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

[tdcarlover]

TV adds for the Sumo CR4-show the vehicle in good light-makes people want a test drive;if only they can do the same for all products
The Vista is a great car-though a bit overpriced its very highly under-advertised!
The Venture is mostly used as a glorifies Magic Taxi!-hardly any families using them-again v poor marketing-yet to see a TV car show reviewing the same
Vellore has many privately owned Magic IRIS-however i am yet to see a auto magazine/ TV programme/ advert about this-small towns can make a difference to sales
All told it appears they need atleast 1 person at TML per product for marketing -perhaps they do,but they seem to be a bit

 

[Tornado]

@tdcl , vista is most correctly priced hatch (premium hatch in fact) IMO. I guess , vista sufferers very badly due to poor tml marketing , imo.

 

[Vishwas]

@tdcl , vista is most correctly priced hatch (premium hatch in fact) IMO. I guess , vista sufferers very badly due to poor tml marketing , imo.

+1, Vista's pricing is at mouth-watering levels.

My idea below seems weird but i'll try to explain why it is,

- They should take out the tag "VFM" for sometime i.e., make the interiors better and exteriors to look simple for compensating with the interiors because in India users are not that concerned on the looks (see how a bad shaped Alto 800 runs on the streets merrily for example).

- Use well-made durable plastics, switches such that a customer should think he is owning a car and has a right to enjoy luxuries after spending so much of his hard earned money.

- The A.S.S is a big asset for these companies to generate revenues than selling the car, so if you are not strong enough to provide the desired customer service then you are not considered a player in the auto-scene. The service guys and the company people should accept their(company's) mistakes and rectify them, it's the only way to win the customer's hands. (Should take care like MS does to its customer's,they remind us of serivce updates, people directly call from Gurgoan addressing our feedbacks etc.)
As a Maruti customer i like the way i am treated.

- There is no need to provide a range of models to get the market response,just price it according to the needs (basic,middle,higher).

- See what market is asking for, it's okay if you don't provide more features, but the quality is the first aspect that everybody looks than features

Now before anyone bashes, let me get this straight, these are my personal views on how an owner and prospective buyer thinks in his mind, so i kept these views and suggested these things, it might be unacceptable or impossible but the real facts are issued as far as i am concerned.

On a True note, if he had money a year back we were going to book the Venture eyes closed, but after so many sites and dealers giving a not-so promising opinion we are now against buying it, this is how Tata is missing customers these days and i am the one with them.

 

[TAUREAN CZAR]

+1,
- Use well-made durable plastics, switches such that a customer should think he is owning a car and has a right to enjoy luxuries after spending so much of his hard earned money.

TATA has a company 'TATA AutoComp Systems Limited' to manufacture seats, dashboards, bumpers and other plastics used inside and outside the car and some mechanicals like fuel pumps, Radiators, Condensers, Intercoolers, etc. and most of the parts are made there. They have In-house design and engineering facility including Product/system testing and validation systems in place. They also supply to many other auto manufacturers like Maruti, Nissan, Honda, etc. For this they have a JV with T.Rad, Japan.

Some of their products are here:
http://www.tacogroup.com/services/scm.htm
They export all over the world. They have ware houses in many countries including the USA and supply as OEMs. But I don't understand why cant they deliver quality parts to their own vehicles.

- The A.S.S is a big asset for these companies to generate revenues than selling the car, so if you are not strong enough to provide the desired customer service then you are not considered a player in the auto-scene. The service guys and the company people should accept their(company's) mistakes and rectify them, it's the only way to win the customer's hands. (Should take care like MS does to its customer's,they remind us of serivce updates, people directly call from Gurgoan addressing our feedbacks etc.)
As a Maruti customer i like the way i am treated.

TATA has a good followup system in place which I have experienced with our 2007 TATA Safari and our Current 2010 Vista Aura. They take back the feedback after 2 days of your delivery of the vehicle to guage how is your vehicle after you drive it. Most of the workshop want to get a good rating and have given us prompt service here in Hyderabad and the advisors do pleade us for a good rating.

Problem is that unlike Maruti vehicles which are well driven and most of them do not travel a lot in a year it is easy to guage the customer usage and remind them for service. But TATA vehicles are driven like trucks (People also think that way and they do withstand rough usage), it's tough to sence the average km per month and fortunately don't need reminders. Therefore service reminders are not given.

