[srishiva]

I see the following reasons

1. Its not a 1 lakh rupee car
2. A home with one two wheeler cannot trade in and buy a Nano. Its a costly for buying and maintaining. This is the target that Ratan Tata saw, of replacing the two wheeler with Nano

As long a 3 or even 4 people (with kids) can drive on two wheelers without problems, people will not consider Nano. (This is a serious opportunity for lobbyists to harden govt policy)

[deardaljit]

TATA failed to understand that people would not rush to buy a car just hearing about its price tag. People would be putting their hard earned money ( even if it was small ). TATA thought people would be buying Nano without a test drive. That's probably the reason they never said anything about its ride quality/ performance etc but only kept announcing its 1L price ( which too was not to be ). Some actually did ( swept by the hype ! ). But anyone who got a chance to drive Nano never looked at it again. This seems a brick with wheels :-(

[SAE40 in veins]

Now before going deep into the Nano, let me put a few things before you which indirectly points to the problems faced by the Nano today. I'm a little critical of the Mkg dept of TML on this count, and pls correct me if i'm wrong here.

The Tata Indica Vista and the V2 together does less than 9000 nos (about 6500 in nov) when each of them are capable of clocking sales of 10,000 each. Lets just look at the reasons behind it.
1. The Vista looks too similar to the Indica V 2 and a majority of the public thinks its a facelift even though the two do not share a bolt.

2. Tatas named it Indica Vista and not just 'Tata Vista' why why why ????? . They should have known that the Indica V 2 had a Taxi image and the middle class family man was buying the Wagon R and Santro and not the V 2 for personal use. Add to it the initial quality niggles and the brand 'Tata Indica' as we all know came with a baggage. Now Tatas create a better car, fit an excellent Fiat Engine and then dilutes the whole thing by associating that forgettable baggage with it.

3. The mistake despite being (probably) discovered is repeated with the 'Sumo Grande'. Why the hell can they not call it simply 'Grande'.... will any sky fall down ????? i do not know......

4. The sequence of a totally new car succeeding an earlier one with the same name is common practice in the auto industry, the n generations of the corolla and Golf are good examples. Now, in those cases, never will the old vehicle coexist with the new, but will simply be replaced. The two iterations of the MR wagon in Japan are called Estilo and Wagon R in India and NOT 'Wagon R' , Wagon R vista etc....If Tatas cannot afford to discontinue certain models like the Sumo Victa and the Taxi V2 , it's fine; but then why unnecessarily penalize the new launches by adding the existing bad blood to it.

Now coming to the Nano, even before it was launched, i remarked to a few friends of mine that it is important that Tatas position it as a RICH MAN'S SECOND CAR' rather than as a common man's first car coz in India, even the common man is image conscious. Most of the reasons are discussed here already so i'm not going there in depth.

After all this, i wouldn't mince words to say that TML has a sub-standard marketing dept which wastes the 'hard work' of the R&D guys. Now after probably listening to the 'Vista' and 'Grande' naming debacles from the marketing surveys, they decide to name the facelifted Safari , the 'MERLIN' Now Mr Marketer in TML, whoever you are, please get your basics right as far as positioning is concerned. The image of the Indica V2 or the Sumo is not what the Safari enjoys(it never was a taxi). So a facelifted version being called 'Safari' again actually doesn't hurt. A 'Merlin' is sure to add to the confusion..... a case in point being the Daewoo Cielo and Nexia if you people can remember. Coming back to the Nano, The AAM AADMI CAMPAIGN might win votes for congress, but not customers for Nano.

Despite all this, there definitely is a way out.....

1. A nano with a CVT would be a really cool thing and will emulate a 'Kinetic Honda' in the car market as was seen a decade back. Ladies and elders will flock in large nos to buy this.

2. Diesel Nano - Only if it returns anything more than 25 kmpl. Else a second hand Indica V 2 will cannibalize the Nano diesel.

