Mahindra-Renault going strong

good... but why take such pain in defending oneself? .. i guess the media scrutiny was creating pressure cooker atmosphere for them

This was a reply to some blog elsewer where it was said that lack of communication from Mahindra on the JV causes concern

Good that they have tried to clear the air.

what surprises me is why have they not introduced any new model since logan. they are just trying different variants of same logan.

they could have brought in CLIO, LAGUNA or MEGANE. i think these could do fairly good in indian markets.

CLIO can go behind hyundai i10
LAGUNA can go after SX4, LINEA
MEGANE can actually crush SKODA, CHEVROLET, VERNA, FIESTA

Can we list a single foreign car manufacturer company that may have entered with just one model in indian market and that too for some 4 years now.

The big problem is getting all these cars to India and the cost would be immense dont forget you need a massive network of Renault owned garages to make this work and would need to sell Millions of cars to make it halfway work
The LOGAN was designed to fit in this loophole and is made as you know by different makers using Renault Technology it is made as a car that has no frills its a car to get you from A to Z and it does this well and the parts used in the Logan are mainly taken from the Twingo ie the little button under the handbrake for moving the mirrors is from a twingo and lots of other stuff
Stu

What button under the handbrake? hmm...

Car mein Button......... (Button On Car)
kahaa , kidhar.... (Where)

@martin245 --> it is all about a company's vision ond growth strategy.
we have hyundai selling accent, santro, getz, verna, sonata, elantra (at least 6 that i know)
we have honda selling city, civic and CRV
we have merc selling many models... cant remember the various series...
we have audi selling some 3 sedans and a SUV model....

why not renault?

its like more market presence increases company credibility.... at least this is the way I look at it.....
and Megane, Clio, laguna etc. are fantastic ones and could fair well....

Over here we have a button Near the handbrake to adjust our mirrors
It will be I suppose not on your Logan so there will be a little round mark or PLUG where this button would have been
Stu

Fresh News Today Morning.

Renault and M&M out of funds to grease their hands
Posted: 09 Oct 2009 10:46 AM PDT

The proposed alliance between Renault and Mahindra & Mahindra took the neutral position and yet to kick off, due to lack of funds. The companies are partnering under the banner Renault India and Mahindra & Mahindra (MRPL) to make and sell Logan sedan.

For months together there has been no green signal recover the brand image, except negotiations between them. Main factors that contributed for the hassle are recession and fund lock. The car is the lone brand under the JV, the pressure is mounting on the early recovery.
The company has analysed the cost factor as the main one for the downfall of the sales. It costs more(Rs4.2 lakh-Rs7 lakhs) than Swift Dzire, Tata Indigo and Ford Ikon sedans.

Further, the technical flaws like the wiper on the left for the right hand drive too brought the rejection. M&M has been offering the marketing back up through its 100 dealers.

While there is no final word about the depart of the partners, both companies are conscious of the investment made so far. Renault is in tie –up with Nissan on 50:50 basis to make cars at the Chennai plant; with Rs200 crore being diverted to the Nashik plant. Thus the investment may accrue to Rs1000crore for Renault alone.

Even if the companies break apart, Renault would have a large say and same is the case with M&M too. Amidst these speculations, the companies are burning the midnight candle on promoting more sedan variants- Sandero, a hatchback on Logan platform.

In addition, M&M would make its own products in Nashik plant. Everything is on paper and air, but for the outcome we have to wait further.

ha ha ha ..... funny na Europes biggest and India's biggest SUV, MUV & UV sellers are out of fund -dumb they are making us fool and looking for options to quit, the only bottom line I can think off is MRPL thought Logan is the biggest seller in EU countries so it will be a big hit in country like India too because it has a lot of seedan seekers.

Common wake you big phat salary takers of MRPL and think out the box show some courage call Logan owners alk to them get their feeler aggression and then decide and learn from your rivals about car call backs for small small manuf defects.

But they forgot the economy trends of India creeping upwards and cultural mindset of a typical Indians believe in having a showoff kinda car rather that So called value for money car.

In my view the biggest VFM car cum UV is Mahindra Bolero but that does not mean that every Indian buy Bolero only.

They should learn from Honda with its most successful killer design model the old wine Honda City (NHC & HC) it was revolution in non conventional designs which they are cashingout till date.

The Logan in Europe is NOT made by Renault its made By Dacia Just like yours is made by Mahindra !
If I take my Dacia to a Renault Garage in the United Kingdom witha Garantee problem they will refuse it because its not a Renault it will have to be sorted out by Dacia who are not yet in the UK Renault supply the Knowhow and the drive trains the rest is up to the firms themselfs to get it running
Stu

That is the positive you have in UK atleast Renault is established there and tomorrow if something wrong happens with Dacia JV Renault is there to take care of your cars.

But here in India the scene is pathetic Renault is even yet to start its manufaturing plant in Chennai (and yes that is not for India but for cost cutting and sending cars to you people there in EU and other countries). So we cant dream about having a Renault tech handling our cars.

Regarding Mahindra's service guys everybody here knows how trained they are to handle Logan.

Yes but not the Garantee
name some stuff that is being built in India for the European Renault Market (and not carpets)

ezee wrote:

ha ha ha ..... funny na Europes biggest and India's biggest SUV, MUV & UV sellers are out of fund -dumb they are making us fool and looking for options to quit....

Renault has more worries than what they face on the Indian soils here. Back in europe, they have bigger crunches to address. Its not a very rosy picture as any focus in India means diverting funds from some EU project to this place. Definitley worrisome, also when your CEO is trying to keep afloat another company (NISSAN) in the midst of the slowdown.
There is a total lack of support & commitment fromMahindra, which is visibly evident.

ezee wrote:

..call Logan owners alk to them get their feeler aggression and then decide and learn from your rivals about car call backs for small small manuf defects....

