[bala80]

As far as I know the OEM alloys were manufactured by borbet and earlier used to be imported directly from germany, resulting in a exorbitant price. Atleast that was the justification given when I asked for it.

I dont know if the price drop is because they have managed to source it through any other means or due to some localization efforts/economies of scale. I couldnt confirm this piece of news though, hence will wait for some clarification.

Originally Posted by el lobo 6061

But the thing to think about is why such a drastic drop in price straight from 80K to 25K? Is the quality dropped too?

[vb-saan]

I don’t think VW will take a risk of drop in quality of the alloys. But if the prices have gone down from 80K to 25K, should it reflect in the overall price of the car as well?

[RavenAvi]

I called up the VW dealer for a quotation of the Vento HL petrol, and he said that the petrol HL didn't come with steering mounted controls! It is only available in the diesel (TDI) HL.

Can anyone confirm this?

Also, out of all the new features added to the Vento last month, how many are available in the petrol HL?

Eagerly waiting for some clarification on this. Thanks in advance.

[prabhuferrari]

Originally Posted by RavenAvi

I called up the VW dealer for a quotation of the Vento HL petrol, and he said that the petrol HL didn't come with steering mounted controls! It is only available in the diesel (TDI) HL.

Can anyone confirm this?

Also, out of all the new features added to the Vento last month, how many are available in the petrol HL?

Eagerly waiting for some clarification on this. Thanks in advance.

True. All changes are only for diesel highline. The changes are steering mounted controls, new HU RCD 310 and rear parking sensors. And interior surveillance system is gone.

[souravc]

Originally Posted by vb-san

I don’t think VW will take a risk of drop in quality of the alloys. But if the prices have gone down from 80K to 25K, should it reflect in the overall price of the car as well?

That's right! I am not too sure how great the alloys are since BHP-ians have mentioned that they seem to be on the "softer" side and get scratches and gashes easily . Even though its a qualitative feedback rather than quantitative, still I would say that there is enough doubt about the quality being top notch. If the alloy prices have indeed dropped from 80K to 25K then the benefit fully or substantially should be passed onto the car buyer .

[bala80]

I dont know how true this piece of information is, however, the overall price of the car will not come down due to the cost savings acheived through localization or economies of scale.

Every manufacturer, starts with less localization content during the initial product release and significantly improve this over the product lifecycle. The spare's get progressively cheaper (Eg-Swift, parts were very expensive when it was just released) due to localization efforts and economies of scale. The initial product price will be determined considering the above points and the level of localization the manufacture aims to acheive in the long run and the projected profit margins.

We have a very example with the vento when the pre-refreshed HL version skimped on the leather wrapped steering and was attributed to localization, isnt it? VW never passed the benefit to the customer's then. Now that its back inspite of being sourced locally and thats another story altogether!

Originally Posted by vb-san

But if the prices have gone down from 80K to 25K, should it reflect in the overall price of the car as well?

Originally Posted by souravc

If the alloy prices have indeed dropped from 80K to 25K then the benefit fully or substantially should be passed onto the car buyer .

[noopster]

The diesel-only refresh may be because there is a huge stockpile of Vento petrols- 14,000 not that long ago before the IPL edition and Breeze were conceived off to offload dead stock- no idea how many left now. Production is pretty much geared towards diesels these days and that may explain why only the TDI gets the refresh features. Otherwise it makes no sense for VW to produce cars differently based on the fuel type out of the same production line.

Alloy pricing revision is good news: the earlier prices were just ridiculous. They need to offer a snazzier option on the alloys as well- the current ones are just too staid.

[khoj]

Originally Posted by bala80

As far as I know the OEM alloys were manufactured by borbet and earlier used to be imported directly from germany, resulting in a exorbitant price. Atleast that was the justification given when I asked for it.

I dont know if the price drop is because they have managed to source it through any other means or due to some localization efforts/economies of scale. I couldnt confirm this piece of news though, hence will wait for some clarification.

It is possible that VW may have now tied up with either Synergy Dooray who have an alloy wheel plant in Vishakapatnam or with Enkei who have a brand new plant in Pune itself. Both Dooray and Enkei are giants in the world of cast Alloy wheels and would be able to offer a huge savings for VW>> customers as compared to imports.

[souravc]

The initial product price will be determined considering the above points and the level of localization the manufacture aims to acheive in the long run and the projected profit margins.![/quote]
Agree with you on that one - after a price revision upwards its unlikely that VW would reduce the price so soon .

