[Eminenttismo]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

Yes Eminenttismo, I meant SAIL. It is the SAIC Motor Corporation Limited (formerly Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation) an automobile manufacturing company headquartered in Shanghai, China, now in partnership with GM .

You mean the SAIL car, right? Sorry, a little confused.

[anjan_c2007]

Originally Posted by Eminenttismo

You mean the SAIL car, right? Sorry, a little confused.

Sorry for the SAIL versus SAIC typos. Its actually SAIC that I have meant in all my 3 posts.
Hence SAIL may please be read as SAIC.
Thanks for pointing it out.

[troublemaker]

I think our concerns are showing in their financials as well:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...w/18961932.cms

IMHO, re-badging Chinese and Korean cars is not a great idea to begin with. Is it that difficult to design and produce small efficient cars; when you are a giant car manufacturer?

[rajshenoy]

Originally Posted by zenren

I disagree on the above reason. GM actually had/has 3 hatchback models under the 5L price - Spark, Beat and UVA. If their cars were really decent, they could have managed to much better than Ford, who was fighting off the notorious image for the high maintenance costs when they launched Figo. Ford still managed to come out on top because they learned from their mistakes in the past and understood the Indian market better. GM on the other hand doesn't seem to be too bothered to understand the market. Decisions seem to be taken by folks who sit in Detroit and probably visit India once in a blue moon.

Well petrol hatches never have any chance of surviving along with hyundai and maruti

Beat diesel has diesel but what about boot space?

Figo did tick most of the boxes, diesel, spacious and handled well. Priced well too.

Any car that sells well means low maintenance. This was the only car ford managed to sell well and hence prove maintenance can be lower for ford

[anjan_c2007]

Originally Posted by rajshenoy

Well petrol hatches never have any chance of surviving along with hyundai and maruti

Beat diesel has diesel but what about boot space?

Figo did tick most of the boxes, diesel, spacious and handled well. Priced well too.

Any car that sells well means low maintenance. This was the only car ford managed to sell well and hence prove maintenance can be lower for ford

True, Raj, they need to do a lot of homework to gain acceptability along with Maruti and Hyundai, our greatest success stories. There is always a room for more players, but they must have the common sense USP's for market penetration.

Originally Posted by troublemaker

I think our concerns are showing in their financials as well:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...w/18961932.cms

IMHO, re-badging Chinese and Korean cars is not a great idea to begin with. Is it that difficult to design and produce small efficient cars; when you are a giant car manufacturer?

Thanks, I also read about the accumulated losses. GM has deep pockets, but need to take corrective measures to survive. After all, they are here to make money.

To do well in the Indian market, a car make and model need to have all the common sense USP's that we know of.
A model that has sold very well, is bound to keep the spare supplies coming into the market for at least a decade or even more. This is because of the fact that though the car may change hands several times, it remains in use for at least two decades or may be more.
Hyundais and Marutis are the most sought after cars by second hand car buyers. Their best selling models fetch buyers and even good resale values. The cars don't show signs of ageing.
I would rate the second hand car market as the true pulse in deciding as to whether a car model is or was successful or not. It is the real life barometer of a car's success.
Coming back to GM, the older Opels are shunned in the second hand car market and there are almost no buyers. Spares are difficult and even prohibitively costly to come by.
And the older Chevrolets, be it the Aveo, UV-A, Optra, older Sparks are all less sought after in the second hand car market.Their resale values plummeted as soon as these left the showroom.
I am not discussing the new-gen Chevrolets (post 2010) now and maybe we can after two or three years, again comment on their second hand car market acceptability.
Like many other foreign companies, GM has also followed what we can call the "BLUNDER ROUTE" to destruction, by not allowing free sale of their car spares in the market. These remain exclusively with their dealers.

[zenren]

Originally Posted by rajshenoy

Well petrol hatches never have any chance of surviving along with hyundai and maruti

Beat diesel has diesel but what about boot space?

Figo did tick most of the boxes, diesel, spacious and handled well. Priced well too.

Any car that sells well means low maintenance. This was the only car ford managed to sell well and hence prove maintenance can be lower for ford

If it were just for the diesel engine and boot space, Sail-UVA should have shown decent numbers. May be even GM thought getting these two factors sorted out should see them good numbers and got over optimistic while launching UVA by pricing it on par with the segment leaders and ended up collecting another 'market dud' tag in their stable.

IMO, this is the worst time to launch a new product since a drop in sales numbers or huge discounts for a successful model would be termed as 'market conditions and economy' but a low sales numbers for a newly launched product would be interpreted as market rejection! In such a market, if pricing UVA better right from launch would have made a big difference is still a question mark but at least it would have given them a better chance. Lets see how Amaze and Ecosport launches turn out to be.

[murillo]

With the benefit of hindsight, I will say rebadging Daewoo products as Chevys has not worked for GM. While Chevy lost its brand positioning, rebadging led to a portfolio of incoherent products without a consistent theme and value proposition. Contrary to opinions in previous posts, I think today's car buyers are well informed and may know the Daewoo-SAIC-Chevy linkage.

As someone already suggested, it would have been better if GM had maintained the Daewoo brand separately in the mass market and positioned Chevy in its own niche.