3. The Nano Europa - If Projected as a cool thing for the uber cool urban rich aka the Mercedes SMART.... The success of this model will depend on the highway manners of the car, as the target market - the rich guys will prefer a fast car to impress the lady sitting by the side during one of those weekend getaways.

4. And finally the Normal Nano LX with a bigger engine, bigger tyres and a boot which opens. This car even if it's priced at 2.5 Lakh on road will have takers as it might be perceived as a 'complete' car.

5. Nano LPG - This might actually be the cheapest car per km if launched. This can actually catch the attention of sales guys and delivery boys who overload their two wheelers. This can become the 'must have official car' for door delivery and doorstep sales people of big companies which can afford it.

All said and done, none of the above mentioned mod jobs will ensure instant success and the company will have to wait for the critical mass to build up as far as volumes are concerned. If all these fail, then the best way is to open up the flood gates to the city taxi segment ( Tatas have not permitted it so far) so that at least the investment is recovered.

[amit27]

We had a interesting discussion on this let me add my 2 cents just to sum up :
1. Car is an aspirational product for Indians why announce to world you cannot afford anything better ?
2. Drop in prices of 2 nd hand cars and entry of organized players into this segment leading to respectability and peace of mind .
3. Zero Marketing from Tata well if you want to sell you got to avertise and make aware of what you are selling
4. Tata servicing which is horrific to say the least ( my own expereince with Indica )
5. Suspect quality as indicated by fires I doubt if safety is a criterion with majority of buyers it has got more to with that you will get stuck with a lemon

Is all lost may be not what can be done

1. Repositioning as a lifestyle product for cities
2. Go Hero Honda way and aggresively push in Rural India .
3. Make it little more palatable and reduce the rough edges .

It is a refelection of frugal engineering abilities of India and our ability to design to products from scratch Tata should focus on getting ti back on track .

[ganesh_evo75]

Originally Posted by amit27

We had a interesting discussion on this let me add my 2 cents just to sum up :
1. Car is an aspirational product for Indians why announce to world you cannot afford anything better ?
2. Drop in prices of 2 nd hand cars and entry of organized players into this segment leading to respectability and peace of mind .
3. Zero Marketing from Tata well if you want to sell you got to avertise and make aware of what you are selling
4. Tata servicing which is horrific to say the least ( my own expereince with Indica )
5. Suspect quality as indicated by fires I doubt if safety is a criterion with majority of buyers it has got more to with that you will get stuck with a lemon

Is all lost may be not what can be done

1. Repositioning as a lifestyle product for cities
2. Go Hero Honda way and aggresively push in Rural India .
3. Make it little more palatable and reduce the rough edges .

It is a refelection of frugal engineering abilities of India and our ability to design to products from scratch Tata should focus on getting ti back on track .

Word to Word agree what Amit27 has to say.
Also they didn't even gave a thought for a big marketing and advertisement for NANO. secondly the Nano should have been launched by 2008, it crossed the waiting patience of the buyers, and most important and biggest mistake which also makes FIAT suffer is third class ATTITUDE of Dealers and there sales persons.
I'll say all is lost and no not even Diesel motor will do any positive for NANO.

[MihirC]

Just my 2 cents here. A look at the November 2010 sales figures for all the cars show a dinstinctive drop in sales for most of the cars. May that be C segement leaders or for B and B+ segment. I assume its just end of the year slack which will pick up again from Jan 2011.

Though in case of Nano the drop in sales is staggering, I feel it will pick up again after a couple of months, not to the level of 9k immediatell though.

[allinbalance]

Originally Posted by vinaydas

Nano has flopped period , Not because it is a bad car (i love it and it's a fantastic car) but because of the image that it portrays.

I think we could give the Nano a little more future. If you examine TATA's evolution with any new product in the automobile space they did have hiccups with the engineering initially. Indica being a case in point, ditto for Sumo and Safari (the first versions were pure trucks).

The one thing that stands out to me is TATA's thundering silence and then a timid response to the reports of the engine overheating or catching fire. One would have thought a swift and effective media clarification with a quick investigation would have deal with it effectively.

Their muted response to media blitz is what I feel has given the car a severe image problem.

