[MAS]

Originally Posted by camchennai

Carving out a separate dealer network for one model is not feasible as investment cost is very high and Kizaski will not help in ROI, in the case of lexus and equis they are totally different as they are different brand names all together.

Just to remind everyone that LC 200 which costs more than 1 crore as OTR is still sold in the same Toyota dealership where Etios, Innova and Altis are sold.

You are right on the investment part and ROI. But if Suzuki wants to climb up the ladder, it has to do something different to differentiate the product.

For Toyota, it is the opposite of Suzuki. They are trying to climb down the ladder of segments, while Suzuki wants to go up.

[vineethvazhayil]

I'm pretty sure as Toyota, Honda and VW expand to opposite ends of the vehicle offering spectrum, this differentiation will be needed - No manufacturer would want to treat the buyer of a premium product and a lower end product the same way. The reason why there is Lexus/Acura and Infiniti in the world. I guess at the moment, MS doesn't have the volumes and justification to spin off separate outlets to sell premium cars. Just came as a thought..

[Surviving Brain]

Originally Posted by MAS

MSIL have never been successful in selling a car which has a boot, other than the Dzire.

How come you omit Maruti Esteem from that list? They did sell pretty decent number of Maruti Esteem. (?)

[bkbkr1212]

All the flavours of Toyotas, Hondas etc are sole from the same showroom.

So why are so-called-car enthusiasts who claim to be "unbiased" in their outlook wants Kizashi to be sold from a separate outlet?
Fabia(is it worth the price even?) is sold in the same showroom as other Skoda cars, Etios is going to be sold with Fortuners and Brio which is going to come in near future will also be displayed and sold in the same Honda outlets.

God save us snobbish Indians.

[aaggoswami]

Not sure, but I tried marutikizashi.com and looks like its a genuine Maruti website. Its this.

I am posting a few screen shots. The figures are listed down in American fashion of inch, but the fuel tank figure is in ltrs. and in case of Kizashi, its 63 ltrs. fuel tank. Small IMHO for a car with 2.4 unit. The 1.6 Baleno had 51 ltrs. tank.

The images.

[gshanky]

Originally Posted by MAS

You are right on the investment part and ROI. But if Suzuki wants to climb up the ladder, it has to do something different to differentiate the product.

For Toyota, it is the opposite of Suzuki. They are trying to climb down the ladder of segments, while Suzuki wants to go up.

On the contrary, FORD and Hyundai were able to provide quality products at premium price without changing the brand. So if the product is good and the positioning is right, it will definitely succeed.

[swiftnfurious]

That small indicator on the front bumper (side) is a nighmarish thought atleast in india ! Hope its gonne be cheap or they are going to take it off on Indian versions ! [Since its a CBU, chances are low?]

At least the showrooms stock it in good numbers - will be required in India a lot I guess!

Originally Posted by gshanky

On the contrary, FORD and Hyundai were able to provide quality products at premium price without changing the brand. So if the product is good and the positioning is right, it will definitely succeed.

Completely agree. But we need to understand one more thing - All these brands also always had some "premium" cars which still are considered real good in used car markets and which were flops because of pricing. Atleast I dont think Maruti had anything of that sort [GV never have had a huge fan following IMHO]. Also these brands excpet for Hyundai were not into the mass / volume markets unlike Maruti.

And for me Maruti = poor build quality ! And other brands mentioned doesnt suffer from this problem, surely not on a large scale. So this is where people get scared to invest such huge money into Maruti. If you notice, a lot of discussion in this thread is related to the interior parts quality and not the engine / A** which is taken for granted for a Suzuki!

[MAS]

Originally Posted by Surviving Brain

How come you omit Maruti Esteem from that list? They did sell pretty decent number of Maruti Esteem. (?)

My bad. I should have added "in the recent years" when competition became more intense.

[sidindica]

That website is NOT a maruti website, all the specs point out to the US version and it uses an imperial system of measurement, compared to our metric system. No, that front indiator on the bumper won't make it to the Indian model. Its US specific as their market demands it.

But, just got an indicative pricing of 17-19 lakhs ex showroom Delhi from my source. Good luck to MSIL selling this at this bracket.

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by skjlives

For all those who want a 2.4 lt, ~180 bhp, 8 second 0-100 car loaded with features to the brim for a price like 11-12 L, you should look at shifting to the US.

Or stop seeing impossible dreams where a D-spec car is available for C-segment prices.

Originally Posted by skjlives

I have pre booked my Kizashi and am waiting for the launch as eagerly as most. I think 17-18 L (OTR Bangalore) for the manual and an additional lakh for the auto is a very reasonable price that Suzuki can ask and I'm certainly prepared to pay that sticker.

