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Maruti Suzuki won over India’s car market with Japanese innovation
- kumarvvr 6y agoI own 2 Maruti vehicles. One more strength that is not highlighted in the article is the large service center base they have around the country. I drive 60 km a day total, and have been doing so for past 12 years, commuting to work. I keep meticulous record of my costs,and the average maintenance for the car comes to around .55 Rupees per km. Less than 1 US cent. Their cars have a reputation of being reliable and their spares are cheap. Truly a remarkable success story in India.
- tsjq 6y agoIn the maintenance cost list, are you accounting for battery replacement, tyres, engine oil, etc long-term big-items as well?
- kumarvvr 6y agoExcept battery and tyres. So battery costs about 4000 and lasts around 4 years. So I drive 60km, 6 days a week, say 45 weeks. So thats about .06 Rs per km. Tyres last about 70k km, and cost 18k to change all 4, so thats another .25 Rupees per km. So total cost is about .8 Rupees per km, including battery and tyres. Or about 1 US cents per km.
- ramraj07 6y agoI'm in the market for a car in India, and the only thing making me queasy is the safety standards - as in I have no idea what they are. Somehow I can't really trust the Indian government to uphold standards given the level of corruption I've grown up accustomed to. Hence, a brand fully made in India, and hence without exposure to more reliable (European?) Safety standards makes me queasy. That doesn't mean a VW in India is made to the same standards as it is in Europe, either. What's the best out?
- kranner 6y agoVWs available in India are far safer than Japanese cars, if for no reason other than the all steel construction. VWs are heavy too; you'll need more than one person to push if the battery runs out and you have to push start it. You'll have seen plenty of wrecked Japanese cars on Indian roads; they collapse like empty aluminium cans. The post-crash VWs I've seen in India have at least had intact cabins.
- ramraj07 6y agoI suppose all cars are supposed to crush like aluminum cans in their crumple zones, just the cabin needs to stay intact. But good point, I might try to find a scrap yard just to stroll around and see this pattern!
- andi999 6y agoFake news. Battery does not run out on VW.
- kube-system 6y agoCheap and unsafe cars are also made of steel. Steel is a cheap material and there are many different types of it, of varying strengths. A car being made entirely out of a strong material does not necessarily make it safe, either. Modern vehicles with good safety ratings are made out of many different types of material of various strengths in different locations. https://www.media.volvocars.com/global/en-gb/media/photos/34511 https://www.media.volvocars.com/global/en-gb/media/photos/34... Like any engineering project, design is more important than materials used.
- ffpip 6y agoThere are some threads on r/india about brake issues with Kia Celtos and Creta. Make sure you read it in case you are considering them. https://old.reddit.com/r/india/comments/jd7x93/kia_seltos_and_hyundai_creta_owners_beware_there/ https://old.reddit.com/r/india/comments/jd7x93/kia_seltos_an...
- known 6y ago
- gopalv 6y ago> Their cars have a reputation of being reliable and their spares are cheap. It is hard to quantify how big a leap Maruti was in the 80s and early 90s for the Indian middle class. The reliability jump from a Fiat rebadged as a Premier Padmini("If there's no oil under it, there's no oil in it") to a Maruti 800 was world changing. The Ambassador was reliable, but maintenance heavy & the Contessa was ridiculously expensive to maintain. Plus they were the first cars to come out with the "normal stick shift" with synchromesh instead of the steering shift bar which required way more delicate balancing of the throttle. Also the service center distribution along with the dead simple 3-cylinder configuration meant that every bike or truck mechanic had enough tools to "fix it up" to drive to the nearest service station. And the parts were cheap because everyone bought one (the monsoon season was different from a car, than a rain-coat on a bajaj). The entirety of the scenes playing around me those years was literally identical - went from Bajaj Chetak to a Maruti 800, then an additional Kinetic Honda for the wife and the kids buying a Scooty or a Pulsar.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- baybal2 6y agoA stark contrast to what Suzuki sells in a country up north
- rasz 6y agoWasnt Indian car market at the time what China does now with forced joint-ventures? This article is just glorifying Government granted monopoly.
- KorematsuFred 6y agoNot even forced join venture. Maruti was a company of India's most corrupt and powerful Gandhi-Nehru family. They forced the Indian government to buy it after it failed miserably and then requested Suzuki to help them.
- thrwoer2343423 6y agoAmusing that the Gandhi family's slogan at election time inevitably goes along the lines of, "Be pleased heathens, for we allowed you plebs to own cars and computers" Indira Gandhi is probably second only to the British in terms of the damage she did to the country [all of which are still in effect].
- selimthegrim 6y agoWell I guess in Kashmir they’re lucky to have cars after Pulwama, since Internet already got taken from them
- KorematsuFred 6y agoAs soon as radical Islamists are successfully eliminated and indigenous population can return back to Kashmir it would be one of the best places on earth. Radiation is needed to kill cancer sometimes.
