[vasudeva]

Originally Posted by SkyWalker

901 Lineas! That's pretty bad for a fantastically priced and superbly equipped car with a diesel engine. Compare that to a an overpriced City selling 3638. Its pretty obvious VFM is at the bottom of priorities for a top end C segment buyer.

With all due respects, Indian buyers perceive City to be VFM and that is why it sells more. Perhaps there is a reason for that perception, and that reason is well-founded. Otherwise, how can one explain City's consistent, long term success. For 2 comparable products, most buyers would prefer lower risk and lower cost of ownership. Honda City is not like GM: fool some people all the time and/or fool all people some of the time. Or is it?

On a positive note, the numbers sold by Linea are quite good, and perhaps Fiat could build on it, generate a good enough population of existing (and importantly satisfied) Linea buyers, and hope that their satisfaction results in better word of mouth, and then cash in on the network effects. This term is used in IT, communications, and network industry, where the browser/telephone network/rail network with the highest users initially keeps on adding, even if the laggard has a better product.

[safari_lover]

Fantastic analysis there, GTO & Vasudeva.

Can we know the number of Vistas out of the total number of Indicas sold?

[loving_alaap]

Yup.

No one in India can beat Honda & Toyota for reliability.

Even Linea is facing this issue.

So, yes, they can get away with any price tag they want. IMO JAzz will also sell in good numbers.

The only car for which i feel pity is Sonata. A super car at that price with diesel advantage. I fail to understand, why it is not going well.

[sammyboy]

Originally Posted by CarsPG

Good to know, thanks! A friend was looking at buying one and the dealers in Bombay told him it will be at least 30 days.

No problem bro, though there might be a waiting for the AT. My FIL hardly drives now so he went for the MT as its always the driver who drives him around.

Actually Suzuki shouldnt have stopped the production of the Baleno, that has led to a big confusion for C segment more so for chauffer driven cars. My FIL didnt want to go in for the City and he didnt have any other car apart from the Corolla (in the price range)which gave him the same back seat comfort and space which his Baleno did.

[vasudeva]

There is a famous scholarly article that was published in 1991 that analysed the decline of US auto firms. This is called:

Brand Loyalty and the Decline of American Automobile Firms
Fred Mannering; Clifford Winston; Zvi Griliches; Richard Schmalensee
Brookings Papers on Economic Activity. Microeconomics, Vol. 1991. (1991), pp. 67-114.

The article is old, but still very relevant. For interested people, it is posted here:

vasudevadata - Brand Loyalty and Decline of American Automotive Firms

[anandpadhye]

I see 2 Tucsons sold in May 2009!

In fact Tucson is selling in single digits for almost last one year...
Even after Hyundai stopped promoting this product long back.

When I was looking to buy one in Dec 2008, all the dealers told me that Tucson is still available but "imported to order".

Though I ended up buying a used one, good to see a few nice and crazy people still buying brand new Tucsons keeping the car alive.

44 sold in last 12 months

[vasudeva]

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

When I was looking to buy one in Dec 2008, all the dealers told me that Tucson is still available but "imported to order".

Because you bought a used one, Hyundai reported a 78% yoy decline in tucson sales in 12/08. If you had bought a new one, the yoy decline would have 67%.

[pradster]

Originally Posted by ms001

I hope punto is able to salvage what linea could not.
all the best FIAT.

The Linea has helped salvage or rather resurrect FIAT who could not have dreamt of launching the punto with the previous reputation.

900 cars is a dip for sure but nothing that a new campaign or a price cut cant correct!

[schitre05]

Originally Posted by vasudeva

Because you bought a used one, Hyundai reported a 78% yoy decline in tucson sales in 12/08. If you had bought a new one, the yoy decline would have 67%.

Maybe he was trying to leave a lot less carbon footprint behind

[vineethvazhayil]

Amazed at the numbers the ANHC is generating.. that explains why there are so many on the road, and so few Lineas.. I have a feeling the Jazz would also be big a success, and not what people expect it to be.
And the Altis finally comes to life as well.. If Toyota bring out a diesel, it will smoke everything else in its territory.

[akhilesh51]

Looking at numbers in Civic/Laura segment, it would be interesting to gather VW numbers which is sadly absent and has been in past few months.

I am sure VW is gathering momentum and will affect the sales of rival cars.

[StarVegabond]

My view:

TV, Mobile Phone and Car sales are an indication of how the consumer confidence and state of economy is. i see that all three are either posting YoY growth or atleast flat (now certainly NOT lower than previous year).

this indicates that India is

1. not in the down turn
2. was slowing down but begining to grow once again.

another interesting aspect to analyze/understand would be
share of entry, mid end, sedans and high end to understand
the shift in consumer preference

@GTO : is there any such info available ?

[sanagg1]

Dear BHPians
would someone help me find breakup of Indica and Vista. It might give an insight into analysing Taxi vs passenger Car sales.

[geeash]

When i went for the car and coffee meet on sunday with fiat and tata jv in chennai they told me that they have sold 1248 lineas in may in india. bombay being the leader of the pack and chennai comming next

GTO you have reported 901, which one is true?. can you shed more light?

[Vid6639]

Skoda really have lost the plot. 175 Superbs to 212 Accords.

I thought maybe the price difference is still pretty big after the Accord price increase. But it isn't.

The Accord 2.4MT costs Rs. 21.9L onroad bangalore. The Accord 2.4AT costs 22.76L on road bangalore.

Compare that to the fully loaded Superb with 7 speed DSG which costs Rs. 22.83L on road bangalore.

Effectively Rs.7,000 will get you latest features, superb engine, superb gearbox, better ride and handling and better FE. Basically it does everything better than the Accord in all departments.

Where does it take a beating? The damn after sales, else Accord would have packed up sales here.

PS: The 3.5L V6 accord costs Rs. 30L on road bangalore.