Wont do any good calling logan owners. They should call owners of Dzire, Linea, City, + + + to see what they liked in their cars.

What kind of small defects? If the potential of defect causes no harm to safety & lives, there's no need to recall. It can be taken care of by a gentle mail & the next service.

ezee wrote:

..But they forgot the economy trends of India creeping upwards and cultural mindset of a typical Indians believe in having a showoff kinda car rather that So called value for money car....

Agree to this.

ezee wrote:

...In my view the biggest VFM car cum UV is Mahindra Bolero but that does not mean that every Indian buy Bolero only.....

That cant be called a car. UV, I agree. Cars dont have brackets sticking out of the body and you dont hang on to some grab rail for dear life while driving.

To the best of my knowledge the problem started when Renault/Nissan wanted to go ahead with Bajaj for the small car project. Things have only worsened ever since.

May be Rajesh but I feel its a total failure of marketing tactics and coordination between these two companies. Afterall untill and unless they market it right customer wont buy coz "we buy what we see".

Recall days of Ford before Fiesta, days of Fiat with palio etc ... they had very good products but their marketing tactics failed them to keep in customers mind. We see Maruti everywhere and we buy, technically we know how Maruti cars performs. In early days of Swift people used to laugh at that model - an obese car made that most dented after Indica but now see 3 more similar models A-Star, Ritz, Dzire selling successfully - wow thats called marketing.

Biggest mistake to come with a JV with Mahindra - Never JV with a company which sells similar products stablished newly in that segment - we saw an example of this with Ads of XYLO, now they are busy again with a new launch.

Now at service point of view - Have you ever seen a service engineer handling 2 different products from 2 different companies ..... I never. I have seen the head service engineer Logan reading service tech manual and going on training of Xylo and M-Hawk. What it shows instead of training and bring possible solutions for defects and customer dislikes in Logan they are busy with XYLO and just verbaly instructing juniors to handle problems.

Practically I have no hopes for future of my Logan for better service and resale returns but may be future buyers have.

Its the pricing thats a damper. Be it spares or the cost of a new vehicle. I checked the latest prices for the Diesel and now I feel this is definitely not the route to take.
They have to localize parts to be competitive in the market. Also folks from Renault need to visit service centers regularly and arrange customer meets.

In Germany they do fixed visits to Garages (This is from the Motor magazines) and they bring in a prepared vehicle ie bulb defect or a nearly broken fanbelt also tyre pressures and wheel nut tightness ...just about everthing and then the Mechanics are also tested on friendlyness and
how the vehicle is booked in and out also parts costs and They also check to see if the parts have REALY been changed
Then the results turn up in the press with the name of the garage they test about 15 a time from the same firm ie this week Toyota next week renault
these firms are crapping thereselfs because of this and the Quality of work is rising

THIS LINK WILL SHOW YOU WHAT I MEAN
THE POINTS ARE FROM 100
http://translate.google.de/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww1.adac.de%2FTests%2FAutokauf_Werkstatt%2FWerkstatt%2F2008%2Ftab.asp%3FComponentID%3D225373%26SourcePageID%3D225399&sl=de&tl=en&hl=de&ie=UTF-8

A final impasse from Renault
Source: http://vicky.in/

The criss-cross situation for Renault in Indian market has nothing to do with its continued presence, said the company people. They are relieved that the likes of Peugeot (which went into recluse 12 years ago leaving some 2000 people jobless) would not happen with Renault. Renault’s Indian proposals include one with M&M which is kept on high profile, a design centre in Mumbai, a logistics centre in Pune, an engineering centre in Chennai.
In addition, there will be a JV with Nissan(at Chennai) at Rs4500 crore and a JV with Bajaj for a low-cost car. There will be a common President & CEO for both Renault and Nissan. But as of now Nissan is making news with its movements, while the JV with M&M is kept in abeyance (since the fall of Renault’s Logan in this month to just paltry 500 units). Sensing the trouble, Renault has initiated the revival mission and is to bring the second wave of products. But the industry observers feel that there is still a tough time for Renault to retrieve its Logan unless it is modified with its length by 4 meters (which would fetch less excise duty). Also in the mindset is to go for whole localisation to reduce the cost.
It is to be seen how Renault is going to swing the steering to reach the safe and right direction. Renault sees much scope in sharpening the proposal meant for the Chennai plant in terms with Nissan so as to accrue volume of business but the company has not yet ignited properly.

Renault has finally tied up with Bajaj Auto to produce low cost cars in India. Now if we go by what Carlos Ghosn said, that he wants to remain with only one Indian partner, then is this the end of Mahindra Renault??

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/auto/automobiles/Bajaj-Renault-bury-hatchet-to-announce-details-of-ultra-low-cost-car/articleshow/5213867.cms

Personally i feel Renault needs to introduce a car model higher than Logan. They can do this parallel to their small car dream.

Problem is it seems they introduced Logan and stopped there.

Big companies go by statistical figures. India has lots of population which they see as potential buyers for small car. This way they see large market penetration and gains in mass market. But this may not be true.

I dont somehow feel convinced that the small car concept will actually work.
In my view, I feel they are heading towards wrong decision.

renault chief ghosn seen on zee business announcing launch of small car by 2012 from their chennai plant in a JV with bajaj and nissan. car was shown on tv and bore brand of bajaj. also announced that car will be cheaper than nano and will provide more mileage as compared to nano.

most importantly there was a headline scrolling: ALL DISPUTES WITH M&M RESOLVED. DONT KNOW WHAT DOES THIS MEAN.

this is good news....i also saw the news in all important business channels........so renault now plans to go strong in india........they should have studied the indian market with logan....