Trucks and smaller CVs like the 407 and Tata Telcoline pick-ups were not sold in the showroom but in the field. We used to take the new product door to door to truckers and other buyers and demonstrate the vehicle to them, let them kick the tyres, get behind the wheel, under the truck (literally), dig in under the bonnet and pass a hundred expert user comments and so on. We would hold demo melas at the "transport nagar" of the town all day long with ample supply of samosas. That is where the decision to buy got influenced. The deal might actually be closed anywhere. The dealers showroom actually was really for warranty service and major repairs and to lay out a few spanking polished vehicles whenever the Tata GM sales was visiting!

Times may change but people do not. A car is bought from the heart and with a budget in mind. A truck or a CV of some kind is purchased with the head and a business model and cashflows in mind.

For a large trucker the respect you give to him in front of others counts for a l-o-t in determining volumes you'll get. You got to know his family, visit his home make sure the General Manager visits his office/godown and so on.

Conclusion - keep them separate. The kind of sales person you need are rather different. One has to sell once or twice. The other has to build a relationship to sell several times to the same customer or deal with orders for multiple vehicles at a time.

[Jeroen]

Separate I think, most definitely.
I think it is all about giving each type of customer its appropriate due.

Interestingly in the past we have seen some consumer brands mixing under one roof. E.g. VW and Audi were sold for a while under one roof. Did not work at all. People buying a VW expect something different from people buying an Audi. It’s simply not a good idea to mix, because it is so obvious you are doing so to lower cost only.

Some brands have the same issue to a certain extent within their own brand. If the brand has a very wide range, e.g. BMW or Mercedes, you have two very different segments of customers coming into your showroom.

Of course, when selling say Aston Martins or Ferraris this is never an issue. Brands such as Jaguar and Landrover never had such issues either.

Toyota went an additional step to solve this very issue and invented a separate brand for the top of its line up, Lexus. Not sure about India, but here these will be sold via different dealers, different showrooms.

A young family has very different requirements on what they want to see and discuss in a show room. They might have some kids with them. So dealers here will have a special play area for them. They will bring their buggy, because they want to make sure it fits into the boot. (Trust me modern baby buggies are huge!). Kids won’t to climb behind the wheel of every car in the showroom.

Coffee and te will be served from a cheap machine.

But when you go into a Ferrari showroom, the last thing you want to see is kids running around. Nobody has ever brought a buggy into the Ferrari showroom, ever. They will buy the nanny a VW or similar that will hold the buggy.

One is not necessarily better or worse than the other, but it is about knowing your customers and catering for what is relevant to them.



Jeroen

[Newtown]

Originally Posted by steadfast

I am curious . How ?

• Usage of the same platform across PV and CV
• Apart from body panels and different suspension requirements, the hardware will be motors of some sort and associated software.
• The line between PV & CV will become even more fuzzy. Ex Cyber truck. Is it for work, or speed or both or families? I don't have the answer but its sure fuzzy as hell.
• With D2C, dealerships (or agents) will want to reduce Capex & Opex and increase efficiencies. They will consolidate workshops for both as well due to the above.

Sounds far flung right now, but I see the moving in that direction.