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

[FlyByWire]

But not every car owner is a car enthusiast too.Majority are not.I would say more than 90% are not.......

I found the point made by GM88 to be absolutely spot on in terms of enthusiasts. I think a large majority of us in TAI would qualify for that but we constitute a minuscule percentage of the car buying population of this country.

And I would just like to add that even when one looks at sales figures, one has to look at the figures with respect to that particular segment of cars rather than in absolute terms. I mean, if someone's buying decision does get moulded by sales figures, he should feel more reassured about the sales figures of a Cruze (537 cars) rather than Civic (208 cars) instead of comparing Cruze with Figo (6546 cars) and feeling crestfallen!

Please Note - Figures quoted are from http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/indian-auto-news/11943-february-2013-sales-figures-cars-india.html and used to merely drive home the point and not to promote or put down any manufacturer or model!!

 

[navnit013]

Just going through the discussion and noticed a thing. After Sale Service.

In 1994, when TATA launched the SUMO, the companies hardly had ASS outside major cities. As the new millennium dawned, all the talk was about ASS.
DO you see a point here. In the late 90s when other car makers were making their entry into INDIA (Fiat, Hyundai, TATA Indica, GM), Suzuki to maintain its upper hand came up with an add campaign about ASS ("Yahan MS service station hey?"). Overnight ASS became an important factor in car purchase.

AND If I say that all these car buyers do research when buying a car, well that will be my stupidity.
Hardly, 15% off all the car buyers today will do, any kind of, fact finding before taking the plunge. A buying decision will always be influenced by the perceived image the product will bring (most cases). Thats why, TATA? TAXI IMAGE, No chance.

 

[Pinwheel]

if everybody buys Santro that does not means Santro is a good car. Same in almost every segment. If everybody buys Fortuner that does not means it is best SUV, 24L for car with unsorted ride and dangerous body roll. Rexton will never have the same sales number as Fortuner, but it is much better car in all respects.

 

[FlyByWire]

if everybody buys Santro that does not means Santro is a good car. Same in almost every segment. If everybody buys Fortuner that does not means it is best SUV, 24L for car with unsorted ride and dangerous body roll. Rexton will never have the same sales number as Fortuner, but it is much better car in all respects.

I agree to this in a broad sense that sales figures does not truly reflect all the qualities of a car. But terms like "good car" and "best SUV" are very absolute. One man's "good car" is another man's dud. So, it all depends on what one expects in a car. This thought again draws me to GM88's words...

But not every car owner is a car enthusiast too.Majority are not.

So, if Santro is selling like hot cakes, surely it must be having something good going for it. (As they say, you can fool some people some of the times. You may even be able to fool some people all the time. BUT you can't fool ALL the people ALL the time!!) So, it may not be completely unwise to dismiss the sales figures altogether. It certainly merits attention. Of course, you may later find that the reason why a particular car is selling like hot cakes is not your priority and decide to junk it!!

For a non-enthusiast buyer, I second GM88 that sales figures sure do make some sense. If you don't have any expectations from the car other than commute from place A to B, then perhaps the sales figures, which to an extent reflects the expectations of such masses, especially in the lower segment cars, would be a safe bet. Of course, if you are very clear that you need something that will propel you from zero to 100 in <10s or you need something that has minimum body roll (Read : Enthusiast), then you already know what to buy, irrespective of what the sales figures tell you!

 

[Gurrala74]

@FBW

If you look at it in India it is a well know truth that it is not the sales figures but "kitna deti hai" to the much extent in case of these non-enthusiast buyer. Like one simple example at a typical showroom where a non-enthusiast buyer goes and

SA : welcome sir, what your are looking for
Buyer : A car
SA : Sir we have plenty of options right small hatch back to big sedan
Buyer : what about this car(he points to a hatch)
SA : it is a beautiful car in the segment sir with loaded features and, buyer stops him
Buyer : what is the cost of it, then SA tell the price and try and say something else too, buyer stops him and ask him again
Buyer : "Kitna Deti hai" what its FE, then SA answers it, that's all. All the others things are at a later stage if buyer has interest.

 

[FlyByWire]

You said it, RK. Bulls eye! That's what the masses want. And by and large, the cars doing well in "Kitna Deti Hai" segment are also generally doing well in their sales figures, especially in the lower segment cars. Yes, there are a few like A Star which did not catch the imagination of the public but I think what drives the mass sales figures in the Indian market is VFM in terms of the ratio of Buying cost to Kitna Deti hai. The lower this is, the better is the car perceptibly and perhaps sells more. And why not, that's what is the requirement of our masses!

So, if one's requirement is also only a VFM product, perhaps he or she may not go completely off course just following the charts!!

Bv the way, loved this

SA : welcome sir, what your are looking for
Buyer : A car

 

[Indian]

The buying generally is a chain reaction, So I feel when you see a huge sales number, first thing I feel is 'It must be good', but then I have my own criteria which it has to satisfy. Then I would put my money.

