Does Sales Figures of a Car Matter in Your Buying Decision?

[alexddas]

Re: Sales Figures – Do They Really Matter To You?

And how can you prove this , you can talk about yourself but how you know all think like you ? And btw who are this "WE" you are referring too ?

And it proves nothing .

Can you explain me in detail a bit what exactly you mean ?

Good to know .

The sales figures of the best sellers are the link we the indians can provide to prove where we spend our hard earned money.


We are the indians who do not spend our hard earned money to buy a car that are selling less in india

We are the ones who are playing safe with the money earned.

We are the ones who makes the sales figures consistent, on the best sellers.

We are the ones who only buy cars with re-sale because we are aware of the value of the hard earned money we spend.

We are the ones who do not recommend the less sellers in the market to any of our friends as it may affect our friendship later on.

We are the ones the car company's in india are aiming at.

We are the ones keep the competition live in india in the industry as we buy only proven cars.

We are the ones that give the car sellers pressure to make a best selling good car in india as we buy only such cars.

And i am proud to be one among such we.
We are the majority
We are the herd that was discussed.

 

[CarCar]

Re: Sales Figures – Do They Really Matter To You?

Yes it matters, otherwise get ready for daily mental torture like 'You bought a XYZ car why not a Maruti Swift?' from all section of society even your maid lol. Slowly you will lose all enthusiasm about your new car, it will be just another car on roads.

 

[Raja]

Re: Sales Figures – Do They Really Matter To You?

Sony then used to follow very strict QC along with many japanese manufacturers then which is hard to find during recent times.

Exactly so , there were other Japanese manufacturers too who followed strict QC As mentioned by you . So did sony selling well made those other products from other manufactures inferior ?

Same with reliance .
They had built up Good reputation of satisfying the investors .

those examples provided are instances of faith gained by customers of the reliability of the respective companies which will happen when the performance is consistent over long span of time

Jaguar land rover has for many years solid reputation of making luxury cars yet were on verge of bankruptcy after tata motors acquired it has made drastic progress and super duper profit , did reputation of tata motors affect it ? And did owning JLR and making it a profit making company in record time increased reputation of tata motors in India ?

Mahindra makes good SUVs , did that reputation made them successful in motorcycle or truck business ?

And as far as I know because mahindra holidays is great people don't buy their SUVs and vice a versa .

Enron was a company which was envied and because of herd mentality people invested in it only to find later that they were duped , same with satyam computers .

People did invest their hard earned money in satyam later to be duped hope all remember this . Whether one prefers to believe it or not is entirely a different story , but the fact remains people lost their money and iam sure that too was their hard earned money .herd mentality is not country specific but a worldwide human psychological phenomena which does play crucial and influential part in decision making process.



Tata group , mahindra group and reliance group all are solid groups of India and enjoy great reputation and have many profit making companies and loss making companies also . Just because major of their companies are profit making dosent mean every endeavor will be super hit , thinking that itself is a flawed and irrational thinking

. And reliance power was one IPO were people actually lost a lot of money .

Some interesting personal stories here.Thanks for sharing guys.

Sorry for a bit OT to start with.
lol especially after reading some content quoted in post, most being beyond my sensibilities and experience. http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/indian-auto-news/11868-sales-figures-do-they-really-matter-you-9.html#post266300



If,according to you " herd mentality" is vouched for "success" of certain car/s,say "X" in a country of ours with more less informed buyers, the same should be equally applicable to the "failures" of certain other car/s too,say "Y".

Now the question is why does "X" become a good car and "Y" a bad one, not the other way around , for those herds? Then one may conclude that that is how it was perceived in the society among people. If one goes deeper in to the case and ask a few more questions there,

1. Initially , why was 'X' assessed as a good car and 'Y' a bad car and not the other way around ? No herd mentality here.
2. Why has 'X' been perceived consistently well and continue to remain at the top over many years and "Y" continued to be a failure, in this world of full of critics and media freedom with ever increasing competition and Not the other way around ?

