Team-BHP - Is India driving Suzuki’s growth Or We as Indians compromise when buying a Maruti?

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Originally Posted by aaggoswami (Post 1565613)

1) I dont think that we are making a compromise when we buy a Suzuki car. Lets consider Swift. Though the interior fit and finish is not upto the mark, Suzuki has not compromised onto chassis stiffness. There was a thread on G2HC about compromise on chassis stiffness. Suzuki has not avoided. Swift, Ritz cannot be called safety compromise.

My first statement says that the Swift can hardly be called a compromise as an overal product. In regards of build quality, it sure is. And I suitably assume that neither you nor I are shallow enough to jump to conclusions based on our perception of how thick sheet metal is.

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For that matter, consider the fact that Indica Vista is planned to be modified to even score 3 stars at ENCAP. We Indians have a bad habit of considering of considering a car as unsafe if we find the skin panels thin. Arguments like steel guage come up which are not going to protect occupants in case of an accident.

I think it's more apt to compare Suzuki to some real competition such as global players, as against a company like Tata which is just about finding it's feet after about 10 years with the Safari and Indica. Doesn't make sense to compare to weaker competition jonly to justify what Suzuki isn't doing.

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No other car maker offers what Suzuki offers at a given price. Consider almost any car. And add to that the fact that Suzuki cars are very very reliable, perhaps if interior fit and finish errors are not considered, IMO, Suzuki cars are as reliable as Toyota ( i.e. mechanically ).

Exactly. No question about it.

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2) If the statements of Making compromise stands true, then what about Versa, Estilo, GV and upto some extent Baleno ? Why was the first generation Zen discontinued?

Never mind what about... Maruti themselves don't take some of these products seriously and makes a half-hearted effort with them.

i wonder how one or the other people in the forum come with ingenious ways to attack the market leader maruti-suzki. why do they hate maruti? because it is market leader? while dzire is selling like a hot cake, for many it looks ugly. but remember every new car in this segment benchmarks dzire and want to beat it!!!. it is completely practical car and definitely VFM. (ofcourse i am a maruti owner.)
i read in some magazine that logan is quite succesful in europe but doing pathetic here. it is obvioS, preferences, perceptions change from geography to geography.

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Originally Posted by finneyp (Post 1566040)

Most of the Indians make a compromise by buying a Maruti for the sake of A.S.S, Resale and maybe FE!
These are the priority items for them, they are not bothered about Safety, Build quality, Ride comfort, Handling etc.

Excuse me? How is it a compromise to buy a car from a manufacturer who provides excellent, cheap-and-best-in-the-market, wide-spread-across-the-country after sales service? Of course resale value and high FE are also reasons as to why they stay No.1 in sales :)

And would you please point out the other cars in the same price band as Maruti cars that provide better all roundedness?

Oops - I just read your signature. Now I understand.

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Originally Posted by AnonymousCoward (Post 1566077)

+1 to what AnonymousCoward said. It is not only that a car has to be built strongly, handle well and have good ride quality. It needs servicing for which you need good service centers, it needs to have fairly good resale value (we are not going to use the same car for ever. Are we?) as it our hard earned money invested.

Not that resale value and service are ONLY important factors. Build and ride qualities, handling etc are also important. But its sad that we do not have one car maker who can satisfy all our needs. We have to compromise on few things. That is my whole point.

For a person without deep pockets, while buying his first new car the choice will naturally be Maruti/Hyundai. The affordability,VFM and peace of mind these two represent is unmatched by anyone else. Such a person will not be inclined to gamble with exotics that have only a couple of A.S.S. even in big cities. A majority of car buyers fall in to this category, so (Maruti) Suzuki thrives.

They are reaping their early mover advantage. After all, they came to India when no one else was prepared, didn't they?

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Originally Posted by finneyp (Post 1566040)

What one person considers his priorities, another might consider as a compromise. For most people putting their lifetime savings in a brand new car, buying from a brand without service backup, Resale and FE is a simple wastage of their hard earned money. For them, the other brands would be a compromise!

With statements like this, this thread is going in the usual direction! :deadhorse

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Originally Posted by samsan02 (Post 1565823)

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.

Hi Samsan,
I just wanted to share my experiences with Maruti. I already see that you've mentioned in your posts some of the many reasons behind Maruti being #1 in India. Maybe i could share some of my experiences.

I bought a brand new Ford Fusion+ 1.6 Petrol in the early 2005 and drove it for good 4.5 years. No doubt, Fusion is a wonderful car. But, whenever i visited my service center for parts, i used to be shocked seeing their prices. Next problem, finding service centers once you leave Bangalore limits. Final problem, when i decided to sell my car, seeing the resale price for it, inspite of maintaining my car in close to showroom condition. These were my experiences with Ford, just as an example.