One of my cousins was buying a car last aug/sep, he was interested in duster, When I first saw it I liked the looks too. But after checking the features I told him that 'make sure to have ABS and Airbags in it'. But when he went to show room the sales person convinced him 'Its not important sir, the if the airbags deployed once, its 1 Lac to refit it and it can deploy for minor accidents also'. So my cousin put his money and bought 110PS (with out airbags).(this happened without my knowledge). Next time when i met him with the new car his son who is about 11 years told me 'Uncle my dad bought duster with out airbags' (he was sad). .
Even for today when I see that Duster and the kid in the back seat I feel bad.

 

[Tornado]

Not ZenD Bro it is ZenP not on 90's but on 2006/07 when the last set was sold out.

even if it is zen P , P had history of good sales figures , despite the history they gave good discount.

If you ask whether I will choose a car with higher sales between two cars which are equal in all respects, well, I will not use that as a measure.

+100

However, having chosen a car, I certainly agree that its sales figure would certainly boost up my confidence that probably the company which has sold so many pieces of that model in this country will continue to support it for a long time!

This the benefit of living in the herd, if some major problem occurs for most of the cars , innumerable custemers would start shouting , and automaker would easily budge without going to the court and we won't be alone while dealing with problem and automaker. This applies to our country very well.Because in true sense we are not democracy but the numerocracy.

Sometimes , it is good to be part of the herd for eg. Earthquake , we built our own home earthquake resistant , here we are not part of the herd . But we do not stop visiting our relative's and friend's homes which are not earthquake resistant, thinking that same fate would be mate as like other thousands of people.And nothing wrong in it.

But AFA , car perchase is concerned this is the era of CPA and IT , so we can think differently.

Yeah, I will consider the sales figure when I purchase a new car. But definitely, my decision wont be that simple to follow only those sales chart.
In India if you are setting preference for sales chart for buying new car, you will probably end up buying a Maruti car. In my case I will consider Maruti as a second option because they are too common in Indian roads.

Very true ,+100 .
Best sellers are most of the time but not always are marginally better than the competition on FE front. And they have medium or average quality of ride , handling and comfort , built quality.Better FE is one of the reason behind its average quality of the handling and the driving pleasure.

If you look at the metal strength and space , door sound while closing , etc. , it is average. But their buyers are ready to compromise on the basis of , the resale value , and FE. If you drill them on this , they try to hide the average quality of the car behind the sales chart.They yell at the asker and just say that so many people have bought it and escape .

So it is the poor or average money spending capacity of majority of the buyers in this county which decides the fate of the sales chart especially the sub 10 L segments.

The car which is at top on the chart represents that how it is in the reach of average money spending public especially the sub 10 L segments.

One more factor plays a role here is ASS. There is a rumor or say misconception in our country that maruti has the best ASS in our country.

I have personally owned two maruti cars for different reasons (I will post them if demanded),
Usually (not always) , the maruti custemers are first timers (they own a bike), so they have an assumption in their mind that that four wheelers means that ASS or maintainance cost would be very high as compared to the bike.
In reality , the two wheeler also requires infrastructure and two men to do a servicing. The The salary of two wheeler mechanic and SA is not too different from car mechanic and SA,especially the sub 10 L segment(this segment includes majority of the car buyers) I agree that space required for cars is much more, but then for ASS for the reasons other than routine servicing (fluids/filters , check and tighten,wash et al) these manufacturers ask us to bring the car to the ASS facility built at some village adjacent to the city where property prices are cheap.This is observed rarely in case of two wheelers.
Finally , there is not much difference in ASS costs barring the cost and amount of fluids and filters.This is also justified on the basis of numbers of the wheels.

Real heat is felt only if repair work other than routine servicing surfaces.
Now let me elaborate on it. For the majority of the custemers the monthly running is too less. They take out the cars only on weekends or in emergency only , they use the two wheelers for rest of the needs. So possibility of the major repair or unusual repair is very less .They are easy preys for preventive maintainance too.

As a result, these custemers keep on spreading the word that ASS is cheap and best.Infact they don't know how much and what to expect from the ASS.These are again reasons for good resale value too.

Now, being an auto enthu , I have critically analyed the MASS for my both cars .Once the internal knob for door locking got broken for no reason, I had to use a forceps to operate it , my friends used to laugh at me till MASS replaced it for Rs 7 only.I was so happy that told the matter to many friends. But now if I look back to find that the UNO (fiat) , tatas indigo and manza knobs were and are strong enough to withstand moderate abuse by unusual occupants eg. Village relatives, kids etc. I never had to replace the knobs for these cars.
I feel that what's the use of providing a filmsy knob and then replacing it for low cost.

Similarly once there was very annoying bad rattle in the boot area on and off. For two servicigs , they told me that all nuts and bolts are tightened and rattle is not there now, and if needed then I will have to change the boot door.But it use to resurface.

