[ajmat]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

At the end of it all, the Govt goes and hands it over to Suzuki on a platter - talk about robbing Peter to pay Paul.

.

Would not be easy any other way. Suzuki would shaft Maruti if it went elsewhere and if status quo was maintained, no model upgrade. See how Honda screwed Rover proper when British Aerospace sold Rover to BMW. All technology withdrawn and BMW had to restart and decide that it was not worth it as the brand value was not that great (other structural problems were there but this was one of them - BMW wanted Land Rover to create the X5)

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by ajmat

Would not be easy any other way. Suzuki would shaft Maruti if it went elsewhere and if status quo was maintained, no model upgrade. See how Honda screwed Rover proper when British Aerospace sold Rover to BMW. All technology withdrawn and BMW had to restart and decide that it was not worth it as the brand value was not that great (other structural problems were there but this was one of them - BMW wanted Land Rover to create the X5)

So why did they allow it to happen? After all the Govt was the majority stakeholder - they should've armtwisted Suzuki instead of pinning down other manufacturers and creating a situation where Suzuki could get away with anything...

At the end of the day, its the Japs who had a market created for themselves at the expenses of public funds...and we look like fools.

[shankaranand]

Government control is a thing of past.. If we are holding on to it with marxian mentality, nothing's is going to work..

One has to remember that, if the government had not opened up economy in 1991 and invited foreign and private sector involvement, most of us would not have been in a position to even think of buying the car..

So Maruti's growth could have been just imaginary. Let us not forget that maruti grew exponentially after opening up of the sector..

Govt's abilities should be used in building the country infrastructure, not some cars which few people can buy and enjoy!

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by shankaranand

Government control is a thing of past.. If we are holding on to it with marxian mentality, nothing's is going to work..

One has to remember that, if the government had not opened up economy in 1991 and invited foreign and private sector involvement, most of us would not have been in a position to even think of buying the car..

So Maruti's growth could have been just imaginary. Let us not forget that maruti grew exponentially after opening up of the sector..

Govt's abilities should be used in building the country infrastructure, not some cars which few people can buy and enjoy!

Agreed. The issue I had was not with Government control over Maruti, but with the fact that the Government did stifle competition for Maruti to create an almost monopolistic scenario giving them an unfair edge, and THEN handed over the whole thing to Suzuki.

Suzukis market development was done at our cost, and thats my angst...free market should mean free market for everyeone with competition deciding who will survive...

[johnjacob]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

Agreed. The issue I had was not with Government control over Maruti, but with the fact that the Government did stifle competition for Maruti to create an almost monopolistic scenario giving them an unfair edge, and THEN handed over the whole thing to Suzuki.

Suzukis market development was done at our cost, and thats my angst...free market should mean free market for everyeone with competition deciding who will survive...

What market development did Suzuki do? The govt gave them a free license to continue to sell outdated cars at exorbitant margins. The two of them (govt and Suzuki) milked the Indian car-buying public and laughed their way to the bank.

Now that they have finally allowed REAL competition into the market, the govt has realized that Suzuki's easy monopoly will slowly erode as other manufacturers bring their (equally good or better) products to the market. So they have decided to quit business altogether while they still have a good position. Smart move if you ask me. (and they are doing the same for many other govt owned former monopolies).

My point is that it is not that the govt is the loser and Suzuki the winner here. The issue is more complex than that.

[vahss_11]

the car is WAGONR (red colour), its the 50,00,000th car

[RX135]

Just recently went with a friend to get his new Wagon-R from showroom. I was surprisingly disappointed with its ordinary build quality, dashboard instrument plastics (plastic at places other than dashboard felt better). Carefully listened to the engine sounds while parking/reversing the vehicle, and it was just not inspiring. I was expecting much better vehicle than that. Just felt bad that he did not even consider Palio, simply because it was perceived to be a fuel guzzler.