Congrats, man. The price you mention is in line with what sidindica's sources quote and to me it looks like this would be close to the final pricing.

Originally Posted by itszain

exorbitant price.... Why can't they avoid the CBU route and position this around 8-9 lacs price tag ?? whats wrong with maruti mgmt ???

8-9 lakhs for something that is spec-wise close to the 20L+ Accord.

Originally Posted by MAS

MSIL have never been successful in selling a car which has a boot, other than the Dzire. Yes SX4 sells a 1000 odd numbers a month, but not a segment leader. Why MS, even Hyundai is struggling to do the same.

You could add almost all the other competition to the struggling list, by your logic. If you look at the sales figures for the past many years, while Honda-City is the clear leader doing 3K+, the rest of the crowd (SX4, Verna, Fiesta etc) do about 1000-1500 each. And if you bring in the fact that even without a diesel, SX4 more or less leads over Fiesta/Verna which have diesels, imagine how the numbers would have looked if SX4 came in diesel ? BTW, in its last 3-4 years, even the Baleno sold almost 1500 per month.

Originally Posted by MAS

IMO, I don't think MS will be able to sell Kizaski in decent numbers.

Given the CBU-route & from Btheir experience with G.Vitara, I don't think they are looking at numbers with the Kizashi. More like proving a point, that hey we also have premium sedans that are also fun to drive. Or testing the waters before going full-fledged.

[gshanky]

Originally Posted by swiftnfurious

Completely agree. But we need to understand one more thing - All these brands also always had some "premium" cars which still are considered real good in used car markets and which were flops because of pricing. Atleast I dont think Maruti had anything of that sort [GV never have had a huge fan following IMHO]. Also these brands excpet for Hyundai were not into the mass / volume markets unlike Maruti.

And for me Maruti = poor build quality ! And other brands mentioned doesnt suffer from this problem, surely not on a large scale. So this is where people get scared to invest such huge money into Maruti. If you notice, a lot of discussion in this thread is related to the interior parts quality and not the engine / A** which is taken for granted for a Suzuki!

FORD and Hyundai never had any reputation for being premium.

In Hyundai's case they were trying to come up with a worthwhile premium car for the last 5 years or so and they have been coming up with one failure after another until they hit the jackpot with the current Genesis. And now with the Sonata re-design and also re-designing all the cars from KIA, they are doing much better.

In regards to FORD, until they started improving quality with the new set of vehicles like Fusion, Edge, Taurus (new re-designed), Explorer (new re-designed), Fiesta, Mustang, etc. they did really suck. However last year they scored much better than Toyota in Initial quality survey. So just to make it clear FORD was not a premium brand. They had a host of other brands for premium offerings. Now they are only left with Lincoln as a premium brand for now. However almost all of the ford cars are on the higher price points than their competition in respective segments. They are still selling better why? because they improved the design and quality and are also positioning the vehicles well.

Coming back to Kizashi - it is a good car as so far it has come out very well in almost all of the reviews. Though it is not a standout in design and performance, it is still a very good car. In india it seems like it is positioned against Jetta directly in terms of price, we'll have to wait and see how it affects the sales of Accords, passats, camrys and superbs.

Suzuki has failed in earlier attempts because none of the cars that they tried to sell at higher price points (especially sx4 and grand vitara) were as good as kizashi in quality and performance but still they wanted to position those vehicles at higher price points compared to competition. Lets hope they get it right with kizashi.

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by sidindica

That website is NOT a maruti website, all the specs point out to the US version and it uses an imperial system of measurement, compared to our metric system. No, that front indiator on the bumper won't make it to the Indian model. Its US specific as their market demands it.

But, just got an indicative pricing of 17-19 lakhs ex showroom Delhi from my source. Good luck to MSIL selling this at this bracket.

Awesome ! Now after all that hype - 17-19L ex showroom ! Should I say R.I.P already ? Gosh - its not even that spacious as per OD test drive.

[SAS]

Guys, some news: today morning I spotted the Kizashi on the western express highway near goregaon, heading towards town, in peak traffic . It had it's badging masked, however everything else was unmasked. It looks awesome in black (like a good mafia car) and has decent road presence.

However the pricing being quoted in this thread seems pretty steep, probably due to the import duties. Heck, it's nearly entering Skoda Superb territory, but doesn't have nearly as good road presence.

[yajaman99]

Just spotted the this Vehicle as i was on my to GTRP, Whitefiled. It was on opposite side of the road, i guess it came from the Bimal showroom. It was black and looked awesome for the few seconds i got to see it. The Front Grill design somehow reminded me of a Cadillac , just a 1st impression, it did look nice. Waiting for the TeamBHP review on this this.

[ibcool]

the actual website for this - Maruti Suzuki Kizashi