Re: Skoda’s New C-Segment Challenger is Rapid NOT Lauretta
Beat is also VFM but there are other factors that affect its sales. We will not get into that now. Further, people have booked the Swift blindly because of its name. The new Swift is grossly overpriced by 20-30k and look at the features on VXi. I too have a swift but this new one is frankly demanding so much. This is also another case - brand power.
XUV is fully made in India so M&M are able to achieve the price. If Skoda also made the Yeti here fully, it would be priced lesser than its present ~16L price tag. The Innova is selling 4,000+ every month which is good for such a vehicle. Moreover, BMW has plans to manufacture their plans in China but not in India because it does not make financial sense. BMW will need huge profit from each vehicle (if sales are low) to get their return on investment. This will eventually make the vehicle as expensive as it is now. The case needs to be justified.
Just sit down and think. Strategies followed by companies will make sense.
Swift is not selling because of brand power. Had this been the case, even A Star, Estillo & Kizashi would have got good response. Fact is they indeed made a good car in that segment.
You are right about XUV pricing due to indigenousness but why not the same is done by Skoda for Yeti then ?? It is just that the foreign car companies want to have more profit with minimum risk. If they really wanted to have volumes, why doesn't Merc bring in A Class, BMW 1 Series & Audi A1 ?
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They can manufacture it locally & these cars will do well even they being premium hatch are launched at around 9-10L, & this price is possible. However, Merc, BMW & Audi have collectively decided not to bring in these cars & keep maintaining the 'High Profile' brand value of these companies alive here.
And not to forget the hopeless Govt policies of pushing small cars harder, thanks to the lobby of Maruti. See the stupid decisions like having car of less than 4m length & engine less than 1.4l for diesel & 1.2l for petrol getting incentives & excise benefits. It is due to these policies of Govt that India has become hub of small car manufacturing. India not only manufactures but even exports small cars to several countries.
If uniform policies are applied irrespective of size & engine (SUVs can be kept out though), we can see drastic change about the pricing the car cos offer.
I am bit confused here.
Although VW has not earned a good name about its dealership experience After Sale & Service, but Skoda is even worse. So when two products are similar it would be safe to flock to VW rather than to Skoda. Additionally, VW is expanding its dealer base but Skoda has not been able to spread much despite being a much older company. So how will Skoda make Rapid a more tempting product as compared to Vento?
Eagerly waiting to see the complete feature list of Rapid & its price.
+1. Agree here. Better stick to VW than Skoda. And in Pune, the good part is apart from Vidyut Motors, BU Bhandari now have dealership for VW, which is good. They were good with Tata earlier, but now have left Tata & joined VW.
Vidyut wasn't good enough but Bhandari is far better than Vidyut.
Why not think of it in this way - Mildly altered car selling under two different brands will have twice the reach as a single car right? So increased sales.
Yep, good for car manufacturer, but bad for car buyer though.
Btw, I knew few people who need to buy a diesel sedan on urgent basis but none is interested in Skoda Rapid. They are rather waiting for CAAAR in diesel & once this is launched, it will be either Manza Quadrajet or CAAAR diesel.
Its really surprising to see why CAAAR diesel wasn't launched before Diwali. It would have certainly good much better response than petrol variant.
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