NO STOPPING MARUTI UDYOG

When Maruti launched its tin box - the 800, no one would have thought it will be such a huge success. It was then the only modern car in India, and it sold like magic. Maruti was an instant leader in the Indian car market, and there was no turning back.

The company never gave up its leadership in the Indian market. It did make some faux paus, like launching the Maruti 1000, which was received badly. There were other models like the Gypsy and the Versa that did not go too well. But most of the cars from Maruti were a success. And just when 800 seemed to be in its last days, Alto became the next gold mine of Maruti. When more car makers flocked India and cars like Santro and Matiz were released, everyone thought Maruti's share in the car market would come down to 30% or so. But it was not to be.

Even now, nothing seems to be going wrong with them. If the sales figures are to be believed, last few months must be one of the best in recent times for them. Launch of Swift, which was received very well with buyers, has boosted the sales considerably. Though it took a long time for people to accept its ugly shape, Wagon R has finally gone up in sales numbers and has finally moved above Santro in numbers. Alto is the largest selling car in India now. There is no stopping swift. Maruti has shown excellent growth figures of 41% in their Q3 numbers. It looks like they are going to hold on to their leadership for many more years to come. Obviously buoyant, they are investing more in production facilities.

But there are a few things that Maruti needs to work on. They have no cars to offer when people move up the value chain. They must remember that they have excellent service records, which prompt their consumers to look for a Maruti first when they are upgrading. Their C segments models - Esteem and Baleno are dated and need a serious overhaul or a replacement. They have no premium cars in the offering, which needs to be looked into. Maruti has the most enviable position of being loved by their consumers, who wants to stay with Maruti when they upgrade. But the company can remain a leader only when they can offer something for buyers in all the segments.

MORE VEHICLES FROM HINDUSTAN MOTORS - MITSUBISHI COMBINE

There was not much activity of Mitsubishi brand in India, and Lancer was the only car for a long time if you exclude the Pajero, which you don't see often on the road. There is some activity seen lately. HM has now launched an improved Lancer Cedia. The next in line is another SUV from their stable - Mitsubishi Outlander. The Outlander is currently road tested, and may take sometime to be on the roads. Autocar India has the first drive in Feb 2006 issue, and reports that it may have a price tag of around 15 lakh and would be competing with the Honda CRV. The Outlander had a 2359cc engine which will deliver 170bhp at 6000rpm.

In another news, growing demands of SUVs in India is prompting HM to treble production of Pajero from current 40 per month to 120 a month.

THE INFLOW OF SUVs

The last two years have seen lot of SUVs coming to India. The Indian car buyer is now more mature than ever, and also has more money than he ever did. Add many other factors - easily available finance, ease of importing completely built units by manufacturers and selling them here, and a growing resistance to SUVs in the west and hence the reduced sales. All of it are encouraging manufacturers to import SUVs to India, and we now seem to have more SUVs than small cars in India, never mind that their sales are a fraction of that of small cars.

Here a small list of all the SUVs you can see on the Indian roads.

* Maruti Grand Vitara
* Tata Safari
* Mahindra Scorpio
* Hyundai Terracan
* Hyundai Tuscon
* Ford Endevour
* Chevrolet Forrester
* Mitsubishi Pajero
* Toyota Land Cruiser Prado
* Honda CRV
* Porsche Cayenne
* Nissan X-Trail

MITUSBISHI LANCER CEDIA

Just when the Lancer was looking old and dated and was being ignored by car buyers, Hindustan Motors has come out with a new version of the car - Lance Cedia. Cedia will have a sportier look and will cost more than the old Lancer. The existing version of Lancer will not be discontinued and Cedia will be sold along with its elder brother. The new Cedia will have a price tag that may be just above 10 lakhs. Autocar India magazine of February 2006 has a comprehensive road test. The test drive reports that the car has an excellent fuel efficiency of 10.2kpl in city. A brief report on the first ride is available online. Lancer Cedia comes with a 1999cc and 115bhp engine, dual airbags and has a top speed of 195kph.

TOYOTA DROPS DAIHATSU SMALL CAR PLAN

Autocar India reports that Toyota has decided not to go with Daihatsu Boon, a small car that was earlier planned to be launched in India. The car would have been a rival to Matuti Swift if launched, but it is said that Toyota officials were not convinced about its likely success, since Boon is a much smaller car. Instead, Toyota has returned to the drawing board and intends to design a new small car for markets of the developing world, including India. So those who were looking forward to own a small Toyota will have to wait for 2 or 3 more years.

HERO HONDA PLEASURE

It is very unlikely that you have missed the TV ads of Hero Honda Pleasure. They have made sure that every one notices it. It seems like a nice strategy to launch women’s a scooter at a time when Hero Honda has to compete with its technology provider - Honda Motors in the area of motorcycles. Besides, the market for scooters is almost monopolized by Honda Active and hence provides some room for other players to enter and compete. The 100cc scooters did not see much of action after Kinetic Honda was pushed back by new generation products. This seems to be an excellent step from Hero Honda, but we need to wait and watch to see how it works out. At this point, Hero Honda targets to sell 1.2 lakh units in 2006. There are no reviews available yet, but if it is a technically good product, unlikely it will fail.

BUSINES STANDARD MOTORING - CAR OF THE YEAR AWARD

This year's BS Motoring Car of the Year award has been awarded to Swift. Its no surprise to see swift winning it, with no real contenders other than Ford Fiesta. See the details on contenders and evaluation.

Here are the other award winners for this year.

Bike of the Year: TVS Apache
MPV of the Year: Toyota Innova
Executive Car of the Year: Hyundai Sonata Embera
Import Car of the Year: Audi A6
Jury Award: Ford Fiesta

Here is details on the awards.

AUTO EXPO

The biennial event Indian Auto Expo is round the corner. Auto Expo is Asia's largest Automotive show, held in Pragati Maidan, Delhi. It has additional importance and interest this year due to foray of many new automobile companies to India, and India emerging as one of the leading automobile markets in last year or two.

The expo is participated by leading manufacturers in the world. The stars of this year's expo include a fuel cell car from Honda - Honda FCX and Maruti's second SUV coming to India - Escudo. Skoda will showcase its SUV - Yeti.

But There are many dark spot for the expo. GM and Hyundai are unlikely to participate and so is Daimler Chrysler India. But these companies may hold their own mini shows somewhere in the premise.

FORD FIESTA USER REVIEWS

For those who are looking forward to buy Ford Fiesta, some user review from people who have bought it or experienced it may be helpful. Mouthshut has some such reviews on the car. The opinions so far seem to be on the positive side.

GOOD BYE TO THE OLD HORSE: BAJAJ STOPS PRODUCING CHETAK(FINALLY)!

The end was seen to be nearer though we could not tell when. Finally, they days of one of the most popular two wheeler of its time - Bajaj Chetak is coming to an end. Bajaj has stopped production from December 31st 2005 and are hoping to sell off whatever remaining inventory by March. Read the full story.

I am infact surprised that there is no big media coverage or obituaries for this 'icon' of a two wheeler that once ruled that Indian roads.