Skoda's MUV Roomster in India

LLL · 21st May 2008, 10:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

If priced sensibly with diesel from Octavia ( A4 ) it can really crack a segment that is ruled by Tavera and Innova.

Even if priced below innova/tavera, it cant crack the MUV market.

Innova/Tavera give good FE and are easy to maintain. Skodas are not easy to maintain in India. So that rules out Taxi segment.

Also, Roomster can seat only 5. So its not really a MUV. ALso it does not have any luggage space (read the review that i posted earlier - about the rear space not even being enough for a keyboard). My santro has more space than this.

So unless Skoda rejigs the interiors, its an outright failure.

Rotorhead · 21st May 2008, 10:30

Thats one big ugly car. Like somebody mentioned, its starts of with fabia ends up looking like a sumo at the rear. either which ways 10 lacs is just too much for this ugly thingy.

maddy42 · 21st May 2008, 11:23

Ugly Muv. Skoda please dont launch this. Design something else

srishiva · 21st May 2008, 11:29

Is it really a MUV or a little taller station wagon ?

agbenny · 21st May 2008, 12:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by maddy42

Ugly Muv. Skoda please dont launch this. Design something else

I do not think it is possible to Skoda. They were able to launch only 7 models in last 20 years (only 5 were launched in 4-5 continents).

Fabia 2001
Laura 2004
Roomster 2006
Superb 2002
Octavia 1996
Felicia 1998
Favorit 1991

I do not think they really have many in the R&D line. Among the above, I do not see much outer design changes in Laura, Superb, Skoda and Felicia. They all lookalike with differnet sizes.

GTO · 21st May 2008, 16:25

Oh boy, forget the product. I can barely wait to see what Skoda prices the Roomster at!

Civic territory?

aaggoswami · 21st May 2008, 18:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by LLL

Even if priced below innova/tavera, it cant crack the MUV market.

Innova/Tavera give good FE and are easy to maintain. Skodas are not easy to maintain in India. So that rules out Taxi segment.

Also, Roomster can seat only 5. So its not really a MUV. ALso it does not have any luggage space (read the review that i posted earlier - about the rear space not even being enough for a keyboard). My santro has more space than this.

So unless Skoda rejigs the interiors, its an outright failure.

Completely agree with you. If launched, it will just spoil the premium image of Skoda in India ( and this will be good for VW entry! )

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rotorhead

Thats one big ugly car. Like somebody mentioned, its starts of with fabia ends up looking like a sumo at the rear. either which ways 10 lacs is just too much for this ugly thingy.

Fabia is itself overpriced so this comes at 10lakhs ( if at all it comes ), it will one more disaster.
Couple that with bad looks and poor interiors and one more recepie for failure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by maddy42

Ugly Muv. Skoda please dont launch this. Design something else

Rather than spending the resources for Roomster, they should infact spend more resources on making Fabia more localized.

LLL · 21st May 2008, 19:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO

Oh boy, forget the product. I can barely wait to see what Skoda prices the Roomster at!

Civic territory?

naah...civic is a cheapo jap import. Roomster comes from a premium brand like skoda and is a better competitor to CRV, Captiva and even endeavour. So it cannot be priced anything less than 18 lakhs. After all, Skoda is a premium brand

agbenny · 21st May 2008, 23:11

To me, Roomster looks like Renault Kangoo - Which is a commercial vechicle (a luggage carrier)

stefanm · 21st May 2008, 23:11

LLL, it's much smaller than those suv's, trust me and you wouldn't want to take it off road for a second even, i don't see any car on the roads of India that it would compete with.

stefanm · 21st May 2008, 23:12

Your spot on Agbenny, it's the same size as the renault.

raul · 3rd June 2008, 00:26

You could find Datsuns that looked like this in the 80s, they would take the basic Datsun small pickup and add a body, that's exactly how this looks but with the Fabia front end. I can't think anybody would drive this willingly unless they were carrying commercial goods.

Skoda is an over leveraged brand here, unless they can consistently back up his exaggerated brand value with good products the brand will quickly fall, already its lost a bit of its sheen, the insane pricing of Fabia hasn't done much for Fabia itself but does make Skoda look like an overpriced brand and this can hurt the perception of its other vehicles. So they really need to rethink.

Team_Godspeed · 3rd June 2008, 02:56

You know no matter what ever they price it at people will buy it

its one of the safest buy ,which i totally disagree with

Mods note: Use punctuation properly. Use upper case to start a sentence.

21st May 2008, 10:30	#17
Rotorhead BHPian Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Bangalore Posts: 939 Thanked: 29 Times	Thats one big ugly car. Like somebody mentioned, its starts of with fabia ends up looking like a sumo at the rear. either which ways 10 lacs is just too much for this ugly thingy.
	() Thanks

21st May 2008, 11:23	#18
maddy42 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Coorg Posts: 2,131 Thanked: 1,328 Times View My Garage	Ugly Muv. Skoda please dont launch this. Design something else
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21st May 2008, 11:29	#19
srishiva Senior - BHPian Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Bengaluru Posts: 4,375 Thanked: 2,256 Times	Is it really a MUV or a little taller station wagon ?
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21st May 2008, 16:25	#21
GTO Team-BHP Support Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Bombay Posts: 70,501 Thanked: 300,625 Times View My Garage	Oh boy, forget the product. I can barely wait to see what Skoda prices the Roomster at! Civic territory?
	() Thanks

21st May 2008, 23:11	#24
agbenny Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: TN38 Posts: 1,069 Thanked: 276 Times	To me, Roomster looks like Renault Kangoo - Which is a commercial vechicle (a luggage carrier)
	() Thanks

21st May 2008, 23:11	#25
stefanm BHPian Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Goa Posts: 212 Thanked: 2 Times	LLL, it's much smaller than those suv's, trust me and you wouldn't want to take it off road for a second even, i don't see any car on the roads of India that it would compete with.
	() Thanks

21st May 2008, 23:12	#26
stefanm BHPian Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Goa Posts: 212 Thanked: 2 Times	Your spot on Agbenny, it's the same size as the renault.
	() Thanks

3rd June 2008, 00:26	#27
raul BHPian Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Pune Posts: 920 Thanked: 372 Times	You could find Datsuns that looked like this in the 80s, they would take the basic Datsun small pickup and add a body, that's exactly how this looks but with the Fabia front end. I can't think anybody would drive this willingly unless they were carrying commercial goods. Skoda is an over leveraged brand here, unless they can consistently back up his exaggerated brand value with good products the brand will quickly fall, already its lost a bit of its sheen, the insane pricing of Fabia hasn't done much for Fabia itself but does make Skoda look like an overpriced brand and this can hurt the perception of its other vehicles. So they really need to rethink.
	() Thanks

3rd June 2008, 02:56	#28
Team_Godspeed BHPian Join Date: May 2008 Location: Bangalore Posts: 82 Thanked: 3 Times	You know no matter what ever they price it at people will buy it its one of the safest buy ,which i totally disagree with Mods note: Use punctuation properly. Use upper case to start a sentence. Last edited by Rudra Sen : 3rd June 2008 at 08:00.
	() Thanks