- papul1993 6y agoThe safety ratings of MSIL cars aren't that great to be honest. A number of their cars are often referred to 'tincan on wheels' owing to their very light body panels. In fact they recently decided not to send their cars to Global NCAP for safety rating. [1] https://gaadiwaadi.com/maruti-suzuki-will-not-send-its-cars-for-global-ncap-crash-tests/ https://gaadiwaadi.com/maruti-suzuki-will-not-send-its-cars-...
- kgdinesh 6y agoAre they serious about this?
- lb1lf 6y agoAnecdote time - the first time I rode in a Maruti Suzuki (an Omni - think Toyota HiAce/VW Transporter), the driver asked me to close the sliding door, as I was the last to enter. Having ridden my fair share in old Transporters, I grabbed hold of the door handle and pulled, putting my body weight behind it to get the door going - and the door came flying along the rail, slamming shut with the sound of the lid being put on a shoe box, more or less. It was, ahem, of a considerably more material efficient construction than the sliding doors on a Transporter.
- gtyras2mrs 6y agoYea, that car is terrifying to ride in. Especially in anything more than slow city traffic. When I rode in one, I wasn't expecting much - since the car I was used to was a Maruti 800. But the Omni was terrifying, like one notch above an auto-rickshaw.
- thrwoer2343423 6y agoIndian automakers have been faring far better here. Tata and Mahindra's cars are increasingly top-of the pack when it comes to safety; very likely that if this continues, the Japanese car makers will enjoy the same fate as the Japanese bike makers.
- newyankee 6y agoThey are lacking in EV transition. It would've been great to have lightweight cheap EVs for urban areas.
- anticodon 6y agoIndia has extremely poor electricity infrastructure. Outages are long and regular, electrical lines are old and flimsy. Every time there's even a small rain, there's no electricity. It's so bad that while traveling in India, I've seen electrical lines burning multiple times. Also, India lacks its own energy sources and huge solar energy project was stopped by USA/WTO (because they were unhappy that India doesn't buy expensive solar panels from USA companies).
- parimm 6y agoThe electricity infrastructure in the larger cities is not as bad as you mention. The infra is bad in the rural areas and the quality of infra varies greatly by the state.
- anticodon 6y agoI understand that nobody likes critics from foreigner. But I still stand by my point that infrastructure in India is among worst in the world. I haven't traveled the whole world, but traveled enough, and what I've seen in India is probably the worst I've seen. I was working remotely so I needed reliable electricity and Internet. I had problems with both in every city I visited (and I visited many, from New Delhi to Kanyakumari. Also, while traveling between cities on my motorcycle, I frequently saw powerlines burning or electrical poles burning in rural areas. Something I've never ever seen in any other country. Only in Nepal the situation with both is worse.
- actuator 6y agoI don't think it is a foreigner thing. I have travelled a lot in India as well and I find your statement not representative of the actual ground situation. Infrastructure sure is not well done but the electricity bit is not true at least from what I have seen. If you are in a city like New Delhi/Mumbai, most homes/hotels do have reliable power. For rare cuts most have power through power backups. If you visit remote places, it is definitely worse. They have electrified a lot of places, but power is absent most of the times in the day. Some people rely on solar powered batteries for basic electrification at night. I have never seen a powerline burning though. In cities there are internet providers which do better than others, so it might have been your luck with some bad provider; but they are not even present in remote places. LTE based mobile internet has coverage problem in cities with pockets that get bad coverage, otherwise the provider 'Airtel' that I have used while traveling does seem to perform well in cities. Remote places have no coverage from LTE providers as well.
- ksec 6y agoRant: What on earth is that scrolling behaviour. Cause me headache and Dazzle. Please Web Front End designers. Words, Fonts, Some Image, a some doze of javascript for some useful tracking. That's it.
- LordAtlas 6y agoSupremely annoying. Why was this even necessary? What does it add to the reading experience? Just design wankery.
- suyash 6y agoGreat innovation with combination of IT and Supply Chain Process. Also worth highlighting is Tata Nano which was a innovation of its time with being the cheapest car manufactured in India. Indian companies should take inspiration from such success stories and create more such innovative products.
- kumarvvr 6y ago> Also worth highlighting is Tata Nano which was a innovation of its time with being the cheapest car manufactured in India Lessons gained and practices established for supply chain management for Nano, must have reaped a lot of benefits for Tata. On a side note, perhaps the Nano would have been more popular if it had been marketed as the "cuter second car" angle, rather than "cheapest car"
- hawkoy 6y agoAt the cost of safety, yes. It scores 0 on the NCAP.
- gaurav90sharma 6y agoMaruti is a success story because of its early market entry ,low cost maintenance with service centres everywhere in India , fuel efficient vehicle mostly because they offer very low kerb weight and of course are unsafe as per global NCAP ratings. In India people will tend to sacrifice safety in order to save costs which is one of the big reasons why Suzuki made it big. Personally I drive a Hyundai i10 Nios ,much stable at 60mph highway speeds than a Suzuki Swift. and offer better safety if not world class. Also, with the pathetic road driving conditions in India every other Suzuki vehicle you see on the road has a visible dent and looks like the stuff is made out of low quality plastic.
