[rangaraj]

I went to the GM showroom and they mentioned they had 48 bookings so far and it is a minimum of a 3 month waiting period. No test drive vehicle and 48 guys had booked it without one! He also mentioned that there is a possibility of them doing some local assembly/manufacture of the captiva in their Pune plant and that would drop down the price of vehicles and spare parts. Did not know the timeframe for this though. There is similar talk coming from the Honda camp as well for local manufacture of the CRV. I guess it might drop down the price by a couple of lacs?

[hondadude]

The rate at which Tata and Mahindra are improving their vehicles, if Honda, GM and others don't plan for local assembly in the next couple of years, they will probably become irrelevant in Indian market.

[Ricky_63]

The Captiva no doubt "looks" good, but I would not buy a car for the way it looks, I need to drive it and feel the on road behaviour to put my money on it.

When I went to the Gurgaon Showroom, they were absolutely not interested to give a test drive. When I said I would like to book it if I like the drive - the answer I got was, SSAAARRR delivery to April se pehle nahin mil sakti. It seems like he was saying forget it - we have enough bookings.

Pathetic attitude. GM needs to correct that or it may effect their sales & image.

Cheers

[kaushykutti]

That's from the Captiva India website.

[1-Testosterone]

Originally Posted by kaushykutti

That's from the Captiva India website.

LOL! looks like the website is being designed by a naive 20 year ols in 30 odd minutes!

But nonetheless, Captiva is a very good product and in it's segment, it is a clear winner (unless Santa Fe is priced anyway near Captiva)

[GTO]

Merely having a diesel engine is not enough to lure buyers away from a Honda. If that was the case, the excellent Sonata diesel would outsell the Accord. Ditto for the Laura vis a vis the Civic or the stonking Verna CRDi and the NHC.

Tell me honestly....what does the Captiva offer more than the CRV? Though I don't think too much of the CRV, it has a pretty strong fan following and does most things right (ride, handling, interiors, refinement).

[neoonwheels]

Originally Posted by GTO

Tell me honestly....what does the Captiva offer more than the CRV? Though I don't think too much of the CRV, it has a pretty strong fan following and does most things right (ride, handling, interiors, refinement).

You forgot to add "Brand value" for Honda...

[1-Testosterone]

Originally Posted by GTO

Tell me honestly....what does the Captiva offer more than the CRV?

Value for money.

Honda felt the heat in the Honda City category where SX4 sprang a surprise.

In India, if you ain't about value for money, good luck.

I'm also fully confident that if Captiva fails to kick CRV, Santa Fe definitely will as it has received some rave reviews from some of the toughest of critics out there. Hyundai has come a long way to put up one of the best SUV's in it's category.

It'll also be interesting how CRV tackles soon to be launched Mitsubishi Outlander with 2.4 engine at a price significantly lower than CRV 2.4 counterpart?

[1-Testosterone]

Originally Posted by hondadude

The rate at which Tata and Mahindra are improving their vehicles, if Honda, GM and others don't plan for local assembly in the next couple of years, they will probably become irrelevant in Indian market.

TATA and Mahindra dont stand for refinement and class interiors. Otherwise with just about everything they have up their sleeve for so many years, they would have butchered the competition. Instead it's the high customs duties (120%) which are saving TATA, Mahindra and Maruti. Otherwise brands like VW, Toyota, Honda and Hyundai would have butchered these brands.

Indian brands are very lucky as they are placed in a cocoon.

[hondadude]

Originally Posted by 1-Testosterone

TATA and Mahindra dont stand for refinement and class interiors. Otherwise with just about everything they have up their sleeve for so many years, they would have butchered the competition. Instead it's the high customs duties (120%) which are saving TATA, Mahindra and Maruti. Otherwise brands like VW, Toyota, Honda and Hyundai would have butchered these brands.

The import duties are there for a reason. We want the global manufacturers to make the cars in India so that the whole eco system (suppliers, job creation etc etc) can benefit as opposed to bring a product from somewhere else and messing up the economy.

Now considering the fact that import duties are not going to go away, global manufacturers need to manufacture the cars in India otherwise they will price themselves out. I agree that Tata and Mahindra aren't there yet in terms of refinement and class interiors but look at the pace at which they are catching up. They will get there. Its just a matter of time.

[srh]

Originally Posted by hondadude

I agree that Tata and Mahindra aren't there yet in terms of refinement and class interiors but look at the pace at which they are catching up. They will get there. Its just a matter of time.

One thing we forget is to ask ourselves the question that "Why are Tata and Mahindra not THERE?" And the answer to it is that till 1990 we were a heavily regulated economy. One needed licenses to put up manufacturing capacity. Any believe me when I say that it was really difficult to get those licenses as cars were considered a luxury. There were restrictions on spending forex for acquiring technology from outside. In such an environment where you are forced to maintain a very sub-optimal scale, where would you find money and why would you put that money in product development? I think that over a period of 15-18 years, both these companies have done fairly well for themselves. You cant expect them to beat world leaders in such a short period of time with the kind of legacy they have.

[1-Testosterone]

I'm not expecting them to beat the world players but atleast matching them in their class. After so many years of license raj and other restrictions, Now what?

If a company can put up world's cheapest car (which is a sort of achievement), they can surely put some class into their vehicles. After nearly materializing mega acquisitions worldwide, surely they can hire top brass in auto industry can beat their foreign rivals in refinement too.

[dockap]

hmm why beat them when you can buy out the foreign rivals maybe in another 20 years tata and m&m will be 2 of the major auto manufactures in the world

[1-Testosterone]

That's exactly my point. If you have so much power (money and intellectual) why not provide the best of all worlds to fellow Indians? Why we have to crave for the Hondas, Toyotas, Mercs, BMWs and Audis?

[1-Testosterone]

Originally Posted by dockap

hmm why beat them when you can buy out the foreign rivals maybe in another 20 years tata and m&m will be 2 of the major auto manufactures in the world

TATA - Maybe
Mahindra - No way!