[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by appuchan

Not sure about HP, but for Bihar and Jharkhand, GC must be a big factor considering the road (or lack of it) condition there !

Good point!
I'm going a little OT, but I read in yesterday's TOI that Laloo wanted to make the highways in Bihar as smooth as Hema Malini's cheeks, but the writer says in reality they are rougher than Om Puri's cheeks!

[vcash]

Originally Posted by Elito11

ROTF!!
Rustic people..prefer genuine, hunky, practical and VFM cars. No showbazi, only Go bazi u see!

Originally Posted by appuchan

Not sure about HP, but for Bihar and Jharkhand, GC must be a big factor considering the road (or lack of it) condition there ! And SX4 beats even a truck in this dept and NHC will be struggling to get its tyre touching the surface . You can also see that Bihar almost tops when it comes to the sales of Bolero and Sumo.

While I agree that Bihar and Jharkhand don't have stellar roads and that the 'rustic' people image have been instilled thanks to Shibu Soren, Laloo and Sui Mui Biscota from Chak De India, none of your assumptions of the SX4 outselling NHC can be attributed to these factors.

Jharkhand never had a Honda dealer till only last month. Bihar still does not have a Honda dealer. The closest dealers were in Bhubaneshwar and Calcutta. We got our OHC from Cal - At the time their were only 6 city's in Jamshedpur.

Prior to Jharkhand and Bihar's first Honda dealership opening in Jamshedpur in June, there were about 100 city's / 20 civics and 4 accords and 2 CRV's which were mostly bought in Cal or Bhubaneshwar. This number will ofourse rise now that there is a dealer in the state.

Honda does command a premium image in Jharkhand compared to Suzuki and though people always clamoured for the brand, everyone was shy to purchase due to the lack of delarship / service.

Maruti on the other hand has 5 dealerships throughout Bihar and Jharkhand, so there is greater accessibility to the SX-4. These dealerships have been around for many years so the service network is quite established lending to further buyer confidence.

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by nickatnite

there has to be a level playing field for all manufacturers. The monopoly that Maruti is enjoying is unfair

Hmm, nick, I am not sure how you got the impression that the playing field is not fair or level ? And what monopoly are we talking about ? They do have 50% of the market, but the market is not regulated in any way. Any of the competitors is free to eat into that big pie, but its a different matter that either they are unable to or not even trying.

Every manufacturer today is free to introduce the products it wants in whatever segment it chooses to, but if they are not doing it, then it is purely their own decision. Let them bring on some nice small cars and we as consumers would only benefit.

We all know that many of the competing Jap manufacturers have small cars in their lineup in other countries. Mitsu has a nice small car in Japan, why not bring it here and give a tough time to MUL. So, the playing field is level, just that some players do not think it worth their time and effort to play in some segments.

Originally Posted by nickatnite

as more than half of their products are outdated and low-grade.

Outdated yes, but not low-grade. Low-grade as compared to what option at the same price point ? An M800 has been around for donkeys years, yes. But it still provides point A to B transportation for a family which is much safer than a bike and to top it it happens to be one of the most FE cars in India today.

With oil prices breaking all records, I would place my bet on such small cars (I am actually buying an M800 soon), which is also evident from the changing dynamics of the car sales in India. Heck, even in the US, they are dumping SUVs and opting for small cars.

Originally Posted by diabloo

Just few more months for Nano, then can say goodbye to below par stuff !!

Ha, now that would be the best joke of the year. Nano being a quality benchmark !!! Let them first strive for quality in their costlier products and make them reliable before they attempt to even think about it in their cheapest-car-in-the-world built to a price by cutting corners all around. Then we can talk about saying goodbye to the M800, which might be old, obsolete or outdated, but definitely RELIABLE.

[pulsar7778]

@ Pulsar : Where are the D Segmenters in your chart? Accord? Laura? Camry? And the German luxobarges?[/quote]
yeah bro!! i am preparing a new report which will all the car lines

[GTO]

You compile these yourself? Well, thank you for sharing!

[HKP]

Small little Kerala sells more B1 segment cars than all the states in India other than TN? Interesting.

Anybody has the data about No of cars per family in India, Statewise?

Whats the source of this? Good presentation of the data.

\\hkp

[phamilyman]

Another koshun: Where are all the DeZires? I mean that humongous waiting period etyadi. i was hoping to see many more on road.

also i'm seeing lesser new Fabias on road aajkal (del/hyd).

[rajneeesh]

Well the small car market is seeing a lot of action. It began with teh Spark ( which GM has not handled well), followed by the i10. Now Maruti will be joining the party with the A Star and the Splash. Tatas will be launching the NANO indica V3. The older cars have started losing sales to the newer models M 800, Indica, Santro. With the new launches and ever increasing price od Petrol, this segment will sure see some excitement. I wonder what will be the market like if Hyundai or MSIL launches a well priced 1 litre modern Diesel in the i10, Santro or the Wagon R/ A Star.

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

Where are all the DeZires? I mean that humongous waiting period etyadi. i was hoping to see many more on road.

Maybe they are all down south. Because in Chennai and Kerala, I am seeing lots of them and here people seem to love the Swift with a boot.

We were on the highway in Kerala and I see my Dad keenly observing a Dzire that was in front of us. After sometime, he says, "There is something different about the rear of that Swift. It looks kind of bigger than ours". Obviously he wasn't aware that a Swift-with-boot was out.

While I loved the Dzire in the snaps, I did not like it in the flesh. But, if it was available last year when we got our Swift, I am sure my Dad would have taken it. He is not too happy with the limited bootspace in the Swift.

[vasudeva]

I do see a reasonable number of Dzire's in Delhi/NCR. Being a Maruti, it will have enough market to be profitable for Maruti. However, IMHO, it makes even my Corolla look great.

[phamilyman]

Vasudeva saab,

Come on now.

We are seeing a deluge of i10s, new WagonRs all over all the time. Not _that_ many dZires. A few are there now. But if there was an 8 month waiting means by now we should've seen alot more of them, no?

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by vasudeva

However, IMHO, it makes even my Corolla look great.

The Corolla might not be a great looker. But come on, it surely is much better looking than a Dzire, any which way you look at it.

[CtrlAltDel]

I dont see many new Dzires in hyderabad either. Also, I dont see that many Indigo CS'es too. if the sales are increasing for these two as is reported, where are the cars?

[TeddyBear]

Originally Posted by CtrlAltDel

I dont see many new Dzires in hyderabad either. Also, I dont see that many Indigo CS'es too. if the sales are increasing for these two as is reported, where are the cars?

In Bangalore, i see lot of Dzire and Indigo CS.

[sridharps]

Originally Posted by vasudeva

I do see a reasonable number of Dzire's in Delhi/NCR. Being a Maruti, it will have enough market to be profitable for Maruti. However, IMHO, it makes even my Corolla look great.

The Dzire numbers are third behind Indigo and City, whew! One of the ugliest cars, IMHO. Even I don't see many of them here on the road. But then, I see a lot of Aveo's and Aveos sales numbers are showing 1/7th of Dzire! Just the sampling, I see in front of me, I guess!