[amohit]

Reducing the prices to 1.8L will make alto very close to Nano's price.
I remember reading somewhere that for Nano, 1L is the introductory price, so by 2010 it will surely be somewhere around 1.25-1.4
It will be fight between old but proven Alto vs new and better designed Nano. Add to it the above average A.S.S of maruti to not so good a.s.s. of tata.

And I am guessing if Alto's prices are reduced, hyundai will reduce the price for Santro also. so we will have 3 cars, 1.4L/1.8L/2.2L
I can only imagine a situation like this

"First time buyer will think:- Its time for me to buy a safe vehicle.
Bike cost 60k, but not very safe. Let me buy Nano at 1.4L, no wait alto is priced just 40k more, let me wait for 6 more months and buy Alto.
After 6 months:Oh! Santro is priced just 50k more...let me wait for 6 more months and buy santro.
1 yr later...s**t, all my savings gone in that holiday trip...let me buy that damn bike, its now priced at 65k"

Regards,

[Sowmya]

Originally Posted by Technocrat

Whats Desi about Maruti apart from the name?

Nothing but making Indian Customer fool

[deepclutch]

if maruti brings alto's price low ,tata will add a better engine for nano instead of the 2 cylinder one(hopefullY).

[loving_alaap]

M 800 phased out!
Alto in place of M800!
A Star in place of Alto!

Day light dreaming man. It sounds to good to be true.

Lets hope for the best. (it has already occurred outside india. There is a thread on it: A-Star to replace Alto in Europe)

But as any other dream of INdia, i think it will not complete ever.

[NetfreakBombay]

Can't figure out this part:

Maruti has decided that it’s too expensive to upgrade the M800 to meet the Euro 4 emission norms.

800 shares its engine with Alto. Why would it be more difficult / expensive to support new emission norms in 800?

[loving_alaap]

Originally Posted by NetfreakBombay

Can't figure out this part:

800 shares its engine with Alto. Why would it be more difficult / expensive to support new emission norms in 800?

Its Maruti!!

It can (or can't) do anything on Indian customers.

[Technocrat]

Originally Posted by NetfreakBombay

Can't figure out this part:

800 shares its engine with Alto. Why would it be more difficult / expensive to support new emission norms in 800?

It doesnt both the cars have different engines(6V/12V), Besides there may be some other non engine related changes which may increase the costs which MSIL is not interested in.

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by Technocrat

It doesnt both the cars have different engines(6V/12V), Besides there may be some other non engine related changes which may increase the costs which MSIL is not interested in.

Was there not a M800 model (5 gear,16 Valve, MPFI) in the market a few years ago, since discontinued? I think it had the Alto engine.

[prasanth]

According to sidindicas scoop, alto would have A-stars new engine. So I think theres going to be 2 versions of alto one stripped down with the 800cc engine priced close to the nano and one with the A-star engine. Here's the quote form his post:

Alto-will get the A-star's 1.0L 3 cylinder KB series engine, price rise will be pretty high, so it will also continued to be sold with the existing 800cc F8d engine in non euro-4 markets. euro-4 version expectd in april 2010.

Also there will be a price rise for the nano from 2010, I remember reading about it from somewhere.

[sanagg1]

In order to reduce the cost of Alto detailed engineering (reverse) shall be needed. Again a costly affair, until MSIL want to have larger presence in sub 2L market.Another alternative to develop entirely new product again costly affair, but may go along way for MSIL. MSIL badly needs a product sorting any way.

NOT that MSIL does not know or its engineers are idling there are sometimes enterpise issues to bog down plain simple common sense.

[ram_hyundai]

Originally Posted by Sowmya

Nothing but making Indian Customer fool

So we have more fools arround us,lolz.I would like to enlighten you on some things which i feel no other manufacturer is keen on.They spent a large chunk of money just for customer satisfaction,i have been with a couple of manufacturers and the kind of follow up done from the manufacturer side is extremely good.I can quote a few things which adds value to the customers regardless of product.The lowest ext waranty rates,lowest cost of service,lowest parts cost etc are benifits to customers .
still do you believe that customers are fooled by maruti.
ram

[StarVegabond]

The Any company will be driven by three main aspects

1. Contribution margin (sales price - cost), higher the better. typically for any healthy business it should be minimum 40%+ else it is difficult to sustain
in the longer term as well as do R&D for the future.
2. Entry costs into a segment. if a new car needs to be introduced in 1L segment the entry costs are high. through conventional thinking of reverse engineering and cost cuts M800 can not be reduced to a level of Nano. Nano is Euro III compliant, tubeless tyres, alloy wheels, aluminium engine, fabulous new design in term sof exteriors.
Maruti needs to develop a new platform, entry costs are high.
3. Right Time to market. this is the killer, if the company does nto hit the market on time (right time) then either it has to position the product at lower price (reduced margins) or provide more goodies (again reduced margin).

in my view Maruti has very high entry barriers to enter 1L-1.5L segment unless there is already an ongoing under the radar new car platform development program.

[Whiz]

Originally Posted by ram_hyundai

The lowest ext waranty rates,lowest cost of service,lowest parts cost etc are benifits to customers .
still do you believe that customers are fooled by maruti.
ram

with you Ram and all this just adds to the resale value of the car. What more do you want.

[mjothi]

A source in the automobile industry with direct knowledge of the plans said Alto will have a stripped down version to compete with Tata Motors’ small car Nano and an upmarket variant loaded with the new KB series engine to take on Hyundai Santro, GM’s Spark and other compact cars in the market.

Source: Now, no-frills Alto to take on Tata Nano- Automobiles-Auto-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times

[tortoiseNhare]

M800 would be the logical choice for MSIL for taking on Nano. The problem, it is heard, is that the investment for tweaking the engine to BS4 norms is too high. Now we hear, Alto will be stripped down to do the job. But, isn't the 800 cc alto engine derived from the same 800cc M800 engine? Is it that there is much more about the BS4 norms than just the engine?