Now how do you attribute the success of "X" in comparison with "Y" as an auto enthusiast?

Rather then making x and y lets make it more simple .

ritz-

Reputation in people mind ----maruti , here itself on this thread people are vouching for its a.s.s and spare parts being available across the length and breadth of our country .

Same multijet award wining engine from swift . , less expensive spares in the segment . And members also report that its for a reason maruti sells more cars in India .


figo

Reputation in past - ford , expensive spares , bad and a.s.s , less fuel efficient . ,

Old platform , old engine , expensive spares relatively compared to ritz ., spares and a.s.s.c availability less then maruti .

Why does the ford figo sell more then a ritz ? And does that make ritz a inferior car then figo ?

Review of both the cars have been neutral , as both have its pro and cons .

Btw herd mentality is not the only reason , but it does play a major role in further enhancing the product and its sales and many studies done by eminent psychologist have made me think so .

@ alexdass

Buddy will reply you in a short while

 

[Superbad]

Re: Sales Figures – Do They Really Matter To You?

[


Exactly so , there were other Japanese manufacturers too who followed strict QC As mentioned by you . So did sony selling well made those other products from other manufactures inferior ?

they had the first mover advantage as to what i can gather from my parents. sorry cant speak relevantly since those were younger days for me.

Jaguar land rover has for many years solid reputation of making luxury cars yet were on verge of bankruptcy after tata motors acquired it has made drastic progress and super duper profit , did reputation of tata motors affect it ? And did owning JLR and making it a profit making company in record time increased reputation of tata motors in India ?

manufacturing of cars and electronics is a dynamic market and the trends vary along with time. if the same thing goes on without any change, futuristic approach , guaranteed the products and with them the company is going to doom in the long run.

Ex: nokia had captured the imagination of the people, but the trend did not continue for a long time.
nobody accused its customers having herd mentality when it sold well.
when their products stopped being relevant to the market needs, their sales fell and with them the overall market share.

the current portfolio which is their major selling point is the entry level segment where not a lot of coampanies want to venture since it a low margin market.

Mahindra makes good SUVs , did that reputation made them successful in motorcycle or truck business ?

does that make people buying Tata trucks as having herd mentality.

And as far as I know because mahindra holidays is great people don't buy their SUVs and vice a versa .

people buy their products because they offer much better than competition.

their similar products have failed when they did not hold a candle to the impending competition.
ex: xylo vis a vis innova.
verito vis a vis swift dezire

Enron was a company which was envied and because of herd mentality people invested in it only to find later that they were duped , same with satyam computers .

People did invest their hard earned money in satyam later to be duped hope all remember this . Whether one prefers to believe it or not is entirely a different story , but the fact remains people lost their money and iam sure that too was their hard earned money .

i rather not speak about topics i am not versed with

Tata group , mahindra group and reliance group all are solid groups of India and enjoy great reputation and have many profit making companies and loss making companies also . Just because major of their companies are profit making dosent mean every endeavor will be super hit , thinking that itself is a flawed and irrational thinking

. And reliance power was one IPO were people actually lost a lot of money .

given time those products will show their mettle.
if the product is not worth recognition and appreciation , within a short time the value and its rating would depreciate regardless of any advertisements.

Rather then making x and y lets make it more simple .

ritz-

Reputation in people mind ----maruti , here itself on this thread people are vouching for its a.s.s and spare parts being available across the length and breadth of our country .

Same multijet award wining engine from swift . , less expensive spares in the segment . And members also report that its for a reason maruti sells more cars in India .

people's taste for the product(appearance) and joy of driving gives the final output.

figo

Reputation in past - ford , expensive spares , bad and a.s.s , less fuel efficient . ,

Old platform , old engine , expensive spares relatively compared to ritz ., spares and a.s.s.c availability less then maruti .

Why does the ford figo sell more then a ritz ? And does that make ritz a inferior car then figo ?

