[ghostrider]

Originally Posted by Mpower

In India its hard to sell anything other than Maruti, Hyundai or Honda. I was discussing cars with my 'non car' friend the other day and suddenly he burst out 'Ikon is crap'. When I asked why, he didn't even know!!! Someone said and someone else said.....

Agree with Mpower. In India, people who know nothing about cars outnumber those who do to the tune of 1000:1. I'm not kidding.
I have an Ikon myself (1.6), and I can tell you its a fabulous car. A lot of people on this forum (those who own one and those who don't) will also tell you its a fabulous car. Hormazd Sorabjee (editor of Autocar) rated it as one of the bets cars he's ever owned.
Still, there are people who've been convinced that it's (a)extremely fuel inefficient, (b)expensive to maintain, and (c)unreliable.
In truth, the Ikon is none of those things, but good luck trying to convince people.

Originally Posted by GTO - Touring

Problem is, the Aveo simply lacks a USP. And the way that Maruti, Hyundai & Tata control the 3 - 6 lakh rupee segment, it is impossible for anyone to succeed without offering supreme value & a differentiator.

I could not have explained it better myself. Nothing about the Aveo stands out. It's a good car. The ride quality, the build quality and interiors are all.... decent. Nothing is exceptional.
That lack of any perceived exceptional qualities couple with the perception that GM products are expensive to maintain has been the Aveo's Achilles heel.

[mail4loys]

Originally Posted by ghostrider

Agree with Mpower. In India, people who know nothing about cars outnumber those who do to the tune of 1000:1. I'm not kidding.
I have an Ikon myself (1.6), and I can tell you its a fabulous car. A lot of people on this forum (those who own one and those who don't) will also tell you its a fabulous car. Hormazd Sorabjee (editor of Autocar) rated it as one of the bets cars he's ever owned.
Still, there are people who've been convinced that it's (a)extremely fuel inefficient, (b)expensive to maintain, and (c)unreliable.
In truth, the Ikon is none of those things, but good luck trying to convince people.

being an owner of Ford Ikon 1.6.

As for the Aveo, there is no one striking advantage that we can speak of when we compare with other cars in its segment.

I remember few months back when my friend was buying his car he TD all cars in C segment except Aveo. When asked why, he said he dont know!

[benbsb29]

Originally Posted by kiku007

The only thing that comes to my mind when I hear Aveo is the good looks. Other than that nothing tht I can remember off.

I would add the decent/good interiors to this list as well.

When i first test drove the Aveo (for pure time pass) the first thing that bothered me was the irritating gear shift, which was really vague. I thought i was spoilt by the Ikon's shift quality, but this was confirmed by my colleague when he drove. Incidentally, he drives a NHC.

In later releases, this was rectified, and we test drove it again, yes the same other colleague and myself. It had improved, and considerably, but still was not at par with the competition.

Again to reiterate what the others have said, it offers nothing exceptional. I guess the marketing let it down.

[ilovefls]

Originally Posted by mail4loys

being an owner of Ford Ikon 1.6.

As for the Aveo, there is no one striking advantage that we can speak of when we compare with other cars in its segment.

I remember few months back when my friend was buying his car he TD all cars in C segment except Aveo. When asked why, he said he dont know!

Very true, in fact I would say go ahead and say that Aveo as a package might be 'Jack of all and master of none' in terms of positioning.

[deky]

Whatever has been said so far in this thread is absolutely true, people have been staying away from GM because of pre-concieved notions of the company. But did you realise no one has said anything bad about the car (aveo 1.4) so far? Not that anyone has given a raving review about it also.

I have been an Aveo 1.4 Limited Edition owner for over 2 months now, done close to 3500kms on the odo and my reasons for choosing this over the other c segment cars are as follows. Please note:- i was never interested in a diesel car so just looked amongst the petrol options

1. Driving Stye - I am a very sedate driver and Aveo suits my driving style very well. If i wanted to be the first one out of a red light i would have gone in for a fiesta.

2. Interiors - I think they the best in the segment, the plastic quality used is above the other cars in the compition. The a/c is a chiller too

3. Ride quality - again the suspensions are very good and the decent ground clearance is a plus.

4. Mileage - Its very good, i say very good as i personnaly am getting 13.5kmpl with 50% ac in semi urban conditions. Definately i would have got more in NHC but as the model was to be replaced wasnt sure about how good ANHC woud be in terms of mileage (plus a whooping price difference of about 1.75 between the aveo and anhc didnt seem worth it in my budget)

5. Dealer experience and A.S.S - Very happy with both

6. Resale - I also plan to keep the car for 5 years, wasnt interested what will happen 5 years down the road, maybe petrol wil be 200rs/ltr and i will be riding a bycycle to office

7. Pricing - Suited my budget very well, and got all that i was looking in for a sedan. I still feel its a great VFM car

[ghostrider]

Originally Posted by benbsb29

When i first test drove the Aveo (for pure time pass) the first thing that bothered me was the irritating gear shift, which was really vague. I thought i was spoilt by the Ikon's shift quality, but this was confirmed by my colleague when he drove.
.

