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-   -   April 2009 Sales Figures & Analysis (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/58526-april-2009-sales-figures-analysis-4.html)

Hyundai's sales have declined at a lower rate in the US (4% yoy till 4/2009) primarily because customers are downsizing and Hyundai offered `protection plan' (had posted details of this in some other thread). However, now more manufacturers in the US are getting into this protection plan, with the basic theme being return your car/stop payment once you get fired.

see the attached excel sheet

Car sales down 17.7 percent MOM, but a 4.4% increase yoy.
1) Wonder what magic will happen with the failure called fusion. Ford STOP it, nothing can sell that car.
2) the love hate palio sold 71 pieces, Fiat will continue selling these till the time the GP is launched, post which i think they will stop it
3) Fabia has been doing 35% less mom and 56 % less yoy, the only thing that can save (if it can) is localization, slash rates by 2 lacs and people will lapp it. (when i say people i mean those who are not on tbhp :D)
4) The new indicas not doing that well, a drastic drop of 37 % mom
5) Fiestas loosing its sheen
6) Aveo never picked up and its not showing any signs of picking up.
7) Honda City sales being run by the guys who run the stock market ? coz theres NO pattern in sale, the only pattern is UP - DOwn - UP - DOwn.
8) The linea is the new kid / hero on the block doing consistenly well.
9) 531 oct + laura being sold : 7 % mom reduction but a whoping 44 % yoy reduction.
10) 154 Superbs sold. WOW.


cheers,
ac

TATA is going to find it difficult going forward from this stage where the industry stands at the moment, specifically in the segments it competes. (Safari excluded. I am talking mainly about the Indica / Indigo, VFM hatch / sedan segment)

Its gazillion odd sales of the indica and indigo were at a time when there really wasn't an alternative disel hatchback that was also spacious, nor a diesel sedan at a competetive price which was quite well loaded with goodies.

now there are options, namely the Swift and the Swift Dzire. not that they are really anywhere as spacious as TATA's offerings, or that much better built (IMHO. they do seem to have their share of build quality issues), but they offer an alternative to buyers who are not happy with the "perceptions" associated with the Indica brand. While some are genuinely put off by known lower levels of fit and finish on the Indica, for some, its simply a matter of not being snobbish enough. So what TATA genuinely needs ASAP is a brand building / repositioning exercise.

On the actual design / engineering front, while the new Vista is a quantum leap in terms of the quality and design over the old Indica, TATA will need to leapfrog a couple of iterations of its evolutionary lifecycle, if it needs to garner the same kind of sales figures from the new Indica Vista and the upcoming Indigo Vista.

Separately, i also believe GM and Ford are going to have it tough, at least in India, in the near-term future, with the state of their financial affairs in the U.S. Its a bit difficult to expect an Indian customer to plonk down the big ones on an American car, when the future of the company can appear to be shaky. never mind the 3 year free maintenance package.

Well said. One of the catalysts of the Indica's success was the lack of competition! There simply wasn't another diesel hatch, save for the old Uno or the more expensive Palio (at the time). The Swift has slammed the Indica / Vista, and competition is only going to heat up with time. Only a matter of time before the quality leader in the hatch segment - Hyundai - starts selling its own small diesel in the i10.

Ditto for the Indigo and its value proposition. One now has the Swift Dzire, Logan and Ikon TDCi as alternatives.

Not only that, they need to match the perceived quality levels of the Japs & Koreans. The Indica / Indigo were always seen as a compromise on reliability, quality & refinement.

Plus, I can't believe how they botched the Vista's potential success up! C'mon, this awesome hatch deserved its own identity (read : independent of the Indica)!

Precisely. the rebranding started off IMO with a disastrous decision to retain the "INDICA" name for the new Vista, especially, when it was a *genuinely new product* from the ground up, unlike other "new and improved" products.

they just shot themselves in the foot. inspite of developing a brand new and better product, TATA denied themselves the exposure for the effort, and worse still, saddled the new-born with unwanted baggage from the older Indica.

that has to be one of the worst launch and positioning gaffes in the auto industry we will be seeing for a long time to come.