Review of both the cars have been neutral , as both have its pro and cons .

personal taste and the vfm quotient doing the tricks for figo.

 

[Raja]

Re: Sales Figures – Do They Really Matter To You?

The sales figures of the best sellers are the link we the indians can provide to prove where we spend our hard earned money.


We are the indians who do not spend our hard earned money to buy a car that are selling less in india

We are the ones who are playing safe with the money earned.

We are the ones who makes the sales figures consistent, on the best sellers.

We are the ones who only buy cars with re-sale because we are aware of the value of the hard earned money we spend.

We are the ones who do not recommend the less sellers in the market to any of our friends as it may affect our friendship later on.

We are the ones the car company's in india are aiming at.

We are the ones keep the competition live in india in the industry as we buy only proven cars.

We are the ones that give the car sellers pressure to make a best selling good car in india as we buy only such cars.

And i am proud to be one among such we.
We are the majority
We are the herd that was discussed.

Alex nice creative use of the word "WE"

So you agree that you are part of the herd that is being discussed ? Then what is further to discuss ? again iam just highlighting your words and not twisting any logic here .

Again rather then using word WE I suggest at this point lets use word some because as per your request I asked the mods to add poll and poll results say

50% believe = it matters

and

50% believe = it doesn't matter .

Attaching a pic also . So lets not talk and represent all by saying WE and only talk about ourselves and the SOME who believe with your thought of thinking .

Yes it matters, otherwise get ready for daily mental torture like 'You bought a XYZ car why not a Maruti Swift?' from all section of society even your maid lol. Slowly you will lose all enthusiasm about your new car, it will be just another car on roads.

And you wrote this in reply right ?

Good one bro,thats a point.

And are you seem to agree on that post and think that is the point .

and Because what CarCar mentioned is similar to this article from Wikipedia kindly check if its similar or not with points mentioned by CarCar which you seem to agree .

Herd mentality, or mob mentality, describes how people are influenced by their peers to adopt certain behaviors, follow trends, and/or purchase items.

Examples of the herd mentality include stock market trends, fashions in apparel, cars, taste in music, superstition, religion, home décor, etc. Social psychologists study

Source


Herd mentality - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[manojodungat]

Re: Sales Figures – Do They Really Matter To You?

If,according to you " herd mentality" is vouched for "success" of certain car/s,say "X" in a country of ours with more less informed buyers, the same should be equally applicable to the "failures" of certain other car/s too,say "Y".

Now the question is why does "X" become a good car and "Y" a bad one, not the other way around , for those herds? Then one may conclude that that is how it was perceived in the society among people. If one goes deeper in to the case and ask a few more questions there,

1. Initially , why was 'X' assessed as a good car and 'Y' a bad car and not the other way around ? No herd mentality here.
2. Why has 'X' been perceived consistently well and continue to remain at the top over many years and "Y" continued to be a failure, in this world of full of critics and media freedom with ever increasing competition and Not the other way around ?

Now how do you attribute the success of "X" in comparison with "Y" as an auto enthusiast?

[

Rather then making x and y lets make it more simple .

ritz-
figo

None of these cars you mentioned are applicable here.In the segment both these cars have performed more or less same in the market.Ritz is not a market failure in comparison with Figo.In fact in Feb 2013 more number of Ritz were sold than Figo.

 

[Raja]

Re: Sales Figures – Do They Really Matter To You?

does that make people buying Tata trucks as having herd mentality.

Yes ofcourse herd mentality is a part of its continuous sales ,

and iam 100% sure there are many other truck makers including mahindra which can be better or equal to tata trucks . And belive trucks not selling good compared to tata trucks are no way inferior or bad and infact some maybe better also . And will never belive tata trucks are great because they are countries highest selling trucks or tata is worlds 4th largest selling truck maker .

their similar products have failed when they did not hold a candle to the impending competition.
ex: xylo vis a vis innova. verito vis a vis swift dezire

My question is were the products bad engineering and hence low sales ?

people's taste for the product(appearance) and joy of driving gives the final output.

personal taste and the vfm quotient doing the tricks for figo.