Next, my wife bought an Alto. Pricing is alright when compared against similar cars. The car is just fine. It runs well and does everything that Maruti promised it would do, perfectly. I agree, that this car cannot take heavy impacts. I think, every car has its own set of limitations and as long as you drive them within these limitations, Alto is OK. Now coming to the spares, i guess, i can buy a truck load of Alto's bumpers at the price of 1 Fusion's bumper. So, the spares are very affordable, be it mechanical/electronic ones or cosmetic ones. Resale price, i do not have words to explain this Samsan. A 2007 Alto fetches a price very close to what my Fusion fetched. If i was the one buying this 2007 Alto, i would have bought a new one instead. Still, these true value cars sell like hot cakes. Coming to the A.S.S. i guess, everybody agree that no other manufacturer can match this. When there are so many positives that is offered, and what you would have to compromise is a little bit on power or/and comfort or/and looks, many people would agree with it. After all, Life is a compromise, isn't it?
OT: My car pool friend has a Swift and MAN, i do not find much difference between that and my Fusion inspite of paying almost twice the price. With Swift, you would only compromise on space, i guess. So, there are some good cars too from Maruti.
Another OT: I better not talk about my Maruti vehicle :D 'Coz that is not offering you anything and still charge a hefty amount.
Cheers,
Deepak

Maruti as a company has done well in India - and we should give credit to Maruti for its brand positioning and well priced products. Suzuki as a car maker IMHO has lost its relevance long back.

Despite what we might say, competition is catching up with Maruti fast. Its pretty clear that Maruti is a failure in the higher segment - Baleno, SX4 and GV are classic examples. They don't have a new product which can come near the success of i10 (nor one as good as it). Its breadwinners - Alto,Swift,WagonR and Dezire are still selling well - but newer models like A*,and Ritz aren't market leaders. I expect the Maruti market share (not numbers) to drop further in the coming years as competition intensifies.

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Originally Posted by finneyp (Post 1566040)

Any given day, I prefer to buy a car which is reliable, safe, fuel effiicient & with good service network; rather than a 'built like a tank beauty' which will remain in service station for weeks.

This is just another Suzuki bashing thread.

What we really need is good competition for Suzuki from reliable companies who can take care of their customers for years.

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Originally Posted by finneyp

Most of the Indians make a compromise by buying a Maruti for the sake of A.S.S, Resale and maybe FE!
These are the priority items for them, they are not bothered about Safety, Build quality, Ride comfort, Handling etc.

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Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

How much would you like your car to be safety equipped and protect you!? IMO it should priority No.1 irrespective of the matter of investing hard earned money and safety should never be compromised!

I would like to be safe rather than sorry and feel I put my money into something which cannot keep me safe but take me to places with good FE just because its my first car!

Never compromise on safety my friend and also understand a fact that MSIL cars and Suzuki cars international have big distinguishable difference in build quality and are almost available at similar price!

I want this perception about MASS to be cleared here. I had taken my Zen recently to ABT Motors Service center in Chennai when my car A/C had conked off! I was made to wait for nearly an hour and then a technician/SA came to car to analyse the car. He did a few checks and he said the A/C gas leak is there and the A/C condensor has to be replaced and few other parts were also given in the list and gave an initial quote of 8.5K.

I was a bit skeptical about this since the car was old enough and dint want to spend so much buck on it. Took the car to a local car A/C mechanic who told me a simple gas filling should settle this problem. Filled & Its been over 6 months now, the A/C is touchwood and as cool as ever.

Now, what do I really call this experience with MASS!? What is so good about the MASS... help me understand. My Ford experience has been much better and I have heard nice stories about Hyundai service too! And I have heard lot of bad stories from colleagues about MASS. But, why people are still hanging to this decade old perception yet!?

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Originally Posted by sidindica (Post 1565640)

We make compromises just for the sake of A.S.S. and lower maintenance costs by buying Marutis.

Yes, I am NOT a maruti fan and will never be, simply because their cars lack the overall feel, and I cannot trust their safety standards and rattling bodies after hard use in our roads.

agree: I am also not a Maruthi fan after using the Swift Vdi.The built quality is not that good.The MASS is not good.Dealers (Big ones) are arrogant and never says the true delivery time of the booked vehicle.

Many of my friends had to fight the dealer to get cars with DDiS in time.They have a bad habit of giving the car earlier to a customer who buys more accessories/influential.Since they build affordable cars with no serious defects nobody will complain.

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Originally Posted by shortbread (Post 1565879)

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.

I totally agree with shortbread.

Maruti got the Indian Market on a platter as a gift. With no real competition they were able to grow this big. However we should also appreciate that they have capitalised on the oppourtunity they got. They understood the market, maintained a good product mix & improved the service setup. Each & every product they had launched was a success. People were just buying the brand compromising on the price, safety & quality. Many other manufaturers failed during this period.