Finally I told my father to drive the car slowly in presence of the rattle , and I ran behind the car , After 100 m , I found that the regn. plate was rattling due to up & down movements of car on the road and it was not possible to demonstrate it when car was stationary. Double surface 3 m tape solved the problem. The dealer had provided thinnest possible plate and it was rattling because it was possible for the plate to to move up down within the threads of the fitting screw.
I know this was a cost cutting exercise but I was annoyed more due to failure of ASS.Next time at ASS I told this to the SA , He smiled and said that good that it was regn.plate otherwise few owners had to replace the boot door for rattles .I wanted to know the names , he went to bring their contact info to never return back. I was attended by a new SA after some time.
First time buyers are hesitant to drill the SA fearing sabotage with the car .Overall this plays a role in reputation of the car.

An Yes will rarely happen as they will be considered with the herd,the lazy herd that do no research on buying a car and just following the sales figures,
A person considering sales figures as a part of decision making will also vote a NO and if YES then he have to be prepared to answer another WHY ?

WHY applies to NO' option also.

 

[Pinwheel]

The buying generally is a chain reaction, So I feel when you see a huge sales number, first thing I feel is 'It must be good', but then I have my own criteria which it has to satisfy. Then I would put my money.

I think you are quite right. Such thing as "chain reaction" have a huge importance in the process of choosing and buying car in India.

 

[FlyByWire]

This the benefit of living in the herd, if some major problem occurs for most of the cars , innumerable custemers would start shouting , and automaker would easily budge without going to the court and we won't be alone while dealing with problem and automaker. This applies to our country very well.Because in true sense we are not democracy but the numerocracy.

One more factor plays a role here is ASS. There is a rumor or say misconception in our country that maruti has the best ASS in our country.

NUMEROCRACY- Tornado, You've got that spot on. I would just like to add that not only the strength of numbers allow arm-twisting of the manufacturer by the masses but it is also economically viable for the manufacturer (read:he continues to rake in adequate profits) to continue supporting the model by keeping the spares in circulation because of the demand due to numbers. So, most manufacturers of such high volume models continue to oblige their customers for a long time.

The second point is about authorised service network and I second Tornado. A good example of Maruti. My experience of owning Maruti cars since 1998 also says that Maruti is certainly not the best in terms of quality of service. Where they do score, however, is in terms of penetration into deep corners of our not-so-small country. And when it comes to the non-enthusiast masses, who, as rightly brought out, predominantly use the ASS for regular servicing, availability of service center right next door is a big deal-maker.

 

[Aviral]

The cars which set the sales chart on fire are not neccesarily fantastic cars.
For instance the fortuner, surely this has been a freat success and still posses waiting period. I would never buy a t-fort simply because we dont get enough bang for our buck.

As long as the product is not a complete dud i would happily buy a slow selling car if it fullfills all my requirements.

 

[Indian]

I think there is lot of phycology here..
Whether you are ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ ultimately it’s the satisfaction. Nothing more. A car enthusiast who strongly thinks that I will buy a car even if it’s selling in low numbers will be happy because he thinks he bought ‘a better car because of xyz reason’. Same thing applicable to ‘herd’ class (here ‘No’). Once you believe in your decision you will always support it and mostly happy with it. (There are few exceptions but again it’s mostly phycology of a person)
I saw many posts where people talked about ‘Maruti service not being top quality’, but my perception is totally different! In my 5 years with Maruti, I find them to be very good. There are alteast 5 incidents where they did the repair work and sent me home free of cost! I really appreciate that. They charged me only when the new spare has to be used. So I am extremely happy with my decision.(ofcourse I did not chose Swift based on numbers, I liked the looks and the features I come with it which were not there in City, Fiesta or any other equivalent compact sedan at that time!). Word quality is subjective and I look for VFM. Quality always costs more. That is why you see so many happy Tata car buyers and are extremely happy.

 

[deville_56]

I would buy a car which won't fail for longtime, cheap to run and maintain. Chart doesn't bother me at all.

If people buy car only looking at chart, then there won't be anything other than Swift and Alto on road. Build quality and features of Swift is pretty low compared to the rivals still it tops the chart.

 

[S Class]

The votes here now say it all. Well informed decision is what matters based upon individual choice & requirement from car rather than mere sales figs. Good to see this on TAI. The only bad thing which happens to good cars is bad auto company a.s.s. This is something like a good girl or boy who can't be acceptable to many for marriage if they are manglik (some mangal dosha in kundli).

BTW, that Maruti on movie poster may promote but not translate in more sales. Did you see Amul macho older ad with monkeys ? Now did that monkey become He-Man ?

 

[alexddas]

So can we conclude that car sales figures is not a matter to us but for the car manufactures only.

If a car bought on research is not selling well in the market then there is a risk,
that the company may with draw that product as the sales figures is the only thing that matters to them.

Anyways as we are on an automotive forum it is good not to fall on any other logic other than to do good research before buying a car.