But except in some places most of the A.S.Ss have improved drastically in the past 2-3 years. Result will come in hand in the near future.

 

[Vishwas]

TATA has a company 'TATA AutoComp Systems Limited' to manufacture seats, dashboards, bumpers and other plastics used inside and outside the car and some mechanicals like fuel pumps, Radiators, Condensers, Intercoolers, etc. and most of the parts are made there. They have In-house design and engineering facility including Product/system testing and validation systems in place. They also supply to many other auto manufacturers like Maruti, Nissan, Honda, etc. For this they have a JV with T.Rad, Japan.

You know the feedback on tata cars which has some cheap interiors(definitely not the vista and storme now), so as a rectifying measure, they should use better or long lasting interiors and some amount of design too. For eg, see the eV2's dash, it's still looks age old. That's why i mentioned they have to take out the term "VFM" and give out products which is worth a penny.

They have ware houses in many countries including the USA and supply as OEMs. But I don't understand why cant they deliver quality parts to their own vehicles.

Like i said earlier, they compromise on the quality aspect which should never be done in any circumstances, whatever they do should be balanced over the price and offerings, things will work like a charm when they do this, i may vouch for it if tata pays me (advises won't come free these days!)

TATA has a good followup system in place which I have experienced with our 2007 TATA Safari and our Current 2010 Vista Aura. They take back the feedback after 2 days of your delivery of the vehicle to guage how is your vehicle after you drive it. Most of the workshop want to get a good rating and have given us prompt service here in Hyderabad and the advisors do pleade us for a good rating.

That's common with every service center, so how far have you had experiences with the service people?

In my place Bangalore as far as i have heard that Concorde does the best than Prerna and Aadya.

Problem is that unlike Maruti vehicles which are well driven and most of them do not travel a lot in a year it is easy to guage the customer usage and remind them for service. But TATA vehicles are driven like trucks (People also think that way and they do withstand rough usage), it's tough to sence the average km per month and fortunately don't need reminders. Therefore service reminders are not given.

Sorry friend i beg to differ here, we used our versa like a work-horse which went through bad terrains and came out without a single problem, i agree with the point that Tata has stronger body shell to withstand these, but at the same time they should find and set things right and bring in solutions for the problems that customers face.

If we leave maruti, then how come Mahindra is doing the job well?

But except in some places most of the A.S.Ss have improved drastically in the past 2-3 years. Result will come in hand in the near future.

I've seen these in FB pages and experienced with the positive responses, all from my side.

 

[silverlxnano]

Hi everyone,
I am starting a new thread on what can Tata do to make a impact on the Indian car industry.

Now you would question me why TATA? Its because, I am ardent TATA fan, and am not liking the way things are turning out for them. Also, I guess TATA employees would be view these forums closely, hence in an attempt (however miniscule) to help them get their due share in the Indian Auto market can you suggest what needs to be done?

TATA from recent reports mentioned that they are planning slew of launches to grab the No.2 spot in India. Will no. of launches be the way or are there some other areas that they have to look into?

Now what I feel, the main issue with TATA (in that order):
1. Perception (Taxi Image)
2. After Sales Service
3. Build quality

BUILD QUALITY

Now when it comes to build quality, TML have demonstrated that their products are improving both from specs and features wise(Storme, VistaD90, Manza and Aria)


ASS

However, the ASS is what is still that they need to work upon. I understand it is very difficult to have an overnight revamp of the SALES and SERVICE but,
they need to start implementing policies company wide on actually taking moderate to strict actions on erring Sales/Service centers.


PERCEPTION

With the perception, only an out of the box thinking will help them get rid of that image. The recent March2013, Manza offer is good move, but then there are the Rapids and Fabias of the world.
The best way for them is use the negatives to their advantage and work out a strategy.

May be like:
Customise your car (tie up with DCs of the world or may be the BigDaddyCustoms)
Customer buys the basic variant, chooses from the menu of the customisation, and may be pay a premium of around a Lac, and bingo, you have a car which is like no other car. What say??
It could vary from seats to instrument cluster to lights to wheels, to interior color combination as well.

With low sales this could be a perfect way to get people the car they want and get a following. You can't have this work for a car which sells 25K a month.


DESIGN

Other point I feel that TML should do is do away with the use of similar deisgns in all models, like that of the headlights design in almost all its car models, be it Vista, Manza and to some extent Aria.

The tail light of Indica, Vista, Aria again similar.

