[girimajiananth]

Ideally this news must have been delivered by Bajaj . They were the undisputed leaders in the scooter segment. My father told me that the waiting time for a Bajaj Chetak was nearly 6-7 years. Had they introduced a scooter like activa for the mass market then the scenario would have been different.

TVS has a good product in their stable ,but they are not aggressive enough in winning over a customer. Good job honda

[babu.sundaram]

Shows the brand value that Honda had generated over years.
This is a real achievement for the product, especially considering the crappy sales & ASS experiences with Honda.

For the most, many folks refer to scooter as Activa/Honda these days . Hopefully Honda sheds the image by releasing more interesting products in the market!

Ideally, this should have been Bajaj' doing all this... but, hey, retrospective is always 6/6!

PS: It makes no sense on how TVS is avoiding this scooter mania!

[FordDodo]

IMHO, Activa's quality degraded over the years. The first two gen models were ok, but the current Activa after 10k kms of riding, feels like a 50k kms ridden scooter.

I bought a Access over the Activa for two reasons.
1. 125cc
2. No crowd at service centres.
3. Telescopic suspension.
4. Better ride quality.

One reason where Activa beats all other scoots is the metal body, not sure how much that helps in case of a crash.

[sagarpadaki]

IMHO activa is a highly overrated scooter which has been selling because of word of mouth and not because of its laundry list of features. For Many people a scooter is synonymous to activa. They do not even consider test riding the other better ones . The newer gen engine build quality is not as good as the older gen. My regular mechanic says the quality of engine internals has gone down over the years. Ride quality is strictly average due to the archaic trailing arm suspension. Go over bad roads with pillion and go over the same roads at same speeds with another scooter with telescopic suspension and one will see the difference. My two cents.

[rajeshsundaram]

Originally Posted by FordDodo

One reason where Activa beats all other scoots is the metal body, not sure how much that helps in case of a crash.

For the record, TVS WEGO has metal body too. IMO, using ABS fibre body is not for crash cases, but to reduce the weight.

[loki]

In a country like ours, word-of-mouth can greater demand for products way more than any marketing initiative. Something which Maruti has been strongly milking for years. And now HMSI.

Like others have pointed out, its an instance of being in the right place at the right time. IIRC, Kinetic started the gearless scooter market in India. Bajaj, who were pioneers of the geared scooter category also tried their hand with ungeared scooters.
When HMSI set shop in India, the economy just started booming - in big cities especially. HMSI brought in a simple, boring, reliable product. Which appealed to every age group and demographic. It also helped that they had a bullet proof brand name in India. Kinetic tried to compete but eventually folded up. Bajaj, who was seeing success with the Pulsar chose to move away from scooters altogether. Bad idea.

When the competition came around (Suzuki, Yamaha, or even Mahindra) with better suspension etc, brand Activa had already become a behemoth. Money in the Bank!

[Nithesh_M]

Originally Posted by pgsagar

Excellent comment. Time and again I see this type of reaction that I walked into so and so showroom, no one bothered to welcome me, so I walked out and bought one from a different make. We go to showroom to buy a car/scooter. Not to marry the salesman.

Haha this made me laugh because I know how accurate this is. Having owned the Dio(Best 50k kms ever spent on that reliable machine) and now the CBR 250R(40k and counting) I have spent multiple days just waiting in the customer lounge and/or the adjacent showroom to kill time when the bike is being serviced and I've seen a plethora of customers who walk in with the whole "I'm the guy with the money now kneel before me" attitude in the showroom side and at the service side its the owners who service their vehicles at roadside mechanics to save cost and miss their scooter's service intervals and fail to keep their service records intact and therefore nullify warranty but then come to the service area and create a scene saying its a defective product.
One evening I sat there to collect my bike and an Activa customer came in to collect his scooter. The lady at the counter told him the transmission belt is worn off and needs replacement but the guy didn't want to pay 200 bucks for it and rode off with the serviced scooter. 30 minutes later he comes back walking and shouts at everyone because his scooter stopped on the road and isn't moving.

People in this country know how to own machinery, but majority of them don't even know how to maintain it. And more than that number are the people who don't even go through their owners manual even once in their lifetime to at least know what parts needs to be changed at what interval and how to diagnose basic niggles.

Originally Posted by loki

IIRC, Kinetic started the gearless scooter market in India.

Honda and Kinetic entered a JV with Kinetic Honda. So Honda were always there since 1980s albeit indirectly operating due to License Raj which alienated foreign manufacturers and cost us dearly in the sense that we are yet to look forwards to the 600cc class and break out of the 250cc class segments like the other markets worldwide. Its why all the Japanese manufacturers had to tie up with local makers to run their business indirectly (Tvs-Suzuki/Kawasaki-Bajaj/Hero-Honda/Yamaha-Escorts) in the late 70's and early 80s. Only after the 90's abolition of License Raj were the foreign manufacturers able to break away from their erstwhile local partners and setup their own shops in India.

[0xTKB]

Originally Posted by payeng

Personally I simply can't get over the fact that one has to buy the "Number Plates" as accessories with Honda 2 Wheelers...

.. and people are still perfectly ok with it..!!

The reason why Honda offers these as accessories is due to the high-security number plates in many states. For e.g., in Himachal, it is mandatory to install high-security number plates on a new vehicle and only after that you can get your registration certificate.