Benbsb,

Really? You like the Ikon's shift quality? My 1.6L Ikon is my pride and joy, but the shift quality has always been less that perfect. The throw is too long, and for someone who's about 5'10" and likes the seat set back a little bit, the location of the gear lever is less than optimal.
Compare the shift quality to the shift quality of a Swift (short throw) or an OHC/NHC (shorter, more precise, more damped throw) and the Ikon's shift seems pretty poor in comparison.
But... the engine more than makes up for this little niggle.

(MODS: Sorry, I know the comment's OT. Please delete if you think it's necessary.)

[Technocrat]

Deky: from what I know following are some complaints that people have with the Aveo

- High dashboard reflections on windscreen
- Less room for Knee, people say its touches dashboard, again depends on your height.

[Path_Finder]

Originally Posted by Technocrat

Deky: from what I know following are some complaints that people have with the Aveo

- High dashboard reflections on windscreen
- Less room for Knee, people say its touches dashboard, again depends on your height.

That is too much nit picking. Back to the topic, these cannot be a reason for not selling well.

[Technocrat]

Ofcourse these are not the reason for low sales, I just stated what many people reported for Aveo, this may or may not be an issue for deky but now that I have informed this he can look for this during his test drive.

[supremeBaleno]

Forget tbhp-ians and the other 'car-informed' junta. Lets just take the odd Joe on the street who is looking for a C-segmenter and has something between 6-8 lakhs in hand.

What are the options known to him ? The Dzire, the SX4, the NHC, Fiesta, Indigo, Verna etc. Why doesn't the Aveo figure in his list ? One of the main reasons is because it happens to be the least advertised car/brand.

You can see MSIL/Hyundai advertising their cars in newspapers on an almost daily basis. Honda and Ford might not do it that frequently, but still do quite some advertising. On the other hand, the bright boys at GM (and their delaers) think that it is enough that they shell out some money every odd month on an advt that says "Free maintenance for 3 years" and they will have all of India at their dealer's doors like the rats after Pied Piper of Hamelin. It is not enough to have a good product - you need to make people know that it exists.

Handling, power, gearshift, space, interior plastics etc is a criteria for car-nuts. The common guy cares two hoots about how his car handles or how many bhp it has. My Dad would not even know that his Swift has good handling and neither did it figure as a criteria for him when buying a car. Neither would he know the bhp or torque figure of the car. What he knows is that India is crawling with Swifts and so many of his countrymen can't be that wrong. Plus the usual things about MSIL A.S.S., FE and stuff that he already knows about from his previous cars.

And for the guy who started this thread, if you like the Aveo, go for it. Why bother about others not buying it ? Everyone buying the Swift does not necessarily make it the better car and neither does poor sales make the Getz a bad car. To each his own.

[Shyamtanu]

I completely agree with the fact that finally it is ones own choice, but what I trying to understand here is, is something seriously wrong with the car/brand at the first place. the fact that I found so many aveos on sale after being driven between 10K and 15K kind of surprised me, in fact I called up one of the sellers in Pune to know why did he sell it off at just 12K? He sounded kind of hiding something and kept on murmuring it is nice car. but only issue is GM does not have a big presence. but worldwide it is big brand (I guess it was, no longer is). This increased my worries, but he also never pointed out at any technical issues, and infact mileage he quoted is same as what TBPians also agree.
The marketing may be an issue. I personally never liked the Hum-tum jodo telling me why should I buy this car? Worst is, on the brochure of Aveo you find the same bollywood faces. is it a filmfare? But then may be all these have resulted in a negative view. The problem is, you really do not have case studies based on which one can be sure of spending 7-9 lakhs of hard earned money, typically when the vehicle is to be kept for 5 yrs at least
I am looking for some case studies here, if some owners have kept it for quite some time and can throw some lights on their experience. I will be in Pune, so that is also another issue as i found some posts on Pashankar here, which is scary, but I am sure there are happy customers also, if they please share their experiences.

Finally, some views on the interior lighting and windows switch illunination pls.. ; not that they are guiding factors, but somehow i like the theatre dimming, cabin light and map light separated, and illuminated window rollup/down switches.. know this is kind of ot; any information from Aveo owners will help a lottt

[bonobashi]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

Forget tbhp-ians and the other 'car-informed' junta. Lets just take the odd Joe on the street who is looking for a C-segmenter and has something between 6-8 lakhs in hand.
----
And for the guy who started this thread, if you like the Aveo, go for it. Why bother about others not buying it ? Everyone buying the Swift does not necessarily make it the better car and neither does poor sales make the Getz a bad car. To each his own.

