[asit.kulkarni93]

When the Cruze was launched it did sell well. When the Beat was launched, it did sell well.

Now let’s look at the time when Chevrolet stopped their sales in India. The Corolla Altis/Elantra/Octavia had newer generations. What did Chevy give us? A modified bumper and DRLs on the same old Cruze. With every update which the competition received, it was taking care of some or the other short comings. Chevy did nothing. Same with the Beat, we had newer generation of every vehicle from that segment. The Captiva was plagued with issues. After all this did Chevrolet expect the Indian market to accept their outdated products? Same holds to true for Nissan/Renault. Good riddance!

[Stribog]

Originally Posted by RSR

It's very sad
Despite my barely-concealable hatred for the PRC's regime, I've been advocating that both, the government of Maharashtra and the government of India take a pragmatic and holistic stand on this issue, and allow Great Wall Motors (which is privately-owned, not state-run) to purchase the Talegaon plant from GM and start operations.

Thanks to the disastrous economic & industrial policies adopted after 1950 (when the notorious license raj era was being put in place) and the ill-advised decision by the powers-that-be to make India a part of the Third World in the post World War II global scenario, these successful car & truck assembly plants were forced to shut down, and their parent companies were forced to leave India.

The deal is going through, without going into details, I can tell you that I partner with the Chinese forwarder who has the contract to transport the machinery & initial commodities needed (1,200 TEU worth in 6 months) and all that has happened is the kick start moved from Sept 2020 to March 2021, the first sailings from China will start by Mid Feb. So short of all out war being declared, this project is a go.

On our policies, did you know we had 5 committees that discussed at length on the need for a 'small car'? Starting from the 50's this went on till the 70's and every proposed project was killed by babudom.

Originally Posted by GTO

Amazing how auto CEOs lie with a straight face.

Mary Barra visited India and announced a fresh $1 billion investment, just a year before GM India shut down.

They then announced that GM will continue to run their factory here. I had mentioned it back then = no way in hell! It was just the American way of delivering slow poison.

CEO's lie - period. Big Tobacco CEO's lied with consumate ease about how tobacco was not harmful when report after report that they paid to have buried said otherwise.

CEO's of firms like Enron & Worldcom lied bald facedly about how their companies will last a 1,000 years just when they were both cashing out and knowing full well that their companies were days away from total collapse.

Study after study has established that many CEO's have psychopathic traits and this is about par for the course.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackmcc...h=34a8c28b791e

Originally Posted by Hayek

Can’t be helped. The fact is that the Indian market is extraordinarily unattractive for any global auto manufacturer - with ever changing rules, unique tax structures, lack of emphasis on safety et al.

The recent Make in India regulations which ignore the Principle of Comparative advantage only make things worse. When the auto industry was on an IC engine fueled drive to globalise, losses in the hope of future profits may have been acceptable. With the death of the IC engine being almost certain in 20 if not 15 years, companies now have to invest in future technologies - and can happily ignore India.

Will not be surprised if Renault, Nissan, Jeep, VW et al follow suit after one last throw of the dice.

We have had 3 sets of motor vehicle act amendments that change requirements...in 30 years!

A change every decade if it confuses any company, then they deserve to be Darwin'd out.

What is a 'unique tax structure' for the Auto industry that GM could not surmount?


On one hand you complain about frequent rule changes and the other you complain about lax security norms when these security requirements could be built in only via legislation. Also automakers constantly PUSH for lower norms as they can then cut costs in construction and improve their margins.

I fail to see how this is relevant to GM getting out.

Kia, MG are both shining examples of how an OEM with vision that suits the Indian market does well. You can't have a huge gas guzzling SUV sell in any numbers in France or Japan as those markets have their own tastes and preferences. Ditto India. The fact that Kia has sold the avg sticker price of 15 Lakh Rupees Seltos and Hector at 18 L in large numbers is proof of this.

Look at its product offering which was insipid at best.

Except the Tavera, Beat and Cruze which were competent and offered VFM their line up was nonsensical and did not offer a single thing that their competition did not already offer.

Sail UVA? Enjoy? Aveo?

