[S2!!!]

Maruti Suzuki - India's largest car maker, recorded a total sale of 12,92,415 units for FY 2014-15. This is the highest annual sales ever by the Company! It has beaten its own highest sales record of 12,71,005 units in FY 2010-11.

The news might not seem to be a surprise to some, as the Company consistently manages high sales figures month after month with its 9 cars featuring in the top 20 best selling cars in India. The Alto is the Company's cash cow which dominates the sales charts with a monthly sale averaging ~22,300 units. The Dzire, Swift and WagonR have grabbed the next 3 spots with average monthly sales of ~17,320, ~17,300 and ~13,900 respectively.

Maruti Suzuki has grown from strength to strength over the years. In a market that is smaller than what we saw 3 - 4 years back, Maruti has actually increased its sales & market-share. This is a quite an achievement. Its widespread sales and service network, affordable and fuel efficient cars and its superior understanding of the Indian car market are some of the key reasons why this Company dominates the Indian car market with a market share of nearly 48%.

A few months ago, Maruti entered the elite club of companies with a market cap of over Rs. 1 lakh crore. The company also plans to launch a slew of new vehicles in the market to target a 50% market share. With the intention to achieve a premium image in the market, the Company is also looking to introduce separate dealerships in the country (called NIXA) which will sell its premium offerings like the Ciaz and the upcoming premium cars like the YRA, YBA and the S-Cross.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by S2!!!

The Alto is the Company's cash cow which dominates the sales charts with a monthly sale averaging ~22,300 units. The Dzire, Swift and WagonR have grabbed the next 3 spots with average monthly sales of ~17,320, ~17,300 and ~13,900 respectively.

I believe DZire is the real 'cash cow' in the stable.

22,300 Alto's with wafer thin margins wont match upto 17,320 DZires which shares almost every component with the Swift, but is priced significantly higher for being a (compact) sedan.

[LoneRidder]

Mean while, Honda becomes 3rd largest Carmaker in March 2015; Overtakes Mahindra & Mahindra. While Honda sold 22,696 units in March M&M managed 21,030. Their annual growth stood at 1,89,062 units, up by astonishing 41%. Amaze and City. Its time for Mahindra to come with more innovation!

[a4anurag]

What a brilliant feat by Maruti!

Shows their penetration levels into the country and standards maintained be it in Servicing or customer satisfaction.

Had just been back from Shimla - Manali trip and I was happy to see 85% domination of Maruti Suzuki. All I could see was Alto 800, Alto K10, Swift Dzire and a couple of Swift's. The other Non-Maruti car spotted frequently was Eon and Elite i20.

All I am amazed is by the amount of cars that would be getting serviced each day and what would be the foot fall to both their dealership and ASC's!

[turbospooler]

All Maruti vehicles are "cash-cows".
Omni+Versa = great volumes and same platform
Dzire+Swift+Ritz (?)= great volumes and same platform
Wagon R, Alto, Celerio = great volumes.
The only rising star (which, btw, is also doing great) is Ciaz.
Maruti has rightfully kicked their "dogs" (Estillo, SX4).
Suzuki has become a true advocate of LEAN by following many practices (may seem a little excessive sometimes) but they are reaping cost benefits of the same.
Toyota may have introduced lean but Suzuki and Honda are still keeping the spirit alive and perfecting it.

[anjan_c2007]

True, they are selling hundreds of thousands of cars. The cars have many plus points - reliability, ease of maintenence, economic to own plus good after sales.

The recent NCAP crash tests done for the Indian Swift (also DZire shares the same body but for the luggage boot) revealed in mid-Nov 2014, shows a ZERO star rating for the Swift, (DZire included) for the front adult passengers in the event of a crash. The Swift sold in the Latin American market got a 3 star rating.

The Maruti Alto 800 also dismally failed the crash test in January 2014.

The DZire has been very recently given some cosmetic touches by MSIL and the new, refreshed version is out now. They have not simply bothered to re-engineer the car and make if safer. They know Indians will make a beeline at their showrooms every day.

The Maruti Alto 800 is the largest selling car in the Indian market. Some 20,000 to 25,000 or more are sold every month. Its more than a year now since the ZERO was scored but nothing has been done by MSIL on the safety front for this car.

The Maruti Swift/ DZire is the second largest selling car in India (sometimes its the Swift @ no. 2 or sometimes it is the DZire).

Even after the NCAP ratings were revelaed and rather very well publicised by the media immediately, the public memory is too short. The cars are best sellers. Most buyers are ignorant or simply ignore the safety factor.