Talking about low sales, just a personal observation: there isn't a data set attached to it.

It seems to me that the most number of Aveos sell in Calcutta. Businessmen here seem to have assessed it as a VFM car that does what they want. Deky's list kind of covers it nicely.

Nobody has come out with any negatives, except to damn it with faint praise, like your friend in Pune, Shyamtanu, who just wouldn't say anything negative about it, but refused to be enthusiastic either.

Let's face it: a driver's car it isn't. Neither an Ikon owner (present or past) or a Palio fan would look at it; Swift people, even those who aren't hyped-up journos, also not very likely to go near it.

It isn't a luxury car. It isn't a safety car. It isn't a penny-pinching fuel miser (no diesel, remember? who in India cares what the break-even mileage is to justify diesel over petrol?). And, err, a thought in my mind for vastly different reasons just now, including the wildly improbable vision of a luxury sedan traversing the mountain roads, it doesn't do - it isn't SUPPOSED to do - off-road, although for this rash statement I will no doubt soon be the main attraction at a Spanish Inquisition barbecue.

All it is is a pleasant-looking car that chugs along without much fuss, deals bravely with bumps and potholes, gives decent fuel consumption and lets our neighbours know that we've arrived. Nothing much wrong with that!

And if you're really, REALLY concerned about re-sale value, why don't you just buy a second-hand car and get on the right side of the buying-selling equation? Just joking.

[WheelWake]

Hey All!!!

Of the two reasons given below as being the problem area in Aveo, I know a friend of mine who was considering Aveo but could not as he is more than 6ft. So, I think even minor issues can matter but of course not in terms of car sales no. Of all the reasons given below(lack of USP, etc) holds true. But I do have different angle to view at them

1)when it comes to buying a car it would ultimately boil down to price budget range and the cars available withing that range that optimally suffice your requirements. Aveo (1.4) being priced in between the segment of Dzires (and Logans) and SX4s (and NHC). So, a general (and less informed) buyer goes by the market sales and buys the one which side of the budget is suitable to the buyer. (SX4 - for the sheer bang for the buck, NHC - for best city car and FE,etc). I mean Aveo can not hold onto its prospective buyers due to lack of any USP.
2) the absence of a diesel counterpart makes the car even more rare which doesnt help eitherway. (which results in low resale which in turn result in low sales itself). Vernas and Fiestas, even if its petrol, sell on the backing of their diesel version clocking good sales figure.

Disclaimer: I own Aveo for past 4 months and clocking more than 6k now. Its a very pleasure ride but not a very enthusiastic drive. Still I am happy with the decision as it optimally serves all my needs.Also, I personally feel that american cars (ford/chevy) are noway worse than indian/korean cars. It just the matter of optimal choice.

[Shyamtanu]

I am not really bothered about resale value as I said I want to keep it for 5 yrs at least, but resale value sometime is an index of the low demand, which may be due ot various reasons like all we have been discussing here?
Did anyone say that Ford service & spare cost is low nowadays??
Cheers!

[deky]

Originally Posted by Technocrat

Ofcourse these are not the reason for low sales, I just stated what many people reported for Aveo, this may or may not be an issue for deky but now that I have informed this he can look for this during his test drive.

Sure Technocrat, your point was well taken by me, so no issues on that. Infact initially i did feel the reflection but now ive just got used to it, hence it never hinders my driving. Similarly benbsb29 also mentioned about the notchy gear shift. That too could be a problem for some, but again ive got so used to it that now whenever i drive my Dad's Santro i get uneasy with the gears

Originally Posted by Shyamtanu

Finally, some views on the interior lighting and windows switch illunination pls.. ; not that they are guiding factors, but somehow i like the theatre dimming, cabin light and map light separated, and illuminated window rollup/down switches...; any information from Aveo owners will help a lottt

Sorry Shyamtanu, I wanted to post the pics earlier with my previous message but it just slipped out of my mind, so now ive just taken a few photos with my cellphone cam for your refernce. sorry the pic quality is really poor, but hope they will help.

Another thing also i wanted to add that i forgot in my previous post was the 3-years Cashless Ownership scheme which is a great scheme to stay tension free for atleast 3 years.

Interior cabin light (pic) no it doesnt have any seperate rear passenger cabin lighting nor any map light


Display lighting (pic) Note the trip meter reads 425.2 kms and the tank with 40 ltr capacity (plus reserve) is 1/4th full. I know they never correct but Average of 13+ is pretty good for me


Integrated 2-Din Music system and AC knobs (pic)


No, the window switches are not illuminated (pic)