[San Phrangmung]

Leave Nano, in our society people with small cars are treated as shits, an Indian man has not owned a car until and unless he has owned a "Big" one.

People are craving for a Big car within 5 lakh on road tag. Etios was a good launch but they were unable to keep the price low. And just like Maruti people buy Tata cars because its cheap, in their heart the Indians want a foreign car.

[wildon]

Originally Posted by allinbalance

If you examine TATA's evolution with any new product in the automobile space they did have hiccups with the engineering initially. Indica being a case in point, ditto for Sumo and Safari (the first versions were pure trucks).

Remember TATA is targeting a family who cant afford a car earlier because of the price. so this customer will think 1000 times before buying as they are putting their hard earned money.

I would say this time TATA's R&D with people didn't worked.

[greatmana2000]

I do not think , TATA did not market the car well enough . On the contrary the Nano got the best coverage and I think that has actually worked on the contrary for the car .

It was like people got bored of "seeing the marvel " so much on TV and the media all over .

TATA cars are not really VFM anyday given the poor quality , bad A.S.S ,stubborn nature of their salesmen . No one buys a car to have it broke down every few thousand kms .
Even today the maruti 800 has good sales going by the sales figures and it is doing almost 5-6 times the sales of the nano . Now , I would say the maruti 800 is actually a silent performer in the sales as Maruti has long stopped advertising the product .
Right now , the oly VFM product that i can think of would be the Figo and nothing else .

Tata got the equation wrong because , the average middle class adheres to some sort of family planning ,have a kid or 2 and incase if all of them need to travel or go shopping , they need to call up a call taxi or an autorickshaw , rather than loose 2 lakhs of their hard earned money . The other option would be that of buying an excellent used car for 1 lakh and save the other hard earned lakh

[srishiva]

I remember what the MD of Toyota Kirloskar motors said 5 years ago, People will not buy black and white TV just because they are cheaper than colour TVs. Look at VFM please. TATA Nano has failed in this regard.

[pgsagar]

One thing I noticed is, Nano is not looked down by those who didn't buy it or those who couldn't afford it, and not by those who drive sedans/SUVs. It IS looked down by other hatchback owners. Intriguing indeed. Do other hatch owners get miffed that a small, cheap car has the same classification as the ones they drive? There are these guys in my apartment who drive some non-Nano hatchbacks and they just don't stop taking digs at Nano. What they drive also is an excuse for a car. But they feel so top of the world driving these excuses for cars.

[informmaha]

Originally Posted by ganesh_evo75

most important and biggest mistake which also makes FIAT suffer is third class ATTITUDE of Dealers and there sales persons.

Well exactly what i had in mind. The TATA dealers have a very much of laid back ATTITUDE. We have suffered a lot when we had an indigo and an indica back in 2008. The sales or service person dont even bother to attend your calls. The car will be out with the same condition as it was left, many times we had to do cleaning work outside. Even now this has not changed with my recent visit to one of the TATA dealers. This had even made a mark on FIAT vehicles too as we can see there are many potential buyers with doubts on their mind..

They are like, if you want to buy, you buy or else leave, please dont disturb me in asking too many questions. This attitude would have made a dent to normal middle class people who Mr. TATA had vision on.

There was news about the safety kit to be fit in all NANO sold, recently in news, but it should have been conveyed to NANO users. When i had a chat with a person who bought this vehicle a month back, didnt even know that this news has come out. He's ready to sell his car, but there are no takers for it.

Unless and until the ATTITUDE of sales and service people does not change, this vehicle would be history sooner or later. Hope to see some brand building inorder to avoid this scene.

[raveen_2023]

It is very unfortunate to see such an ambitious project becoming unsuccessful. I beieve that the reason is misconception among buyers about the two cyinder engine and the price range which is so cose to the popular and reliable ALTO.

[Skyline GT-R]

Nano Europa with a 1.0 L Engine + price range at par with Alto + advertisements which show successful people from various walks of life (not models) driving a Nano Europa might do the trick.