On the part of MSIL, it is blissfully earning thousands of crores of rupees by selling these killer cars to the gullible public. Its a matter of shame and disgust that we pay to buy such tinny, ZERO rated stuff.

On the part of the government, it prefers to keep its eyes, ears and lips closed.

Would this have happened in any Western market ? Consumerism is a movement and the governments are under pressure to act.

As suggested by GTO last year (Jan 2014), it should be compulsory for car makers to boldly display the NCAP ratings on a sticker placed on the windscreen with a particular font size.

When we can have health warnings on cigarette packets, what about these killer cars? MSIL is not alone, but we have other manufacturers too with cars scoring a ZERO and who are similarly irresponsible.

extreme torque : It did not surprise me one bit given how appallingly tinny the Indian Swift feels. The article regarding Swift sold in India mentions that the "The car's structural integrity was also deemed as unstable." So while the Latin American version scored 3 stars on account of having Air bags and ABS as standard, the structural integrity was deemed as poor as the Indian made Swift. The European Swift has a much sturdier structure as per the test and scored 5 stars.

I am pretty sure this will have no effect on the sales of the Swift much like "Happy New Year" is already a hit. We celebrate mediocrity. Shame on you Maruti!

[turbospooler]

According to a recent report in ET, Maruti's share of rural sales increased to 34.5% (of total sales). Which means Maruti's setting up shop in rural India is working wonders and no doubt this will be a growth driver for the company.
However, if we also analyze the sales in the urban market have increased only by 5%. This can be attributed to the increased basket of offerings the urban market customers have. This also shows that the urban customers are more happy with offerings from Hyundai and Honda(assuming this as the rural drive of these companies is not that great and their sales have grown phenomenally).
So, the next phase of product launches that Maruti needs to do are launch aesthetically pleasing models (like Hyundai and Honda) with loads of features (like Hyundai) and great pricing.
Going on a money making spree by providing customers unsafe cars (as mentioned in the above post) and featureless cars can only take the company so long.
It is time for Maruti to innovate and stay relevant!

[Seran Manian]

Originally Posted by S2!!!

Maruti Suzuki - India's largest car maker, recorded a total sale of 12,92,415 units for FY 2014-15. The news might not seem to be a surprise to some, as the Company consistently manages high month after month with its 9 cars featuring in the top 20 best selling cars in India. The Alto is the Company's cash cow which dominates the sales charts with a monthly sale averaging ~22,300 units. The Dzire, Swift and WagonR have grabbed the next 3 spots with average monthly sales of ~17,320, ~17,300 and ~13,900 respectively.

Maruti Suzuki has grown from strength to strength over the years. In a market that is smaller than what we saw 3 - 4 years back, Maruti has actually increased its sales & market-share. This is a quite an achievement. Its widespread sales and service network, affordable and fuel efficient cars and its superior understanding of the Indian car market are some of the key reasons why this Company dominates the Indian car market with a market share of nearly 48%.

Yes. It needs something to keep the monthly sales graph so high above others. Even the number two is far below. As some one already commented, even though Dzire/ Swift come in second or third place, their price being much above that of Alto would mean that one of them should only be the Cash Cow. Thanks for the update.

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

True, they are selling hundreds of thousands of cars. The cars have many plus points - reliability, ease of maintenence, economic to own plus good after sales.

The recent NCAP crash tests done for the Indian Swift (also DZire shares the same body but for the luggage boot) revealed in mid-Nov 2014, shows a ZERO star rating for the Swift, (DZire included) for the front adult passengers in the event of a crash. The Swift sold in the Latin American market got a 3 star rating.

The Maruti Alto 800 also dismally failed the crash test in January 2014.

Yes. Selling Dzire and Swift with Zero rating is a big mistake. As Alto is the car for the elderly and assuming that it generally is not used for highway drives one can say okay to Alto not having any safety rating.

[arnabchak]

Maruti have multiple block busters and some of them are on already depreciated die sets.
Wagon R for example would be from an already depreciated machine.

Yet, the company is constantly innovating and not resting on its past laurels.
Dealer experience and service costs are still lower than most competition and the "kitna deti hain" is always high.

Its a win win situation and no wonder Maruti stays on top.

[Lalvaz]

Amazing performance by Maruti. All the more commendable when you consider the fact that most other global car companies are struggling to make inroads into the Indian market. And even more commendable is that Maruti is not resting on its past laurels and is trying very hard to address the gaps in its lineup of vehicles. For instance the CIAZ is doing very well as a luxury segment vehicle, where Maruti was having a bad run earlier.