My question was does the high sales of figo make the ritz a inferior car or vice a versa ?

 

[Gurrala74]

Re: Sales Figures – Do They Really Matter To You?

so as per the given examples your bil Was of herd mentality since he depended totally on what was guided by you.

While your friend was also of herd mentality since he followed the sales chart.

I am getting confused here.

Nothing much to confuse here buddy !! I have just given two real life examples how a buying process goes on outside internet world and my opinion

Both were not correct in their approach, one was with the influence of some body and the other was with the influence of sales charts

 

[Raja]

Re: Sales Figures – Do They Really Matter To You?

None of these cars you mentioned are applicable here.In the segment both these cars have performed more or less same in the market.Ritz is not a market failure in comparison with Figo.In fact in Feb 2013 more number of Ritz were sold than Figo.

Ok make the question reverse , does it make figo a inferior product ?

And inspite of having a turbulent past and reputation how does it manage to sell more or less same like the ritz which has nation wide , spares availability , a.s.s.c cheaper spares and mind blowing reputation of maruti which people are vouching of which as of now ford can't even come close ?

 

[manojodungat]

Re: Sales Figures – Do They Really Matter To You?

Ok make the question reverse , does it make figo a inferior product ?

And inspite of having a turbulent past and reputation how does it manage to sell more or less same like the ritz which has nation wide , spares availability , a.s.s.c cheaper spares and mind blowing reputation of maruti which people are vouching of which as of now ford can't even come close ?

Still your set of examples do not qualify here since there hasn't been any considerable difference in sales between them over, at least, last few months.

If Figo is able to match with Ritz with more Herds[Maruti favouring] expected behind it, one needs to agree that there is some thing beyond just herd mentality, right?

 

[Vishwas]

Re: Sales Figures – Do They Really Matter To You?

In my opinion The sales figures does matter for a person at some point of time (mostly at the time of selling his which is a sales dud: Example us while selling our Versa) and at the same point of time after a person buys an extremely good selling car, thinks about a sales dud which was suiting to his purpose, but do not worry much because he has a car which can be sold easily.

I guess only in India these sales figures play an important role, and that is the reason for swift, on the contrary swift is not the car to be ignored, in the hatch-back market swift is the only car which is mod-friendly.

Now on the manufacturers point of view, their mind will always be to pull down the best selling product just to increase their market share, only a few succeed and that is too rare in India.

 

[Raja]

Re: Sales Figures – Do They Really Matter To You?

Still your set of examples do not qualify here since there hasn't been any considerable difference in sales between them over, at least, last few months.

If Figo is able to match with Ritz with more Herds[Maruti favouring] expected behind it, one needs to agree that there is some thing beyond just herd mentality, right?

The question is not about beyond.

ofcourse it has to be there something beyond , the thing iam putting forward is herd mentality plays very important part in descion making process iam not or have never said its the only part .

Again its not some theory I have made out of thin air , its a psychological behavior studied by eminent social psychologist and clinical psychologist after numerous studies on human behavior related to desicion making .

Kindly read CarCar post and alexdaas response to that post and the Wikipedia link I provided and tell me what you think please .

Be honest as a car enthusiast and see if there are any similarities between CarCar post , Alex response to that post and Wikipedia link of definition of herd mentality I provided.
@all
Again Iam re- posting herd mentality is not bad , there is nothing shamefull or evil about it . Big stars in media industry , car makers , mobile companies spend money and dream to have herd followers hence spend a huge amount of money trying to create that kind of following .
The point which iam puttjng forward to debate healthly is sales figures of a particular car depends on many factors and herd mentality is one of them . And sales figures dosent allways reveal the complete and correct picture of the car .

 

[manojodungat]

Re: Sales Figures – Do They Really Matter To You?