Tata needs to learn some lessons from their sales .They need to realise that looks do matter. As already suggested they need an image makeover . Maybe they should enter rallying with the vista . With the Indigo Vista coming up I hope they change the front and also intelligently get the speedo back in front of the driver . Hopefully they will drop the name Indigo too . They need to get some kind of zing back into or is that into the Tata brand .
Great to hear about the Linea ! Salvation Finally
Long Live the Gypsy !
Fabia with its engine sounding like a tractor and costing a bomb does not even deserve to sell a single unit , the least they could have done would be to introduce the vRS version and other better engines.

Great work GTO and Vasudeva . Fascinating Read !

exactly, Indica the name now is so cheap, its now treated as car for taxi drivers.

Tata should have kept Indica name away from Vista. When i saw this car for the first time, I was wondering which car is that, it looked wonderful and I noticed tata badge. Then some one told me its new Indica and I felt ***, such a nice car with Indica name.

tata should learn something from huyandai. they sell verna as accent in canada.

Any news on overtly hyped i20?. How many came out?
When i booked it in february, the hyundai guys promised a delivery in one month time and said the demand is high and then after one month they said it might again take another one month due to high demand of the car and the parts have to come again from korea. I cancelled the vehicle and very glad that i have got a linea. I still dont see many i20 on road. Now i see a few lineas here and there a day.

Fiat is picking up. And i am happy.

Demand for the car???. Where??? In India. Not likely. What has happened is that Hyundai is targeting to sell more i20 in Europe, where it is being targeted at the `downshifting potential buyers'. In India, I have seen very little demand in Delhi at least.

IIRC, there was some Hyundai press release on the i20 selling 1,500 cars a month (in the last 3). I don't know what the current level is, but it's a pretty respectable number for an over-priced puny engine'd hatch!

Well, I have been reading for quite some time, the same view from some of our senior members repeatedly, let me tell you, it may not have been an easy choice for team in tata when it came to branding this new car. As we discussed, It was not easy to completely go for new design for the same reasons it was not easy for going for completely different name. As we know, tatas are still young at passenger car manufacturing and people know about it. They managed to create lot of hype during the very first launch of Indica because of the features and fuel economy. It was not possible for them to use the same trick. Hence there was always a danger of launching a complete new car with new design and name as people were aware of the quality of the completely new car from Tata's, from their past experience, whereas keeping the name and bit of design same would have definitely made people think that it is an improved Indica and had more faith in it as the current Indicas have earned the reputation of being reliable and durable. So according to me it was always a tough choice, coming out with something completely new, which is looked at by everybody skeptically or leverage bit of Indica's legeacy (good one not the bad one) and project it as more refined product. So according to me it was gamble, which to some extent has not paid off.

That could be. However, knowing Hyundai's press releases, is it clear that sales is only domestic market or incl. exports. Read this, and it becomes clear that sales incl. exports.

Hyundai April sales up 10.9%

indicas - reliable & durable! :Shockked:
c'mon buddy, i have seen hundreds of indicas on the road - with hazard lights flashing, bonnets open & the owner peeping inside the bonnet & thinking "Whats that strange thing inside?"! this is especially true when it an incline, especially jammed inclines! weak clutch plates???
i had a 2003 model indica V2 in my native. Tata was kind enough to replace everything in the car when it was in warranty. at the end of warranty, i was happy i got an almost new car! but what made me unhappy was the "almost new" car still had lots of parts waiting to be replaced which will come to my pocket now. so i sold this "new" car to an unsuspecting customer who is now supposedly hunting for me there! :Frustrati

(all indica owners, please dont pounce on me for this sarcastic PJ!)

anyways, this is one of the reasons i think the vista should not have the 'indica' tag to it. secondly, as everybody else said, the taxi image attched to it.

vista is a great hatch & i will feel sad if it is rejected for such petty reasons.

not trying to be argumentative...but take a moment to recap...or recount - if you will. was it really HUNDREDS ? really ? and how many HUNDREDS ? its just that I am curious.

because i do a lot of long driving. mumbai-chandigarh, mumbai delhi, mumbai-baroda etc, on a regular basis ? so where are all these HUNDREDS of broken down indicas when I am on the road ? and oh, by the way, i drive an indica too, on the above mentioned drives. its certainly not happened to me.

right alongside the greatness of freedom and the anonymity internet forums offer, this kind of "unverifiable reporting" is also a disadvantage, i guess.

and casual statements like these will almost always overwhelm the best possible PR campaign.

@raj... isnt your prejudice against Tata going too far? Do you think Taxi owners are stupid? I have seen and driven in enough indica's to know that they are reliable enough not to leave you stranded on the road.