What’s Wrong with Tata Motors? An Open Letter To the MD

[TAUREAN CZAR]

I don't think TATA has any rights to use the ROVER brand.

The British government has sold the 'MG ROVER' brand as such to the Chinese. Now it is called 'NIANJING MG ROVER' and still sells the same one models in China. If you can search 'YouTube' and you will find videos of Crash test as a Chinese brand.

Hence TATA Motors has no rights. Instead TML can use 'TITAN' as a more luxurious brand and can shift ARIA, a new and more powerful SUV on X2 chassis and the PRIMA concept vehicles under this umbrella. Hence a new brand is born.

 

[gaddambhargavareddy]

Rover as a brand has lost its value in EUROPE. Hence reviving the Rover brand to place it above TATA and below JLR would not be a good idea. TATA as a brand is relatively non existent in Europe. TATA can place itself in between JLR and Rover, with Rover as its low cost brand. Rover Nano may be.

With MBQ type platform in the pipeline, TATA in my opinion is trying to place itself as VW.

Yes I agree on your comments Rover Brand lost its value in Europe due bad Product devlopment but its an Historical Brand people still love Rover Brand in some concerns because their past era Cars great Even Rover is the Inventer of Legend Land Rover SUV's

 

[gaddambhargavareddy]

I don't think TATA has any rights to use the ROVER brand.

The British government has sold the 'MG ROVER' brand as such to the Chinese. Now it is called 'NIANJING MG ROVER' and still sells the same one models in China. If you can search 'YouTube' and you will find videos of Crash test as a Chinese brand.

Hence TATA Motors has no rights. Instead TML can use 'TITAN' as a more luxurious brand and can shift ARIA, a new and more powerful SUV on X2 chassis and the PRIMA concept vehicles under this umbrella. Hence a new brand is born.

Hey no dude tata have right to use Rover marque. In 2000, BMW sold the Rover and related MG car activities of the Rover Group to the Phoenix Consortium, who established the MG Rover Group at Longbridge. BMW retained ownership of the Rover marque, allowing MG Rover to use it under licence. In April 2005, Rover branded cars ceased to be produced when the MG Rover Group became insolvent.

BMW sold the Rover marque to Ford in 2006 for approximately £6 million, exercising an option of first refusal to buy it dating back to its purchase of Land Rover. Ford thus reunited the original Rover Company marques, primarily for brand-protection reasons.[2]
In March 2008, Ford reached agreement with Tata Motors of India to include the Rover marque as part of the sale of their Jaguar Land Rover operations to them, alongside related Daimler and Lanchester marques. Legally the Rover marque is the property of Land Rover under the terms of Ford's purchase of the name in 2006.[3]
In the middle of the decade, SAIC Motor Corporation Limited attempted to acquire MG Rover, but in 2005 was outbid by another Chinese automaker, Nanjing Automobile. SAIC did manage to obtain some MG Rover technology that was incorporated into a new line of luxury sedans under the Roewe marque.

With no Rover vehicles currently in production, the marque is considered dormant.

For more about Rover Marque fallow this link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover_(marque)

 

[jagrover]

I think its not the time to invest on the Rover brand. At first TATA must make their portfolio of products intact and then they can look after further. Datsun is reborn because Nissan is in perfect position to fund and nurture it. Its not the case of TML atleast for now..!!

 

[navnit013]

During the purchase of JLR, TATA negotiated to get a few R&Ds, a few factories and also Rover and Daimler brand names. Hence TATA has all the rights to use those names. BUT since Daimler (the parent body of Mercedes-Benz) has some stakes in TATA may put pressure on not to revive the now dead Daimler brand (which were Jaguar with different badge). BUT I am not sure if the stakes are big enough to control TATAs action though.

@Vicky, I dont think TATA can have different brand strategies for home and international markets. And TATA has looked into European markets with interest for quiet some time now. They want to be a player in that market, so they will have that in mind when they come up with growth strategies.

 

[vikyjoshi]

What I feel is that Tata as a Brand for cars has taken severe beating in India. They need to get this right. Efforts are being seen lately where in they are promoting thier brand thru TV serials, better quality products (Storme, Vista). they have launched HorizonNext to improve TASS. Still at the root level when every prospective buyer thinks, he still associates TATA with older below average quality cars.

Had Storme and Vista or for that matter Nano been launched as its by any other car manufacturer, they would have been much much better success.

For tata to make a comeback amongs the top3 in India, I feel they should bring a new brand which can sit between JLR (Luxury) and Tata. they can being the Prima Concept, may be a completely new facelifted Aria, may be the 2 seater coupe under this brand. This could be a way out for Tata.

