New Mercedes at 50 per cent Price?

There is an interesting marketing innovation by Mercedes in India.  It has brought a plan where customer will be required to pay 50 per cent of the price of car at the time of purchase and the remaining 50 per cent will be payable after two years.  Yes, after TWO years.  Given below is detail of this scheme-

Suzuki India ordered to pay Rs. 100,000 for wrong fuel efficiency advertisement

Suzuki India has been ordered to pay Rs. 100,000 by a court in New Delhi to one of its customer on account of advertising fuel efficiency figure which was not authentic.  Customer in this case purchased ‘Zen’ in 2005.  Zen at that time was quite popular model.  Company in one of its advertisements claimed that it will give a mileage of 16.7 kmpl.  This claim was based on a report published in an auto magazine ‘Autocar India’.  The customer got only 10-11 kmpl from his car which never improved.  He filed a case in a court constituted for consumer related disputes.  The court said that company did not conduct tests to find out itself whether such mileage figure was correct or not. 

Company said that it had mentioned in the advertisement that the figure was based on the magzine’s report.  The court refused this argument saying that it was in very fine print and not readable.

Court also instructed the company to conduct its own fuel efficiency tests and inform buyers about the minimum and maximum possible mileage in its future advertisements.

Honda Stops Production of Civic in India

Honda has decided to pull the plug on the Civic in India and will effectively withdraw its executive saloon from the Indian market. Assembled from Completely Knocked-Down (CKD) kits here in India, Honda will build what remaining kits it has, and production is expected to last until about Diwali. With no plans to bring the next-generation model that was launched internationally in 2011, this effectively ends the Civic line in India.

According to company sources what prompted Honda’s decision to discontinue the Civic in India is the lack of a diesel engine for the Indian market. Though the latest Civic gets a high-tech 1.6 diesel engine for the European market, Honda feels it isn’t compatible for Indian conditions.

With just a petrol engine, the new Civic would be at huge disadvantage from launch in a market that has swung sharply in favour of diesel cars. Also, the new Civic isn’t a huge improvement over the outgoing and hasn’t received rave reviews abroad and this was another concern for Honda.

The outgoing Civic was launched in 2006 and has seen its fair share of success in the Indian market. It won the coveted ‘Autocar Car of The Year’ title in 2007 and in the same year saw a sales peak of 2,546 units in March. When it was launched, the Civic looked a generation ahead of its competition with its futuristic styling, inside and out. However, over the years the Civic lost its edge thanks to a soaring Yen that kept pushing its price up (by around Rs 2 lakh eventually) and the onset of diesel competition. In recent months, Civic sales have struggled to go beyond double digits and in July 2012 Honda sold a mere 138 units of what was once easily the best-seller in its class.

Source: Autocar India

Top Five Car Manufacturers in India - July 2012

Following is the list of top five car manufacturers in India on the basis of monthly sales figures for July 2012 (figures rounded off to nearest 100)-

1. Suzuki        71000
2. Hyundai     27600
3. Tata            26200
4. Mahindra   21400
5. Toyota        14600

Suzuki has maintained its lead among the car manufacturers by having 37 per cent market share for this month which is way ahead of its rivals. Among these, Mahindra is a manufacturer producing only diesel vehicles. In the bottom three, there are Mitsubishi (486 units), Fiat (805 units) and Renault (1800 units).

Top Ten Best Selling Cars in India - July 2012

Following is the list of tep ten best sellers in India during the month of July 2012.  Figures have been rounded off to nearest 100 -

1.  Suzuki Alto (17400)  
2.  Suzuki Swift (11400)
3.  Suzuki Dzire (11400)
4.  Suzuki Wagon R (9600)
5.  Mahindra Bolero (9300)
6.  Tata Indica  (8900)
7.  Hyundai i20 (7800) 
8.  Suzuki Ertiga (7100)
9.  Tata Indigo (6800)
10. Toyota Innova (6700)