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Shaking off US blues, Ford pads up for India.

http://www.livemint.com/2008/12/1622...-Ford-pad.html

I wouldn't be surprised if more and more car makers head to India in order to revamp their overall sales. The new Ford Focus is a pretty good contender to enter the Indian market.

Its not that easy. Just entering wont get them success.
Fusion is the best example.
Focus must be positioned starting from just below Civic. Against the mighty Honda and Toyota tags, Focus will need a great diesel to start with. And not to forget the basic A.S & S. Even if Ford India improves the A.S & S., they are bound to get more market share. Some people dont buy their products just because of A.S & S. Nothing that wrong with car.

So just bringing in a model is less than half the job done, specially the small volume players in under Rs. 15 lakh segment.

Well, they are trying all sorts of things to stay solvent. And India is certainly seen as a market with decent potential.

One thing Ford and GM are quite good at nowadays is internet marketing.

Of late you will notice that on most forums (not just team-bhp) someone will "ask" which car to buy and the answer (supplied promptly by another poster) is inevitably a Ford or GM product! These people are also effusive in their praise of Ford and GM products, as well as the management.

You could also see this kind of 'synthetic posts' when a new old product like Ikon was launched recently. This has been happening all over the internet and desi forums haven't been spared. It remains to be seen whether this strategy gets them enough consumers to prevent bankruptcy. But the USian automakers and their 'family members' (dealers, employees, etc.) are certainly trying new things to win sales.

Personally I find the contention that Indian operations are safe in case of US bankruptcy or 'Govt. sponsored restructuring' untruthful and misleading. Look at Daewoo. Safer to buy a Korean, Japanese or INDIAN product. JMT.

The focus, if priced properly, will sell in good numbers, I think. It is one of the best handling Front Wheel Drive cars.

Ford has a very bad reputation on A.S.S and if it wants to make some success in India, surely they have to improve much on it. Inspite of giving good drivers car they didnt sell much because of A.S.S and spare cost. It is high time they do something to it!

Nobody here cares about that. Most of that segment cars are chauffer driven anyway. Add to that the fact, that Indians don't care about FTD factor while buying cars.

Ford cannot afford to shut down operations in India. They are getting some margins here compared to otehr developed countries. It will be good to see if they bring in more variants with the correct pricing.

SuperSyn. You are true that there is some internet marketing is going on in diff Forum.
But again In India we have very less option of choosing the car company as well as model. HONDA/TOYOTA does not sell the below 7L. So our option goes to GM/Maruthi/FORD/FIAT/TATA.
But FIAT-TATA many people does not like.

OT: Hi Soumya, is that your photo on display at the top.

Sowmya saar you forgot Hyundai ;)

Besides, Ford does not have anything decent below 6L either. GM though has some rebranded Daewoo products like Spark. But in that segment the margins are thin and competetion tough.

About Focus being good driver's car: this reputation is built on suspension tuned for EU roads. The same suspension setup cannot be offered in India because of our engineering excellence in road building. So Ford can't bet on sporty handling to attract enthusiasts.

And if you add 'too much' power, fuel economy goes down and people start crying. Sure, you'll sell a hundred cars (mostly to bhpian type enthusiasts) but then sales fall off a cliff. Running a profitable car business in India is like walking on a razor's edge.

Thats my car in India.

The first thing ford should is not introduce new models, but improve A.S.S. Majority of the car buyers buy cars of Maruti & Hyundai. Why? Its because of the peace fo mind they think they would get. Also, its the brand that comes to mind if we talk about small cars. All these because of the exhastive list of dealers and service center you see all over India. So, first and foremost, improve, increase the A.S.S centers.

Had been to the Ford factory engine shop recently on a supplier visit. Ford exapnding in full steam ahead of their small car launch in 2010 . planning on 250,000 engines a year soon. Machines have come in. Ford Mantra now is DV4/DV6 variants. 2 small cars on the anvil. Watch this space soon.