I feel Rover, can be that brand.

 

[Sam Dinkar]

Yesterday, fueled by the kamikaze urge to buy a Tata SUV, I submitted an inquiry for Safari/Storme at Tata Motors - Promotional page.

Got a call back within 5 minutes (pinched myself ) by some guy named Sudhir. I thought this must be some call centre but the noise from the background suggested that he was probably calling from his home. This was at 9:30 in the morning.

The guy was courteous but did not seem to know much. Two excerpts from what he told me:

"Storme LX aapko kareeb saadhe gyarah ke aas paas padega" (Storme LX would cost you around 11.5 lakh rupees).

"Safari LX to sasta hi padega" (Safari LX would anyways be cheaper than that).

He asked me several details as per his script and promised that one of the dealer shall ring me up soon. He even asked what time would it be convenient for me to accept a phone call by the dealer. All this while I was pinching myself.

Needless to say, no dealer has called up as I type this.

So it was a dream after all. Finally, I could stop pinching myself.

What's wrong with Tata Motors? A lot.

 

[gaddambhargavareddy]

i Hope atleast tata should consider Rover brand in Premium Cars like Skoda Laura,Octavia,Superb, Chevrolet Cruze(price band between 10Lacks to 25Lacks) So in this price tag TATA Brand wont Accept in Indian Market, So If TATA Really want to gain martek share in 10-25Lacks range vehicles means TATA need to cansider Rover Brand

So in my Opinion TATA should Consider several brands in several range segments of Automobiles

-TATA Brand will use for Entry Level Budget Cars like What Nissan done with Datson.

-Rover Brand will use for Upper Middle Class people mover cars like brand values like VW,Skoda Brands.

-Lanchester Brand will use for some Sports and funny and performance oriented Brands like Abart Brand.

-Jaguar Landrover- we dont need to say about these brands they are doing well in their segments

Finally Daimler Company So this Brand TATA may consider has Super Premium Brand like Rolls Royce currently Jaguar Cars Offering Jaguar XJ based one called Daimler Super Eight it is Discontinued in 2013

According to Source:Daimler Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

At the end of 2007, the formal announcement was delayed until 25 March 2008, it became generally known that India's Tata Group had completed arrangements to purchase Jaguar and Daimler.
Tata had spoken to the press of plans to properly relaunch England's oldest car marque.[51] In July 2008 Tata Group, the current owners of Jaguar and Daimler, announced they were considering transforming Daimler into "a super-luxury marque to compete directly with Bentley and Rolls-Royce".[52] Until the early 1950s it was often said "the aristocracy buy Daimlers, the nouveau riche buy Rolls-Royce".[1]

 

[acechip]

The one thing that strikes me is that perhaps TML feel that "I know my cars are good for India".

It is this feeling that sorta overrides everything else, and beginning from the vision that Nano was born with. Perhaps they should have taken strong and extensive market feedback to the concept first, instead of rushing into creating the product. The more recent statement that "Nano's positioning as cheapest car was incorrect" points to lack of market research more than anything else.

This is mostly coming from an "engineering" mindset as opposed to a consumer-centric mindset. Had they kept the customer in mind, they would not have had issues with Nano, Aria, delays in launcing Storme, and never wasted their time launching hideous products like Tata Venture etc.
The vertical tail lamps - when are they EVER going to get rid of those ?
The flared headlamps which look the same from Vista to Aria- shouldnt they have atleast distinguished the Aria ?

And btw, why did they ever continue to market the cars as "Indica Vista" and "Indigo Manza" for a considerable length of time ?

And of course, the Dealer/Service centre experience. The less said the better, esp in Pune..

 

[navnit013]

TATA has lost its brand value, somewhat, in India. BUT India being its home market, they can turn the tide in time. And TATA being the parent brand, they cant place themselves too far below JLR. Ideal situation is to place themselves right below the JLRs and then come up with a low cost brand when the time suits them.

 

[jagrover]

Tata Motors top deck rejig underway, 7 of 9 members in top are new..!!

MUMBAI: A month after Tata Motors' HR head Prabhir Jha resigned, the company is still searching for a replacement and has asked Rajesh Bagga, vice president legal, to take interim charge. Jha's eventual replacement will be yet another new face in the Tata Motors top management which has gone through a makeover recently.

Seven of the nine members in the executive committee, the apex body that steers the $34.7-billion company, are relatively new. Of these, four have been with the company for less than 15 months and another three for less then three years. Only two — Satish Borwankar and C Ramakrishnan — are old timers. Borwankar has spent 39 years at Tata Motors and Ramakrishnan has been around for 33 years.

