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-   -   Is India driving Suzuki’s growth Or We as Indians compromise when buying a Maruti? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/68666-india-driving-suzuki-s-growth-we-indians-compromise-when-buying-maruti-2.html)

I am referring to what happened before bankrupcy.
It was the top selling car manufacturer in US, but was not doing too well in India. Get the point?


As if FIAT is offering Abarth Punto, 1.9 MJD Punto here? Or Hyundai offering i20 with 100 BHP petrol motor?

Exactly sir, your point on Chevrolet's low sales in India and every where else is the point I am making for Suzuki. Obviously americans are not compromising, they are choosing what they like. Else GM wouldn't have lost so much ground there to Japs. Dont understand how can you compare Indian auto market with American auto market.

Anyway point is we in India thou like other cars for looks, ride quality, handling etc we get scared when it comes to A.S.S, resale value, etc. and rightly so atleast for most of us and eventually choose a Maruti.

You probably didn't understand my point, no one is talking here what others are offering here. Read again my post.

@samsan02,
take a look at this thread, the answer for your query is loud and clear.
We are the most discerning buyers and our market is the most diverse.

I know few of my colleagues and friends who does not want to move away from Maruti-Suzuki brand only because of their After sales service. As Ph03n!x pointed out they are pampered by them.

IMHO thats the only reason why Swift Desire is a leader in its segment. I asked one of my office colleague why do you want to opt for a Sedan version of Swift? The only answer he gave was "After sales service"

He does not have any knowledge about the Indian car market nor the engine specification, but according to him *** was priority and I am sure that will be the case for most of the Indians.

So where is Indian's choosing what they don't like? When Indian's don't like a Suzuki, you'd see it not moving from showrooms- A-Star is the latest case to the point. It is also upto other manufacturers to make inroads and create niche` segments where they provide more value (Or atleast create a perception)

We are waiting for you to make a point. So, what is your point? :deadhorse

FYI

Hyundai took the initiative of offering/launching a 100ps petrol motor in form of 1.4 AT with all possible creature comforts and features including safety too.
Don't know why FIAT/Suzuki/Honda is not offering a powerful motor. Also FIAT already tasted the Indian auto market with a palio 1.6. The reason could be market demand/perception for the same.

Japan also is a small car country and so is UK. But the sales of Suzuki has gone down there too. So it is indeed a worry for them. As for Suzuki's operations in North America, the less the better. People prefer Honda, Toyota rather than a Suzuki. Why is that so can make for a good debate.

Maruti-Suzuki had a head start in India. And in a land of 1.2 billion, that really is something.

The fact that they provide quality products ( a tad too many i feel) at prices that aren't astronomical is a major plus point.

What I cant understand is this general acceptance that any Maruti/Suzuki vehicle can be serviced anywhere by any mechanic. Maybe true for the Esteems and M800s but i'd like to see them tinkering around with an SX4 a GV or even a Swift for that matter!

We as Indians will gladly give a Suzuki product the green signal over other brands for the peace of mind the brand ( supposedly) gives

People Compromise on the product, because Maruti does not compromise on the ownership experience :)

Sometimes I do feel jealous of them. But I doubt if I'd buy a maruti :p

I did made a point didn't I. lol:

With the kind of responses on this thread its understandable, no Maruti owner would ever admit that he made a compromise while choosing a car, not even any new car owner for that matter. He will justify it no matter what.

Anyway Maruti steals the show with a great a.s.s (as claimed by many), resale, service, etc. agree: no doubt about it. If other car makers could provide such a great A.S.S.

The intention of the thread was to gather some views as why its failing else where in the world when it does so well in India. Obviously I am not a Maruti fan neither do I hate it, I have liked only the Esteem/800/1000/Sx4/baleno/Alto/old Zen till date from the maruti stable. Rest all are design failures as per my view. I wont be surprised if they launch a Ritz Dezire along side swift dezire to compete with the Manza. Atleast Ritz dezire will complete the rear (no pun intended, my serious design suggestion to make it look like a car).

Suzuki cars selling in good numbers in India doesn't mean that Indians are compromising on many things and doing the company some favour.

The main reasons for the company's positive growth in India can be attributed to -

1) Most of the time they come out with products the average Indian buyer want. VFM, reliable products which are easy on the wallet in the long run.

2) Wide service network in every nook and corner of India - this can't be achieved overnight, but built over many years. Hyundai India also is showing good growth, primarily because of VFM products and rapidly expanding service network.

Suzuki is reaping the fruits of the trust they have built in the last 25 years.

Hyundai & Honda will also meet the same success in few years time.

This is the case in India as well. People prefer Honda/ Toyota to Suzuki. And they are willing to pay a premium for that as well. (Take the classic case of SX4 v/s City).

