A perfect example of how to ruin it even if you have a bestseller in your hands. The Logan is a best seller in the rest of the world. But not here.. not in this country.
To me the Mahindra - Renault JV was wrong from the beginning. Renault should have chosen someone who has some experience in manufacturing cars. Mahindra should have stuck to making UVs.
Renaut was overconfident from the beginning. They were under the impression that they have a best seller in their hands and it can not fail. What they didn't anticipate was that there are better value for money cars in this market. When they must have thought of launching it here, its prime competition would have been the Esteem, the Indigo and the Ikon. What they didn't expect was the Dzire which, when launched, totally killed whatever market there was for the Logan.
A member on an another forum who used to work for Mahindra tells, how in the pre-launch and testing days, Renault didn't listen to Mahindra's demands and was quite adamant on the amount of equipment (airbags, abs, power mirrors etc) they were providing. Again, their argument was that their product is a best seller around the world and whatever they are providing is more than necessary for this market. And that is the problem even today. Mahindra wants more participation in product development and Renault refuses to budge.
A member of the Romanian Logan forum told me that he would have got the top end 1.6 variant with twin airbags, ABS, etc etc in the same amount of money I spent on my basic 1.4 GLE variant.
Mahindra should have been more adamant on what they wanted from Renault. A few months later of the Logan launch in India, Dacia came out with the new interiors and a few more months later the new looking Logan. I refuse to beleive they didn't know it was coming. They could have opted atleast for the new interiors.. and some more equipment, to make it more upmarket and better value for money.
And whatever efforts Mahindra has taken till now, were all half hearted according to me. The marketing was shoddy and poor. the production quality of the first ad was very poor. And they chose the worst looking Sahara beige color for the ad. The second ad with Kunal Kohli was better. But still, a two wheeler maker comes out with better quality ads than what Mahindra Renault came out with. And the biggest blunder was the Xylo ad, where it comes crashing down on a sedan. What were they thinking!!?? It was like a Logan they were trying to kill!
The special editions they have come out go straight to the wild and wacky thread. While they come out with excellent looking customised Boleros, they launched an Orange coloured flashy Logan. And the most recent one was the gawdy red rims Play variant. Who wants a sportier looking Logan? Get real, an 85 bhp sedan can not be made sportier just by patching sticker on its sides! Why couldn't they have come up with a more elegant, classier looking version? They would have paid the same amount of money to the designer. Give Arush a chance and I am sure he will be able to come out with a design upgrade even better than the original.
I read an article recently about how Mahindra beleives that by reducing the length of the Logan will make them save bucks on excise duty and the Logan will be better value for money. I do not completely disagree with them, but in my opinion the price was not the only issue with the customers. Its the premium feel which the car is lacking. So, even if they reduce the price by say 50k, it will not be able to attract a Fiesta/ Aveo buyer! And I am not even including the premium hatchbacks.
What they are not understanding here is the major competition they thought of has changed. The esteem has died. The Dzire is here, beating them to death. The Manza will be here soon. And they still have a 2004 model in their hands! Which, due to many reasons they can not do anything about.
The Logan is a good car. It will die only because a lot of bad decisions were taken and nothing else.
What they can still do. Try to persuade Renault to give it a makeover and get the new interiors. Give it more kit. Reduce the length by shortening those bumpers and make it cheaper.
And if they still do not do anything, blame each other, this JV deserves to die. |