I just hope that Maruti also understands the fact that the Indian consumer is evolving and is increasingly looking at better build quality and safer cars. I know that Maruti can help meet those requirements, if it wishes to. It remains to be seen however if they choose to do so proactively or only after other manufacturers beat them to it.

[saket77]

Another feather in Maruti's cap: The company has clocked a 29.6% YoY growth for the month of April 2015.

In a statement, the company said it sold 111,748 units in April. This includes 11,039 units for export. The company had sold 86,196 units in April 2014.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/b...w/47118803.cms

Compare these staggering figures of the market leader with the No. 2- Hyundai India, who clocked just 2.6% growth on YoY basis. Goes on to show the faith of people in MSIL products.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/b...w/47118161.cms

Thanks!

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by saket77

Another feather in Maruti's cap

Compare these staggering figures of the market leader with the No. 2- Hyundai India, who clocked just 2.6% growth on YoY basis. Goes on to show the faith of people in MSIL products.

Thanks Saket for the link.

__________________________________________________ __________________

50K vehicles sold by Hyundai whereas 111K vehicles sold by Maruti.

With a difference of ~60K units what is lacking in other manufacturers that Maruti is able to do?!

I see a few threads basing Maruti for not having any quality, for not having any regards to safety features, for not giving us spacious and feature rich cars. With all these being given by Hyundai (read quality of materials etc and feature rich cars) - - why aren't they able to sell the same as Maruti?

Is it faith and ASC standards that are pulling people towards Maruti or is it that every person entering the showroom with a specific budget finds a car in Maruti?

[drsingh]

Originally Posted by a4anurag

With a difference of ~60K units what is lacking in other manufacturers that Maruti is able to do?!

I see a few threads basing Maruti for not having any quality, for not having any regards to safety features, for not giving us spacious and feature rich cars. With all these being given by Hyundai (read quality of materials etc and feature rich cars) - - why aren't they able to sell the same as Maruti?

Is it faith and ASC standards that are pulling people towards Maruti or is it that every person entering the showroom with a specific budget finds a car in Maruti?

Its called the 'Network effect'

[Cartman]

Originally Posted by a4anurag

With all these being given by Hyundai (read quality of materials etc and feature rich cars) - - why aren't they able to sell the same as Maruti?

The number of people who are aware about Hyundai > Maruti (if it really is so), in the real market isn't that high. When you throw in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities into the mix, it's a whole different ball game. There are places where Car = Maruti, like Xerox = Photocopier. Now, cars like the Santro, the Xing did clock substantial numbers and gave Hyundai much deserved recognition and traction in the market. I guess they have consciously decided to go one notch higher in terms of both pricing and quality. Not an entirely bad move, but when you compare volumes you'd understand where Hyundai is missing out. To put it into perspective, Maruti is still selling the Omni. It's as old as the story of time.

Originally Posted by a4anurag

Is it faith and ASC standards that are pulling people towards Maruti or is it that every person entering the showroom with a specific budget finds a car in Maruti?

Call it first mover's advantage or whatever, the initial acceptance for Maruti and a relatively competition free smooth sailing years enabled it to focus on the most important aspect - the service. The 800, Zen and the 1000 / Esteem cemented Maruti's image as a easy-on-the-pocket friendly city run about. Consider the fact these cars can still be serviced by the neighborhood garage - that is as stress free as an ownership can get. The reach is probably unparalleled by all of the competition put together.

In other words, all of this is analogous to an old wise investment paying off heavy dividends when it matters.

Cheers!
Cartman

[Carophilic]

It's rather funny to see people raising the safety and crash test phrase again and again again. It's time we understood that Indian customers are not idiots ( including me).

I have read and re-read the rants of the safety brigade including the moderators. I bought an unsafe Swift and an equally unsafe i10 knowing it has an NCAP rating as zero. Why? Because, every breath I take and everything I do is a compromise on safety right from the time in my house ( unsafe buildings), on the road (polluted air, idiotic drivers, unsafe roads, dark roads, the idiots on high beam mode, tin can cars etc) and even in office with occupational safety hazards and screwed up work schedules. In this scenario, please do forgive me if I do not give a damn about un safe cars.

The cars save me money and are of great utility.The cars perform their primary action of transporting from point A to B extremely efficiently. That is why they sell. That is why most Indians like me buy these cars. If we as Team Bhpians do not appreciate this fact, we will never understand customer mentality and ignorantly classify people buying Maruti cars as of herd mentality. Sorry for being .