DriveBlog

Getting back on the road

Coming back to post on your blog after a long break feels somewhat like driving your car for the the first time after a long holiday. Starts are iffy, it takes a while to stay on a straight line and you sometimes get into the whole thing with absolutely no idea of where you're headed. So, in the blogging equivalent of driving your down a quiet, uncrowded street just so you can 'get the feel back', here are some quick and easies:

• The Toyota Innova is out. Base models of the petrol and diesel were launched today with the promise of even better things to come. Toyota has, quite clearly thrown the gauntlet to General Motors' Tavera and Mahindra's Scorpio.

In passing...

Cutting very quickly to the chase:

• Hyundai India will partner with Tata Indicom to implement and maintain their Global Dealer Management System (GDMS). Hyundai will make use of a web-based backbone to help their dealers be 'more connected' with the HMIL mother ship.
• Closing out last year on 1 million units, motown's still walkin' on sunshine as it finished January 2005 with a sale of 1 lakh units, also a first. As expected, Maruti, Tata and Hyundai lead the pack.
• Small things are now beginning to come in much safer packages. Though it's never been too high on the average Indian carbuyer's priority list, carmakers are starting to take safety very seriously. And they're starting right at the bottom.
• Tubeless tyres are finding the Indian roadscape a tough hill to climb.
• They're calling it 'one country, one price'. Wherever in in India you buy it, the 'new' Mitsubishi Lancer LX is yours for Rs. 693000. Hindustan Motors is hoping that this 'affordable' price point wil help double sales.
• For the first time since mid 2004, the Alto upstages the M800 as the best selling car from the Maruti stable.
• Toyota has 'small' plans for India.

Pre-owned problems

The Indian used car market continues to go through what seems like an 'performance-appraisal' crisis. Is it doing well or isn't it? While a veritable barrage of new product / variant launches, difficult-to-refuse new car finance options and the city dweller's 'need to be seen' in the latest set of wheels seem to be pushing it to the fringes of extinction in the urban market, it's increasingly looking at rural segments and a revival of demand via the likes of Maruti's and Hyundai's (expected) pre-owned car ventures to bring it back to fighting fit.

What's your choice? Cheaper second-hand or is 'new' you?

Related: How to buy a used Hyundai Santro.

The Second Coming

At face value, pulling a rather well-performing brand off the production line and introducing something new (albeit better, but the customer never knows that up front, right?) in its stead must either seem very gutsy or very stupid. You wouldn't therefore be blamed if, when Honda SIEL and Hyundai yanked the Honda City and the Santro (respectively) off the roads, you credited the people who carried out such decisions with possessing either gonads of steel or brains of breakfast cereal. I sure did: in most cases with the latter. Well, as it turns out, they did know better, judging by the showing that the two cars made in the relaunches category at the Ninth Annual Business Standard Brand Derby.

The privilege of being second best...

They may have the country's largest selling car, but they're no longer the country's second largest-selling carmaker. Not for the 6 months from April to December last anyway.

PS: Post title unabashedly 'inspired'. =)

Hyundai Getz Autocar COTY

The Hyundai Getz won its second prominent award in recent times when it rolled away with the title of 'Car of the Year' at the 4th CNBC-TV18 Autocar Auto Awards 2005. But again, it was the Fusion that took home the honour for 'Best Driver's Car', just like it almost beat the Getz to the title at the BS Motoring Awards for being the more 'Fun to Drive' automobile. Seems like the Ford super-hatch / mini-SUV is one sweet drive.

This rise needn't get you down...

OK, so we all expected the price-ups. It's now the turn of the Santro Xing (XE) and the Accent to cost more (again?). Each of them will now be dearer by Rs. 8000. But experts insist that this is something that neither the car-makers or the customer need worry about. Thanks to some borrower-friendly finance schemes and the inevitable freebies that continue to get thrown in, the hiked up prices are not likely to affect either the automaker's volumes or the customer's EMI. Manufacturers also insist that the rise in prices are due mainly to the addition of new features: what may have once been an add-on is now being included as a standard part of that car.

From the B(r)andwagon

Autobytes from the Ninth Annual Business Standard Brand Derby:

"Interestingly, the best and worst relaunches in this round of the Brand Derby are from the automobile industry. While the Derby applauded the return of Hyundai’s Santro as the Xing and Honda’s City, the Petra (neé Fiat Siena) was dismissed summarily as old wine in new bottles.

While 74 per cent felt the City was very successful and 73 per cent felt the Santro Xing was very successful, only 1 per cent believed the same about the Petra. Incidentally, these are the highest and lowest ratings among all the 15 brands that were considered in the relaunches segment."

Eurotrip!

After yesterday's price hike (if you can call it that), Maruti today unveiled Bharat Stage III variants of their Zen, WagonR and Baleno models, all of which are going to be dearer by Rs. 10000 - Rs. 15000.

Hyundai was the first Indian company to make its cars BSIII compliant when they launched the Accent CRDi in 2002.

The Indian equivalent of the Euro III emission norms will come into force on the 1st of April 2005 in 11 Indian cities to begin with. These norms aim to bring down levels of Nitrogen Oxides and Particle Matter emitted by motor vehicles. It also means work for the oil companies as the more stringent norms mean that sulphur content in petrol and diesel will have to be reduced.

Funny though, that just as we get set to adopt Euro III, the European Union will, very shortly, move on to Euro IV.

Auto ads rule in November

Maruti and Hyundai ended up being the 2 biggest spenders on advertising in the print media in the month of November, necessitated I guess, by the onset of the festive season and the special offers that both companies had going during the month. Seems like the investment paid off, eh?

And Maruti is expected to launch another brand blitzkreig sometime soon, what with all the excitement about the Swift.