Originally Posted by bala80

We have a very example with the vento when the pre-refreshed HL version skimped on the leather wrapped steering and was attributed to localization, isnt it? VW never passed the benefit to the customer's then. Now that its back inspite of being sourced locally and thats another story altogether!

The leather wrapping and the missing chrome were an issue of supply constraint from local suppliers rather than skimping on import costs - I don't think they were imported at all . I guess VW chose to deliver the cars without these rather than increasing the waiting period due to a paucity of supply from local suppliers

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by souravc

The leather wrapping and the missing chrome were an issue of supply constraint from local suppliers rather than skimping on import costs - I don't think they were imported at all . I guess VW chose to deliver the cars without these rather than increasing the waiting period due to a paucity of supply from local suppliers

Since VW delivered cars without these small accessories without letting the customer know about it or giving him any discount for the same, wouldn't it be a nice goodwill gesture to give the same to the customers now since the supply has started again? Why let a handful of customers be in the agony daily seeing there beloved rides without the chrome and leather when they paid the same amount of money and the package shown to them at the time of booking had the above 2 things as standard? It won't even cost VW much and they can probably ask these customers to come to the Service centre and get them fixed.

[souravc]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

Since VW delivered cars without these small accessories without letting the customer know about it or giving him any discount for the same, wouldn't it be a nice goodwill gesture to give the same to the customers now since the supply has started again? Why let a handful of customers be in the agony daily seeing there beloved rides without the chrome and leather when they paid the same amount of money and the package shown to them at the time of booking had the above 2 things as standard? It won't even cost VW much and they can probably ask these customers to come to the Service centre and get them fixed.

I am all for it since my car was one of those where the leather wrapping was not given - it causes heartburn whenever noops shows picture of his steering! The steering chrome insert is there thankfully , though the chrome of the light knob was left out (which I am a bit thankful about since I am not a big fan of chrome )
I guess VW is saying that these were not committed to ( "accessories in the picture can vary .... etc " ) though I have personally never checked with them.

BTW, don't spoil us with your Toyota habits :-)

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by souravc

I am all for it since my car was one of those where the leather wrapping was not given - it causes heartburn whenever noops shows picture of his steering! The steering chrome insert is there thankfully , though the chrome of the light knob was left out (which I am a bit thankful about since I am not a big fan of chrome )

Some poor souls didn't get the chrome insert in the steering too right? And the steering wheel looks hideous in my opinion without the chrome insert. Plus those slight hints of chrome gel really well with the layout of the central dash I feel.

I guess VW is saying that these were not committed to ( "accessories in the picture can vary .... etc " ) though I have personally never checked with them.

BTW, don't spoil us with your Toyota habits :-)

They are in there right to not offer it. But thats why I said rather then spending crores in talking advertisements and stuff, this would not cost them much right? And imagine the actual publicity they will get when all these people will shower praises on VW in front of there family and friends and hence help the brand develop a good reputation.

I am loving my Toyota's man.
Although sometime in the future I am surely gonna add a european car to the garage to experience that "thud"!

[ajay_satpute]

Looks like the Trendline TDI variant has very few takers. VW has been advertising the TL variant quite conspicuously everywhere I see. All magazines, news papers, etc, have a half page advt of TDI TL.

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by ajay_satpute

Looks like the Trendline TDI variant has very few takers. VW has been advertising the TL variant quite conspicuously everywhere I see. All magazines, news papers, etc, have a half page advt of TDI TL.

Its just too basic I guess. With our market being flooded with amazing premium hatchbacks and even entry level sedans which cost around the same amount of money, customers do not really show interest in buying a heavily stripped down version just for the VW badge. I feel VW should infact add some equipment to the TL variant and bring it in as the comfortline at around 8.5L maybe.

[ajay_satpute]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

Its just too basic I guess. With our market being flooded with amazing premium hatchbacks and even entry level sedans which cost around the same amount of money, customers do not really show interest in buying a heavily stripped down version just for the VW badge. I feel VW should infact add some equipment to the TL variant and bring it in as the comfortline at around 8.5L maybe.

+100. I, somehow, dont like this strategy of VW India of providing all the features under the Sun only in the top-end variant. This strategy might be there for earning higher margins initially, but wont persist for a long time. The same goes for Polo. Polo's TL and CL variants are no good. For that matter, Honda is great. All their cars have all safety features as standard, and so I get an option to choose from the not-so-important feature list. You are right @drmohitg, VW should dump the TL and get a CL variant for the Vento with atleast the safety features as standard and rest optional. These days, having a car without ABS/Airbags is like you are a shame to this society. (BTW, my car is without ABS and airbags.)