- elSidCampeador 6y agoFun fact: before Maruti Suzuki came calling, cars were not transported on trucks or trains to the dealership. They were driven there. So it was common to buy a car new, and receive it with 500+ kilometres on the odometer because it had been driven from the factory to the dealership. Maruti was the company that pioneered putting cars on a trailer and shipping them over to wherever. Even today, those trailers are called Maruti Car Carriers.
- jacquesm 6y agoThat's how they were doing it everywhere else for decades, no? Maruti only started in the 80's. Hard to call that pioneering.
- gtyras2mrs 6y agoI think you should read the parent comment with a caveat - "in India" on each claim.
- jacquesm 6y agoYou could, but it wasn't there and terms like 'pioneering' should not be used when the intended use is 'common sense like everybody else was already doing for decades'. It's really not innovative at all.
- kumarvvr 6y agoI could be due to poor demand and already excessive cost, due to imports. Too few cars to be shipped to a huge country, makes sense to drive them.
- KorematsuFred 6y agoThere are some points that are missed in the article. Maruti was a company started by Sanjay Gandhi, son of India's most politically powerful and corrupt Nehru-Gandhi family. He was known as ruthless and especially known for forced sterilization of poor people including college kids. He died mysteriously in a plane accident. Maruti was a failed venture which was then conveniently sold to Indian government. Since India simply did not know how to make a proper car they basically used Suzuki's technology. I remember some early folks talking about how Indian government offered them a raw deal but Suzuki took it nevertheless partly out of charity/experimentation. This bet played out very big. India at that time had banned import of foreign cars and the available ones in India were complete shit (Fiat Premier Padmini and Ambassador). Various politicians connected to the family then got dealerships across different states. Usual red tape of socialism was not applicable as this was the deals among friends. Rich and corrupt politicians selling cars to their other rich friends. Suzuki however continued to focus on solid engineering and simple products. Before you knew it Maruti 800 had become a status symbol. Some of my relatives worked for a steel company (of course government owned) as officers. To boost the sales of the car, Indian government would offer a "car allowance" to these officers and offer to pay 80% of the car's cost. Every officer bought this car even though they did not need it and sold the tires and other spare parts to recover the 20% of the cost. I belonged to a tiny state called Goa, which was a Portuguese colony until 1961, they had free trade with rest of the world and growing up I could see all sort of fancy cars from BMWs to Beetles to Porsches. When I left goa and reached Mumbai I simply could not understand why folks in Mumbai would not buy BMWs or Mercs. It is a classic tale of nepotism, corruption and delayed growth of a poor country. Suzuki however deserves kudos and a million thanks for Indian people. They could have easily chosen to just act like rent seekers by delivering bad cars but they did not.
- newyankee 6y agoThe real issue is that Tata, although late to the game of passenger cars did not become as big as it was capable of. There are many factors here, but off course the main reason is the cost conscious Indian market. Tata could've been India's answer to Hyundai-Kia instead it is stuck with a poor acquisition of Jaguar Landrover. Something similar played out with Tata - Corus steel i think.
- wisecoder 6y agoClearly sanghis / rsswalas taking over this thread by blaming Nehru's family.. they find a way to blame Nehru's family even for Coronavirus and Tsunami.
- anaganisk 6y agoWhat, where?
- known 6y agoToyota produces superior cars. But their market share is just 10% http://www.thedrive.com/news/25985/here-are-the-top-15-cars-people-keep-for-15-years-or-more-2 http://www.thedrive.com/news/25985/here-are-the-top-15-cars-...
- jpm_sd 6y agoI'm based in the US, it is really cool to learn so much about the Indian automotive market. Thanks for an interesting discussion!
- Grazester 6y agoGot my driver's license as a teen on a Maruti 800. It was the car owned by my driving instructor. The car was small(needed for reversing between slaloms 6 inches from the side minors without touching) with cheap and available parts even in the Caribbean and easy to replace the clutch after students burnt it out learning to drive. My girlfriend's mother even bought one for herself after I recommended the same diving instructor. I had the car for a few months after a hurricane ripped us a new one, smashing the rear glass of the car in the process. The island was shut down for the outside world for weeks and it wasn't for months until a replacement glass could be import from the Suzuki dealership. Being that is was a flat glass I simply cut a big piece of plexiglass and used that for the time being. The rear hatch was also big enough to fit a sizable generator I needed to pickup that could not fit in my family's Corolla or Sentra. The 3 cylinder engine surprisingly had enough power to climb 45-50 degree hills(needed when your island is all hills), albeit slowly.
- abhiyerra 6y agoI also learned to drive on the 800 in India. My grandpa has one from the first year of production. It has survived quite a bit including flooding, getting stuck in deep mud, and the general stop and go of the traffic in India. It has seen better days but still running.