[abhinavsureka]

mitsubishi : The biggest example of a brand failing despite Bhakt levels of fan following is Mitsubishi. They had the best products in their respective segments. And not only in India. They have messed up globally with the Evo and Pajero being discontinued.
I have a 12 year old Pajero sport and I love the old pajero more.
Despite my Pajero sport being so old and having done 200k kms it is still more comfortable on highways in the front than my Innova Hycross. I still do a bit of offroading in it and feels like new.
That kind of build quality you cannot find in the toyotas or any other brand. Endeavour was the only tank around and that's gone too.

[Flyingdutchman]

I agree with Abhinav in above Post. It has to be Mitsubishi .They missed the train when entire Indian Automotive sector was jumping on SUV/Crossover bandwagon which was their forte.

They had established a name for themselves in Indian market, had global reputation, had enough goodwill from fellow enthusiast. Only thing lacking was will power and gutsy nature of top level management.

All things are not yet lost. Mitsubishi should seriously consider entering into Indian market with substantial capital infusion and if they play their cards right, market will respond positively.

They have such competent product lineup already established in Asian markets, they don't need to build a product from the scratch. All new Xpander range including Cross/HEV can give serious fight to Innova/Hycross. Pajero Sport or Outlander Sport can still rival Fortuner. New Triton can be a solid option in recreational Offroader segment which shall be dominated by That Roxx. Eclipse can play into Harrier , XUV700, Creta segment.

Missed opportunity indeed. You can succeed even if have 3-4 well sorted, priced products on offer like Kia.

[arunrajk81]

Tata and the Safari Storme:
Tata's decision to replace the Safari Storme with a softroader SUV is a missed opportunity for an entry-level ladder-frame 4x4 SUV. While one could argue that low sales justified the move. But the the lack of timely updates played a significant role in the Safari Storme’s low sale and decline. Meanwhile, Now, Mahindra has the segment to itself with the Scorpio.

Renault and the Duster:
Renault’s failure to update the Duster on time, combined with the discontinuation of the diesel engine, has left a void in the market for affordable, off-road-capable small SUVs with long suspension travel. The Jeep Compass serves the same purpose in the U.S. market, but in India, it's a premium SUV.

Tata and Mahindra's people movers:
Both Tata and Mahindra prematurely discontinued their people movers, the Hexa and Marazzo, respectively. These vehicles had the potential to cater to a taxi segment but were pulled out before reaching their full potential leaving it to Toyota to charge an exorbitant price for the Innova.

Tata and Ashok Leyland in the multi-axle bus segment:
Tata and Ashok Leyland's late entry into the multi-axle bus segment is another area where they missed the segment. Ashok Leyland has already started testing, but they’ve lagged behind for too long in this sector.

[xway]

For me its Honda which has been the biggest disappointment.

A decade back it was a worthy No. 2 contender after Maruti, often giving good fight to Hyundai before KIA, MG and others showed up.

It had a product in most segments and all were superhits.

City - the topper, drive, comfort, aspirational, mileage, space all rolled in one.
Brio - great mid segment hatch and fun to drive and small footprint
Jazz - most spacious hatch with gem of an engine
Amaze - worthy competition to Dzire
BRV - great spacious MPV, ahead of time and should have been where Ertiga is.
CRV - ahead of times
Civic - smooth, butter again second to none of Elantra, corollas
Mobilio - another solid product
WRV - i still look at it and say why did they stop

and then this happened -

Brio - closed
Jazz - closed
BRV - closed
Civic - closed
CRV - closed
Mobilio - closed
WRV - closed


Before Elevate, Honda was just left with 2 offerings i.e. City and Amaze in such a big market.

I mean I can in no way understand why would Honda rather than increase and offer in different segments choose to shut down so many of their wonderful products.

[ManualMaestro]

What I make out from whole thread is that companies in India have found their sweet spot and have little to no incentive to innovate, because there is no competitiveness among them. This can be due to our policy of applying insane taxes on imported cars to promote make in India campaign.

In other countries there is a variety of options available to people, and due to that, companies are forced to innovate, continuously hit and try to gain and maintain market share. What does that result in? A better experience for people and enthusiasts alike.

I'm all for Make in India, but I believe our approach towards this campaign is wrong. While developing countries (especially rapidly growing ones, like India) act as an attractive investment opportunity for companies, and the said country should rightfully take advantage of it; our approach is just too nonsensical in my opinion. It's almost like we're thinking too highly of ourselves. Why would companies like Nissan, Ford, GM, BMW, Audi, Mercedes expand their portfolio when they can't even atleast test whether their product will even sell in India? And let's be honest, they're making enough profits to not even bother afterall. We should rather apply reasonable, but still high taxes on imported cars, that way companies can truly see whether demand for their cars is present or not. Someone who can afford a Fortuner will most likely consider a Mercedes GLC if it were not for the 100% tax.

Also, this will force our Indian companies to get out of their comfort zone and do something more than just the bare minimum they are doing currently.
For eg, I see Tata going back to their Indica-Indigo phase where their entire lineup looked the same, but with different proportions.

Sorry for the long rant, but thats how I see it as an automotive enthusiast.

[SwiftDrophead]

Jeep Meridian

The only main competitors for the Indian D-segment SUV market were the Toyota Fortuner and Ford endeavour. But in 2021, Ford left India, leaving a market gap for any other SUV to compete with the one-and-only Fortuner. At exactly that time, Jeep was planning to launch it's third product in India, the Meridian. But Jeep overpriced the car, a little above the Fortuner. And at that point, people just ignored it, even if it had a way better interior than the very dated interiors of the Fortuner, nothing beats good ol' Toyota reliabilty. Had the Meridian been cheaper than the Fortuner by a good 3-4 lacks, we may have been seeing Meridians everywhere instead of Fortuner. (By the way, Meridian has a 1900cc engine whereas the Fortuner has a 2600cc engine)