"Plain Jane" styling also seems to working against it. Eg: Vista, Manza, Aria. Safari sports a very agressive front and that seems to be working for them, similarly other cars like Fortuners, XUV, City IVTEC, the new Ford Eco sport all IMO seem to be agressively styled.

The Vista car shape (though not bad at all) is still 15 year old shape. Need to give people some thing new to look at.

The Facelift should be a drastic one and one should be able to clearly distinguish between old and new at the very first look and not search for the changes.

TML is trying to Foray in the higher segment. In this they should be providing high feature products with a "Rich Appeal". Mind you here the competition is with the likes of Hondas and Toyotas. Plastics should improve and should have rich and slik feel. Now that, JLR is already been taken over, TML should use the expertise of JLR and improve their car designs. Obviously they should not jeopardize the JLR products. This has to be managed by TML.

This is what I feel, let me know your views as well.

+1 to the fact that tata need to change the looks of the cars. though they are capable of performance, the biggest drawback would be the plain, n less appealing looks. I also agree that they should tie up with companies who are leading names in car modification market. I m sure people would like to have customization options.
personally I never have had problems with after sales so far. have read n heard number of times on our forums.

 

[Raja]

Segments wherein the company does not have any products, are booming and hence the need to alter the product launch strategy on a war footing. Slym, Managing Director of Tata Motors has called for new products, new features and new launches, which he feels is an urgent need to revive market share.


Slym has advocated certain short, medium and long term measures to address these problems, reports ET. In short term strategies, mild changes are called for, while new products and portfolio revision will be the long term changes that Tata Motors will be concentrating on.
Tata Motors has a strong market share where their commercial vehicle segment is concerned, currently standing at 62% but it is in the passenger segment that major modifications are required. Tata Nano was expected to generate 20,000 unit sales every month when it was launched, but they are now down to just 3k units a month (last 6 months average). Tata’s Sanand facility is filled with unsold Nano cars while production is down to just 10% of original capacity.

Slym has also slammed the Government on the recent excise duty hike where SUVs are concerned. Slym took charge of Tata Motors in September 2012 and in the past six months he has made major changes in the organization. The old management committee has been replaced by a more energetic committee consisting of 8 persons.

These consist of Ranjit Yadav as Passenger Car Head, Tim Leverton as Engineering Head, while heads of quality, purchase, finance and HR are headed by Satish Borwankar, Venkatram Mamillapalle, C Ramakrishnan and Prabir Jha respectively. This structure has been altered to the extent that each factory will now have an exclusive head for quality and purchase and one head for quality and sourcing, each of whom will report directly to Slym. By this way, he hopes that decision making will be faster and smarter while quality will be of the highest standards.


Read more at Karl Slym indicates the need for Tata Motors to change strategy | Rush Lane

 

[jagrover]

Yes I'm sure..Thet will not give up..
They may not win immediately but will win definitely..

 

[TAUREAN CZAR]

As a part of restructuring the passenger lineup of TATA Motors Karl Sym has new plans.
As per his interview with bloomberg.com he is now concentration more on the Nano as it has more potential to be a sucess than other platforms.

While Tata Managing Director Karl Sym says he won’t kill the Nano, he says the company will soon add improvements designed to breathe new life into the model -- which would bring prices closer to those of rival offerings.
The Nano’s marketing “didn’t gel with anybody,” Slym, 51, said over coffee in his spacious office filled with cricket and soccer memorabilia at TATA Group headquarters in Mumbai. Scooter drivers weren’t attracted because others “don’t think I’m buying a car, they think I’m buying something between a two- wheeler and a car. Anyone who had a car didn’t want to buy it because it was supposed to be a two-wheeler replacement.”
Slym points to the Pixel, a Nano-based concept Tata showed at the Geneva Motor Show in 2011 as an example of what he has in mind for the brand. The two-door hatchback takes the skeleton of the Nano but adds “scissor” doors that rotate up from the front, an automatic transmission, and a diesel engine.
The Nano will be offered to “a wide variety of buyers and price points,” Slym said, without providing more detail.

He now wants to have more variants on the Nano including the PIXEL concept unveiled in 2011. Nano was initially picked as a vehicle to repalce the scooters but it has failed to hit the sweet pot. On the other hand Nano has more of sorts has struck the luxury buyers who want it as a second and easy to drive vehicle (instead of their mamoth Mercs or BMWs) or an 'inexpensive' gift to their kin.

