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Originally Posted by shantanumishra Sorry to say this boss, but outside India Corolla and Camry form majority of the Taxi segment. Infact just because of this fact, Corolla has been the best seller car for Toyota and has topped the sales chart in many countries,
Coming back to India, even at the time of launch Qualis was an outdate product, but it was hugely successfull owing to its Rock-solid engine, body, FE and overall Excellent VFM packaging. And Indian market did not had any Luxury MPV at that time, Only Tata Sumo (Read Crude MPV here) was available,
Qualis was replaced more because of Toyota's Global strategy and owing to the fact that except India, in all Global markets, Innova had long back replaced Qualis, so, they had no option but to replace Qualis with Innova keeping inline their Global Market scenario.
Regarding Innovas as a Taxi, Go to any Metro and you will find numerous Innovas plying as Taxis. Infact, I know a lot of people who just dont buy the Innova because of the Taxi Tag attached to it, However because of the fact that majorly, the base model of Innova is used as Taxis, hence, people buy the Top models and the one below with ease, Also, more because there is still no good luxury MPV available in India which can carry 7-8 people giving excellent comfort levels and decent FE with good ride quality.
OT: Regarding Any company's Target Audience, all companies care for, at the end of the day, are sales. I remember at the time of Mahindra Logan launch, it was not released in White color and the reason given was that the company did not wanted the car to be labeled as Taxi. But see now, Taxi segment is one of the largest buyers of Logan. |
No apologies needed Mishra ji
. My post was with reference to Toyota in India only.
You say Qualis was outdated. I ask you this, how many manufacturers do you know of that currently sell their outdated products in India, sometimes side by side with their latest offerings (eg - Accent / Verna)? And as per your post, the competetion was anyway below the "outdated" model's standards. So why discontinue the leader of the pack?
And what was the global strategy of Toyota that led to this replacement? Kindly enlighten me. You say that "Innova had long back replaced Qualis (in other countries), so, they had no option but to replace Qualis with Innova ". What was that compelling factor here? How does it matter what one company sells in another country? How difficult would it have been for Toyota to say - Here's a product (Qualis), it works for India, so it is being sold. You want a premium feel, here's the upgraded Innova.
I never said that innovas are not sold as taxis. in my original post, I stated that "you can find many Innova taxis puttering about in cities". As a product, the Innova has been successful to shake off the "primarily a taxi" badge and taken space in the "luxury MPV" segment, a task Qualis could not do. And I do not agree with your comments on people buying high end variants on Innova for personal use. Qualis had different versions / variants also ..... so what are you implying here?
I do not wish to discuss perceptions here, but for every 1 person you show me who is weary of Innova's cabbie image, I can show you 5 who do not feel the same.
In my opinion, Toyota is an image concious brand. It forms the entry luxury segment in India. The company would not like the "taxi tag", and I feel my above statements point to the same rationale. All manufacturers do want profits, but brand value cannot be diluted for some players. And if its only about profits, why would Toyota pull out a product that was raking in tons of moolah, with zero expenditure on product development, R&D and marketing (Qualis virtually sold by itself). Think about it.
Logan was a cheap sedan (at least in comparison to Toyota), offered good space and relative ease of maintainence. What is Toyota Corolla's USP in the taxi market, what with latest diesel engines available for half the price (maybe lesser) that too are quite easy on the pocket and fairly reliable? At best, you will see a mere handful of Corollas as taxis.
And just so that we are on the same page, all comments are in context to Toyota in India and India alone.