However, Suzuki does make very VFM cars, and have got good resale value, brand recognition and service backup. More than what an average car buyer is looking for! Majority of Indians buy cars as a major lifetime achievement, and hence these factors matter a lot to them.

Also Suzuki made some very good moves once Jagdish Khattar took over the post, and even after him. Whether they can sustain this growth remains to be seen!

I was referring to USA auto market. There Honda, Toyota are not premium brands. They just have better products compared to others in that segment.
Also, the major reason is service backup in USA for Suzuki is not good, neither is its resale good, don't see any showrooms for the same. And may i add, the perception among people in USA for Suzuki is not good, especially when compared to its Japanese counterpart and Korean(Hyundai) counterpart too. Its just a matter of implementation that has not gone right for Suzuki in USA. And i see similar trend for UK and Japan too.

But its exactly the opposite in India. I would say, they felt the pulse of Indian buyer - a little ignorant(on safety issues), a little demanding for vfm product, a little sucker for good sales and service(true for all brands though and a right of customer), a little perception/image build up that all Maruti's are reliable, fuel efficient and does the job of going from point A to point B, and to some extent, good cars in market. And some credit to FIAT's Engine, without which I doubt Suzuki would have been that successful.

just my 2 cents

Well there are a couple of reasons as to why Maruti has such a stronghold in India.

• The license raj and the appaling lack of foresight by the likes of Hindustan Motors & Premier. Maruti literally faced no competition and literally got a stronghold of the Indian market within the first year itself. They became a benchmark for sales and service which was literally non existent.
• For nearly two decades they saw their sales grow and grow with no one to compete with. All these customers who bought a car had only one brand to swear by that is Maruti and they stick to it even now.
• The competition that came in afterwards was a mixed bag. The likes of Daewoo, Ford, GM, Rover brought in big cars that excited the market initially but never had consistent demand.
• Fiat and Peugeot had good products but the worst partner in Premier, inheriting an A$$ network that was poor. Daewoo bought in the Matiz but was in poor financial health.
• Tata was just learning to make cars at that stage and the Indica did not have the initial quality or reliability of tried and tested Japanese products. The car has improved by leaps and bounds and still sells strongly after 10 years.
• Hyundai was the only experienced car maker that came in with the right combination of product, quality, excellent A$$ and marketing. Till recently Hyundai only had the Santro to take the fight to Maruti, who had the likes of the 800, Zen, Wagon R, Alto in their line up.

One has to appreciate the fact that Suzuki was ready to gamble on India when the likes of VW withdrew, although they have made up for all that effort with interest included.

A very valid point. Other companies that could have had the headstart was Daewoo and PAL. Unfortunately, both went dead midway

There is nothing specific to Suzuki in it. What Suzuki is to India is another Brand in another country.

Quoting you "point is we in India thou like other cars for looks, ride quality, handling etc we get scared when it comes to A.S.S, resale value, etc. and rightly so atleast for most of us and eventually choose a Maruti."

I can safely replace "India" with "US" and "Maruti" with "Toyota/Honda" in your statement above and it would still hold good. That is where your point lacks relevance

1. I guess all car companies other than Maruti are repenting for what they did. They seriously never realised the growth potential in Indian Car market say around 10 to 12 years back. Now when their business is getting bombarded worldwide they want to make it big in India.It is the lack of foresightedness of other car makers is what helped Maruti in getting where it is today.

2. It is not that Maruti products are the best or the worst. They have the highest percentage of localisation of parts i guess as compared to any other manufacturer (except for Tata ). They did not achieve it over night. It has taken them good 25 years.

For other companies also it is going to take time to achieve what Maruti has achieved. The day other car manufacturers are able to sell better products with good after sales service and at equal price point is when Maruti might start seeing its bad days.

3. No car manufacturer is able to sell cars at the price what Maruti sells and provide good after sales service. Maruti is exploiting that. Hence there is a compromise on certain things like plastic quality etc. If you call this as "compromise" then what are so many other car companies doing in India. (Dont wanna name the brands as it might start a war). Their product might be better than maruti however the resale value and after sales might not even be equal to maruti. So if we buy a product like that isnt that also a kind of "compromise"? For me resale value is the highet priority than after sales service as i change my cars every 2 to 3 years.

No car manufacturer can satisfy everybody. There is no car in this world that you can say is "THE BEST" in all aspects. To each his own. Every buyer has to compromise on something or the other.

PS: I am not a fan of Maruti Suzuki though my first car was from their stable and i too kind of hate their cars now. That doesnt mean i am 100% satisfied with my cirrent car either. We need to give Maruti credit for what they are.