Even we booked one though we have a Scorpio an XUV and a Skoda, but eventually cancelled.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-10/tata-signals-pricier-nano-after-cheapest-car-tag-flops.html

 

[jayadev]

Even we too,almost booked a Punto90 hp instead bought a Nano cx

 

[deville_56]

Many doctors are preferring to buy Nano as their second car, some as their sole car ('oooo'older chunk) for the ease of driving, less congestion and low running cost. I lived in 2 hospitals for a month and what I saw was either Nano or Wagon R (the same people who drove Mercs and Beemers). So, better the Nano, there is still scope.

 

[jagrover]

Tata Motors begins total overhaul of ops as per new plan - CNBC-TV18

After the most forgettable year for Tata Motors in recent memory, the country's largest automaker is making key structural changes in its operations to align its passenger car business with its CV business to create one vision. The company's top management led by managing director Karl Slym has earmarked an investment of over Rs 1,500 to re-vitalise its struggling passenger car business. CNBC-TV18's Ronojoy Banerjee reports.

It is indeed the moment of reckoning for Tata Motors. Not only has it seen its market share slip to just 11.7 percent in passenger vehicles last fiscal, its bread-and-butter segment of trucks & buses too is facing competition with market share declining two percentage points in FY13 to 56 percent.

Also Read: Tata Motors March global sales down 17% at 1.17 lakh units

The message from the company's new management is clear: While it needs to revitalize its passenger car business it cannot ignore its commercial vehicles either. For the first time Tata Motors has decided to increase collaboration between its two businesses in an institutional fashion through the "One Team One Vision" plan.

For this purpose the company has also created four new positions focusing on quality, purchase and supply, product planning and corporate strategy that would be common to both businesses for the first time. Sources also say this collaboration could also see Tata Motors compensate its Nano vendors by giving newer contracts for its voluminous commercial vehicle products like the Ace. Besides aligning backend operations across divisions, the company will focus on hitting the market with spanking new launches.
"Our biggest undoing was not having launched a product in two years etc," Karl Slym, MD, Tata Motors told CNBC-TV18.

While the company will launch six first-of-its-kind heavy trucks and ultra range of LCVs this fiscal, its focus will be on PV business this year. A Tata Motors spokesperson says that out of the total Rs 3,000 crore investment lined up by the company this year a majority will be invested in launching new cars and SUVs apart from refreshments of its existing portfolio.

Sources say the key launches lined up over the next one year includes a bigger, powerful Nano, a small compact hatchback between the Nano and Indica and a compact SUV.

Tata Motors has realised it must make an urgent break from the past in a rapidly changing market --- a message also shared by Cyrus Mistry earlier this month. While the company hopes these new measure will show results in the next two years, industry watchers believe Tata Motors needs to also fix its front end as its brands suffer from legacy issues. Will the company go as far as to drop the Tata name from the car business only time will tell.

 

[deville_56]

VW Polo's wiring harness.

 

[biker]

Outsource Service(as well as Sales?) to MARUTI. that says all. the absolute apathy to problems and the average no. of lemons/100 cars are also to be looked when it comes to TATA.

 

[autosafari]

Tata Motor's foray into passenger cars was a right business thinking. To mitigate the effects from the cyclical nature of truck business.

It was a wonderful start and a commandable job of developing the first Indian car.

Mistake was the failure in responding to market demands and a wrong bench marking when the competition was becoming strong, sophiscated and responsive to market needs.

Developing a new car and engine (highly challanging in terms of engineering talent and maturity level in our country) was a real bold move to be appreciated. Hoewever this very commandable job backfired when the newly developed car started giving initial troubles - eventhough it is natural in any development of this kind anywhere in the world.
Mean while competition introduced tried and tested models from matured platforms where all the niggles were fixed and ironed out by trial and error elsewhere over the years. As a result Tata Motors was singled out and earned a bad name for niggles and so called testing on customers etc.

'Word of mouth' has a strong impact and people in general are not ready to trust the brand and swear by the old experience - actual as well as perceived.

Would like to add that Tata Motors - PR, Marketing and Sales functions - failed totally or due to their inherent lethargic nature, did not even make an attempt to change this perception.
Product development too added to the woes and went into sleep mode after the initial push.

As I mentioned in the first post, not bringing After Sales Service issues here because it is OT in this thread (That is a big topic to be discussed separately)