Re: An expensive experiment Quote:
Originally Posted by wanderhermit My two cents:
1. S cross may be a crossover, but just looks like any big hatch.
2. I wonder if a company uses words like premium in the ads: people would start believing it be one. Customer is an intelligent. Of all companies, Maruti should know this. |
I hope your two cents are coming after the test drive of the car.
Majority customer are not intelligent. If they can believe that Creata is SUV, they will believe in anything. Quote:
Originally Posted by wanderhermit For a car to be premium, it has to have certain qualities
A. Latest design.
B. Premium options. Something like AT. It should have all mechanical features as option from the word go.
For a car to call itself as crossover, it should have:
A. Decent Ground clearance
B. Optional 4X4
C. Other real premium features like variable suspension, low gear ratios, etc. |
This is 2013 design, not old by any standard. AWD is a feature that should be provided from beginning. I hope this will be added in a year or two.
This is a crossover and not a SUV and features mentioned in point C are for SUV Quote:
Originally Posted by wanderhermit I feel s-cross to be the neither. It is just like any other usual Maruti.
A vehicle that is big, could be premium. Or the one with loads of features. I feel Maruti has missed it this time. Creta - launched at same time - has the road presence and basic options as AT.
S cross, for nearly 13 lacs is neither a sports car, nor a crossover. |
Again, I feel you did the test drive before saying that S cross is neither. I still have to do the TD and will reserve my comments till TD is completed.
S cross has loads of features, if not 'all' the features. Creta has 'basic' options like AT but what all features does an Automatic Creta has? Also Hyundai is calling this car an SUV. It is a soft-roader at best. i also feel that Creata is a mini Santa-Fe, a relatively failure by Hyundai. I mean, I will not even notice a Santa Fe if it is parked next to a Fotuner, Endeavor or Pajero Sport. Quote:
Originally Posted by wanderhermit S cross, for nearly 13 lacs is neither a sports car, nor a crossover.
It's just a dated old styled hatch, a wee longer than 4 meters (that calls for extra excise and expensive imported diesel engine). So Maruti is desperately calling it premium sports crossover. And the company feels that slick advertising can sell it. What Maruti has to realise is that Indian customer is a very different customer. You have to produce a winner. In all departments. Otherwise, its not gonna sell. |
It is a crossover and their is no doubt about it in my mind, you may not agree based on your own observations. But I do not see any sports car in Indian market that comes at 26 L, leave alone 13L.
It may not sell at all, but I believe that this car has one of the best engines and road manners based on many comments here. Quote:
Originally Posted by wanderhermit Hopefully, they realise this sooner. And do not make these same mistakes again. Next time it launches a premium car. It better be one. From the day one:
-Bigger engine
-Big size
All features that make a vehicle a premium sports-crossover. They have cracked the Value offering formula. They can't use this same formula in a different segment. They will have to look up to Germans or even Hyundai to crack this formula. They will have to make it grounds-up, specially for India. It is highly un-likely that I dian public for fall for an dated European offering just because it is a Maruti. |
It has bigger engine (in fact biggest than the competitors), and it has fairly large size.
Maruti shall realize that Indian market is not mature enough for such a product. Indians have a history of falling to dated European or international offering so nothing wrong in expecting a vehicle to succeed here which is all praise elsewhere. I think it is not justified to write off any car just because it is a Maruti. |