Even as Tata Motors is working overtime to revitalise its aging product portfolio, its top management team has undergone a quiet, but almost total overhaul.

The changes started rolling soon after Karl Slym took charge as MD in September 2012. Slym was the MD of General Motors in India and later moved to China as executive VP, GM SAIC-Wuling. After joining Tata Motors, he roped in a few of his former GM colleagues.

Ankush and Venkatram Mamillapalle, both from GM, joined Tata Motors in April and January 2013, respectively. Arora is senior VP, passenger vehicle business, and Mamillapalle heads purchasing and supply chain at Tata Motors.

Slym has also hired top executives from other companies and industries. Ranjit Yadav left Samsung to join Tata Motors as the president of the passenger vehicle business in October 2012. Ranjiv Kapoor, head of Concorde Motors, joined in October 2013 from Samsung and Swad Deshpande, left Samsung and joined Tata Motors in December 2012 as head, sales operation of the passenger vehicle business.

Prabhir Jha, who quit recently, himself was relatively new, having joined Tata Motors in 2010 from Dr Reddy's as the chief human resources officer.

Some old timers may have been passed by in the burst of top management changes the company has witnessed this year. Girish Wagh, who spearheaded development of the Nano and the Ace, is not yet part of the executive committee but handles a critical function of product planning and programme management.

"Tata Motors continues to have a balanced mix of company veterans as well as new talent brought in from outside, especially in its leadership team, to ensure we harness the existing talents while also adding new insights, expertise and perspective," said the company spokesperson.

Insiders say the transition has not been without friction among the new leaders and the old. Not every one has shown the same urgency for change as Slym and his new team.

"A mix of old and new timers to ensure smooth transition is best for the growth of an organisation," said Aditya Narayan Mishra, president staffing, Randstad India, an executive search firm. That hasn't been the case at Tata Motors where new leaders outnumber the old guard by a big margin.

Tata Motors is also in the midst of revamping its existing portfolio and launching new products in a bid to stir up some excitement to the brand. India's fourth-largest passenger vehicle maker is planning to launch a new hatchback and a sub-4 metre sedan powered by a 1.2 litre turbocharged petrol engine in 2014 to cash in on the popularity of petrol cars.

Source: Tata Motors top deck rejig underway, 7 of 9 members in top are new - Economic Times

 

[tdcarlover]

Dear Karl
Listen to the interview on autocar today with 3 car dealers-the mantra really is the customer experience from even thinking about what car to buy right up-to selling the car and buying a new one
You seem aware of this and some or a large part of horizion-next must be this-however sorry to say that in small towns things have only got worse for customers
Imagine, Maruti now has an app for customers for anything they want for the car!
No easy task to improve the whole experience, but if this perception continuous even falcons won't take off from your showrooms to owners garages!

 

[ss80]

Yesterday I traveled in a Vista Sedan Class (Cab) which had clocked 33436 kms and I was stunned by the overall experience! Despite the amount of abuse the driver does and the n no:of potholes we ran over without slowing down, the suspension was fantastic and noise, rattling etc were minimal! I would say it was even better than a swift Diesel, I could not believe that Indica V2 and Vista can have this kind of difference. Truly a new generation of Indica.

May be TATA has finally started to give some serious thought about ergonomics and build quality. The position of the arm rest, center console design, glove box size, deep foot well is superb. I will not shy away from saying that Vista Sedan Class has "The best co-driver seat in a diesel hatchback till date!" You cant get a safer, silent, comfortable car in this price range.

My opinion about one TATA car has changed for sure.

 

[Gurrala74]

^^Vista is most comfortable hatch in the segment !! and is also a VFM car in that price range.

 

[AppU]

I will not shy away from saying that Vista Sedan Class has "The best co-driver seat in a diesel hatchback till date!" You cant get a safer, silent, comfortable car in this price range.

My opinion about one TATA car has changed for sure.

So you have never driven Sedan class Vista, that is why you are saying like this

Go and drive Sedan class Vista VX, you opinion will definitely change from co-driver seat to Driver seat. We have wonderful QJD under the hood, Comfortable driving position which keeps you fresh after driving some 1000Kms in 24hrs, Excellent breaks with ABS will provide confident to stop the vehicle at High speeds(100KMPH+) , Excellent suspension setup and so more.

That is why I always say Vista is best for Indian highways and country roads. None of the hatchbacks can beat Vista's comfort level.