The question is not about beyond.
The point which iam puttjng forward to debate healthly is sales figures of a particular car depends on many factors and herd mentality is one of them . And sales figures dosent allways reveal the complete and correct picture of the car

+1

Ideally, a car buying decision shouldn't be only based on the sales figures .But there could be some minority who belong to this category as well [belonging to herd mentality].

Since we don't have any statistical record, I will prefer to call them minority and continue to believe that the top seller is an over all superior product than the market dud in its segment. I have already stated earlier what a superior product means for me.

Coming back to buying a car, the most important being your requirements and then short listing various options that are allowed by your budget.

Before going for Test Driving all the shortlisted vehicles [multiple times preferred] one needs to do a thorough research on each of them.

If you are doing a proper research you will bump into, the sales figure. If each of the shortlists fares more or less same [need not be same],you can go head with the detailed TD.

But among the shortlists if you find a market dud , say a car at 5-50 units/month while its competition/s find 4000 -5000 units/month consistently over a good period of time, I would certainly think twice to go for that particular car even if I like the car post TD.A little bit more detailed research would be good enough to rule that particular car out of my list.

I guess, this is not "herd mentality".

 

[Superbad]

Re: Sales Figures – Do They Really Matter To You?

The question is not about beyond.

ofcourse it has to be there something beyond , the thing iam putting forward is herd mentality plays very important part in descion making process iam not or have never said its the only part .

Again its not some theory I have made out of thin air , its a psychological behavior studied by eminent social psychologist and clinical psychologist after numerous studies on human behavior related to desicion making .

Kindly read CarCar post and alexdaas response to that post and the Wikipedia link I provided and tell me what you think please .

Be honest as a car enthusiast and see if there are any similarities between CarCar post , Alex response to that post and Wikipedia link of definition of herd mentality I provided.
@all
Again Iam re- posting herd mentality is not bad , there is nothing shamefull or evil about it . Big stars in media industry , car makers , mobile companies spend money and dream to have herd followers hence spend a huge amount of money trying to create that kind of following .
The point which iam puttjng forward to debate healthly is sales figures of a particular car depends on many factors and herd mentality is one of them . And sales figures dosent allways reveal the complete and correct picture of the car .

if it was herd mentality then all maruti products would be chart toppers.
People would have just followed the herd to maruti showrooms and bought anything which was offered to them by maruti.
But reality is nothing close .

 

[Raja]

Re: Sales Figures – Do They Really Matter To You?

+1

Ideally, a car buying decision shouldn't be only based on the sales figures .But there could be some minority who belong to this category as well [belonging to herd mentality].

Since we don't have any statistical record, I will prefer to call them minority and continue to believe that the top seller is an over all superior product than the market dud in its segment. I have already stated earlier what a superior product means for me.

Coming back to buying a car, the most important being your requirements and then short listing various options that are allowed by your budget.

Before going for Test Driving all the shortlisted vehicles [multiple times preferred] one needs to do a thorough research on each of them.

If you are doing a proper research you will bump into, the sales figure. If each of the shortlists fares more or less same [need not be same],you can go head with the detailed TD.

But among the shortlists if you find a market dud , say a car at 5-50 units/month while its competition/s find 4000 -5000 units/month consistently over a good period of time, I would certainly think twice to go for that particular car even if I like the car post TD.A little bit more detailed research would be good enough to rule that particular car out of my list.

I guess, this is not "herd mentality".

+1

if your post suggest that personal requirements, several test drives, in depth research of car is most imp thing and if that car happens to be best seller and you buy it ofcourse then you are not a herd follower, social pyscologist would term you as a smart buyer with good critical thinking abilities .

Since we don't have statistical records on what % of buyers do have herd mentality I won't call it minority or majority,I would prefer to belive HERD MENTALITY PREVAILS ,and we as auto enthusiasts should be aware of it and rather use critical thinking abilities in chossing a car.