[gaurav_3000ad]

Activa is like the Maggi of the scooter market. Indefeatable and indefatigable.

Only way to dethrone the Activa is to prove that they use lead and cyanide in their manufacturing process.

[ShanJazz]

Originally Posted by payeng

[b]
The Activa was the most realiable and trouble free product for a long time.. by the time others came to match (better) the Activa in terms of specs/tech/build/ride... the Activa has went on to become a behemoth BRAND

I own an Activa (2010 model), and i cant agree more with your assessment. Just spot on!!!!

In my mind, Honda had hit the "sweet spot" with this product.

[Rahul Bhalgat]

Originally Posted by pgsagar

Excellent comment. Time and again I see this type of reaction that I walked into so and so showroom, no one bothered to welcome me, so I walked out and bought one from a different make. We go to showroom to buy a car/scooter. Not to marry the salesman.

Agree with you pgsagar. Surely we shall focus on the product and not the salesman.

But if the showrooms are not keen to explain the product properly, if they are not keen even to offer a test ride, then? Forget test ride, many of them do not even have a demo scooter many times!

In such case, why to buy a product without testing just because it sells in huge numbers? And that too when you have choices in a competitive market? That's what I did.

And I am happy with both Mahindra Duro and Hero Pleasure. My friends and relatives having Activa experienced the same few common niggles found in Pleasure or Duro.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motorb...ml#post3752095

I really appreciate your and GTO's point that we don't go to the showroom to get pampered. I did not buy Duro or Pleasure because the dealer pampered me. But at least they shown me the scooter, they gave me a test ride and gave me all the information I asked for.

History shows that the companies who had such "we don't need you" attitude had to pay the price. And often a heavy price in the long run. IMO, this is taking disadvantage of the brand when thousands or lakhs of people (directly and indirectly) depend upon them for employment.

[mvadg]

Originally Posted by gaurav_3000ad

Activa is like the Maggi of the scooter market. Indefeatable and indefatigable.

Only way to dethrone the Activa is to prove that they use lead and cyanide in their manufacturing process.

Just as Detroit paved the way for the Japanese invasion, our wise rulers made sure that Honda had no competition and the rest is history.

Of course, no saying when they'll sabotage the Activa and just as quickly the Activa/Honda will be a distant dream. We have to wait and see what they use for 'cyanide'.

Originally Posted by Rahul Bhalgat

History shows that the companies who had such "we don't need you" attitude had to pay the price. And often a heavy price in the long run. IMO, this is taking disadvantage of the brand when thousands or lakhs of people (directly and indirectly) depend upon them for employment.

I had the pleasure of watching (video) Dan Ariely lecturing on irrational behavior - this is exactly the kind of behavior that we are led to believe is irrational but savvy marketers have used it extensively to build their customer base!

[payeng]

Originally Posted by 0xTKB

The reason why Honda offers these as accessories is due to the high-security number plates in many states. For e.g., in Himachal, it is mandatory to install high-security number plates on a new vehicle and only after that you can get your registration certificate.

Nope don't agree...

number plates were being sold as accessories by Honda dealers long before "High Security Number Plates" were introduced.

[PNTLovesNano]

Originally Posted by girimajiananth

Ideally this news must have been delivered by Bajaj . They were the undisputed leaders in the scooter segment. My father told me that the waiting time for a Bajaj Chetak was nearly 6-7 years.

It is not that Bajaj did not make any attempt to stop the Honda Juggernaut. However, their three attempts were epic disasters. The first one was launched in 2001 by boring out the then existing M-80 to 100cc and the automatic gear system being slapped on it. The competitor that Bajaj had then in mind was Kinetic Honda DX, ZX, etc. In fact it was the first 4-stroke automatic scooter of India, IIRC. A moving disaster and it was a poorly engineered product.

The second attempt was Wave which wore the exact clothes/outlook of Saffire and was slapped with a 100cc engine with their DTSi concept and SnS shock absorbers. This was around 2005. It seems Bajaj believe that it could simply lure away Activa customers with the DTSi technology. Again, this was a very bad product and bombed royally. The third and the most recent attempt was with Kristal. Don't remember the launch year of this scooter.

To sum it up, all that Rajiv Bajaj says about being bike specialist and sportive bikes and not worried about commuters is all ridiculous. It is not the case at all of Bajaj being capable of building quality automatic scooters. They have some of the all time big disasters in Saffire/Wave/Kristal. In fact it is good for the customer that Bajaj keeps away from automatic scooters as long as ever. Each time Bajaj ventured in this direction, the poor customer have lost all of the moolah they gave to Bajaj.

[payeng]

Originally Posted by GTO

I personally don't let a salesman's attitude affect my choice of vehicle. I have to live with the car - not the salesman - for 5 to 10 years. If I like a car, I'll buy it...no matter how broken the sales experience might be.

Well everyone would have his own point of view/ego/way of dealing things.

Guys here definitely must have read about this Maharaja and what his did to Rolls Royace: This Indian Maharaja Bought 7 Rolls Royce Cars And Used Them For Garbage Collection


"Rolls Royce, apprehensive about getting its reputation tarnished, apologized to the maharaja in written" Goes the story.