Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Will the Nano click ?

My only concern is: I hope there are no quality issues in an effort to cost-cutting, since the Tatas are under cost-pressure nowadays from all sides. Political decisions, Costly acquisitions, Industry downturn, Expectations from dealers and vendors [and even bankers :) ]. If the first few batches hit the roads and then turn out with some defects, that will be terrible. But if they are able to deliver the quality they promise for that price (which the Tatas have always been good at), then, I think it's going to be a huge hit, both in India and very soon, abroad.

As to going global, they may have a tough time fulfilling local demand, but when they do, their timing might just be right. People would just be emerging from bad times and the need to look for cost-effective products with comparable utility will be one of their top-of-mind concerns. At last, some engineering-based Indian product will arrive in the global scene !! If it clicks, I really hope and expect it to rock !! It would make US and European carmakers sit up and get worried, (if they are still around), although, actually, from their perspective it would be just another, age-old-concept, cheap car, except for the price shock they get. (I can't say the same thing about Japanese, however). It might be no match to the premium range excellence and finesse of the Germans, gadgetry of the Japanese or the lavish feature-kill of the Americans, but, the starting line for the race is not in that segment. Unlike the Chinese electronic goods, it would be a world-class, yet frills-free utility car, at the Indian prices (!) which India has so far been able to deliver in service sectors and some manufacturing sectors like textiles. We should really appreciate Tata's daring to attempt that. I often wish something like that happens for India in the products market in software, unlike the ITES and BPO where all the focus (and the tax sops) seem to be. As to environ and cars-per-road issues, they are industry-wide regulation issues and a single brand can't be isolated to be responsible for the flooding the roads in its sincere and determined attempt to create value for money.

Is Maruti listening ?

7 comments:

  1. yes ... Maruti has heard and is going to stop the production of 800 & Omni ;-)

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  2. You should also look around at other cars of TATA. Refering to the recent car --> VISTA. It's just superb. It has the same engine of FIAT which is used by Maruti in it's Swift range. It has too many features that only Sedans offer in India. It beats Swift in interiors but still 80K cheaper. So what are we paying 80K more for ... for the name Maruti ????

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  3. Not a single hyperlink in the whole post?!?!? Is this the same Naams we are used to in terms of comprehensibility and completeness! ;)

    I agree we must laud Tata's for having got such stuff and for being in a position to rock even the global market... I also appreciate your point on why it is not a Chinese piece from India :)

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  4. @Rampy @Hyperlink: Yeah, Just taking a cue from you and trying to blog off-hand. :) :)

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  5. If this takes off, if india gets to do in manufacturing what it has done in services, it will be the coming of india as a REAL competitor to china

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  6. The only major problem seems to be that it does not have power steering. Everyone is used to power steering now and it is going to be difficult to relearn non - power steering;)

    A minor problem is that it has a max speed of only 90kmph.

    Apart from that appears great.

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  7. As usual, going off tangentially, I feel that the Nano is good for the traffic. The two wheelers have a tendency to force the owners to squeeze themselves into the nano spaces between the vehicles during the wait at the cross roads, causing traffic jams of varying periods.

    As the two wheeler owners can afford ( i paid about 50k for a two wheeler) to go for the Nano as also most of the middle class people, the two wheeler population is likely to reduce on the roads.
    @HBK@90kmph: I think this car is designed mostly for the cities. Though we are gearing up our roads for the "freeways" of the west, our mind set is yet to grasp the concept of "driving down from Delhi". May be 90 would be unachievable in such circs.

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