Would you have purchased a single one of these? I think not (though I could be mistaken). Rebadged SAIC products with dated interiors and horrible powerplants don't sell!

The blame for GM's demise is on GM. Blaming the market, the govt, the tax structure etc is just convenient shifting of blame.

[Gansan]

Back in 2009 when I was about to buy the Alto, the Chevy Spark was all the new rage. I tried it and found it good. But something held me back. From various reports doing the rounds I felt they may shut shop and go away, leaving me with a car that could then only be sold by weight. I am glad I did not buy it.

When some companies thrive and some others flounder in the same market, how can we blame the system alone.

[shreevishnu]

I started my career with GM in India. I've owned a Beat Diesel and still own a beater Spark.

GMs constant experimentation with brands, products, service revenue and positioning contributed significantly to their downfall in India. Start with premium Opel, don't bother to service as premium product after the sale, but ensure bills are premium. Pivot to Chevrolet, value for money offering, with same dealers who are used to their version of premiumness. Go after taxi market of Qualis/Sumo with Tavera - a good fit, but get into issues on emissions with corruption(!) in this bread & butter product.

Spark, Beat, Optra and Cruze were good products which were successful initially, but service left a lot to be desired. I've had people sell ac disinfection, engine flush as GM recommendation only to call their bluff. To make up for this, high service cost perception, discounts were always available on new cars. This effectively killed 2nd hand car prices. Wait times for parts was quite high, I guess it could be due to plethora of engine options on offer (1.0, 1.2, 1.4, 1.6 and 1.8 petrols, 1.0, 1.3 and 2 2.0 diesels).

Then try to make cheap cars, transformation is complete. Launch Sail twins, Enjoy, etc. At the same time, also Trailblazer and Captiva, talk about confusion in the showrooms. The only constant was bad service on a product that wasn't customised for India. They learnt what the Koreans did, indians want cheap well priced cars, unfortunately they shouldn't feel cheap.

They are the only OEM with access to 1.3 MJD license fee free, and built competent 1.0 version of the same engine, yet somehow failed.

Add to that the constant change in leadership and direction, it's a case study in how not to be an OEM in India.

[fhdowntheline]

India has had no problem dealing with its colonisers for the better part of last century . But we have suddenly discovered patriotism in the last one year. Its a good thing the people are the wiser for it , making pragmatic choices on consumer products like electronics and cars ( MG) . There is enough market for the right products, which the government must encourage instead of making business a victim of policy.

[locusjag]

My trusted independent mechanic came by today to drop off my A Star after a round of extensive repairs. His assistant was driving a black GM Captiva. The Captiva had suspension problems and transmission troubles apparently and the repair bills amount to 1.5 lacs INR owing to high spare part prices mainly. I told him that GM is pulling out of India shortly. We both wondered what kind of repair bills will be faced by the Captiva's owner going forward...

[DonHyd]

This is sad as I personally love both cruze and captiva. Cruze diesel came with 160 Bhp and 360 nm which no D1 sedan offers even today. Also, if I remember, it was among the cheapest D1 sedans. Rear seat was a compromise but otherwise, it was a decent package. Captive, though not well priced, was still a decent soft/urban suv with great diesel engine. Even trailblazer was a good attempt. Even lower end cars were not particularly bad, be it beat, enjoy or sail etc. The problem seems to be their post sales service but then I am in a dilemma whether Chevrolet deserves better or India deserves better.

If this is followed by Nissan, renault, honda etc, it is not a good sign. It seems that we might witness a tri polar battle among MS-Toyota, Hyundai-Kia and Tata-Mahindra.

[kannan666]

One of my friends had a Tavera back in 2011 and have travelled in it quite extensively and found it to be a very reliable and reasonably comfortable SUV. it is quite sad to see that the company did not move with the times and introduce newer and better models like its rivals did. Also sad to note that 1800 fellow countrymen will lose their livelihood, hope that they all find alternate jobs elsewhere.

[su1978]

Originally Posted by GTO

Amazing how auto CEOs lie with a straight face.

Mary Barra visited India and announced a fresh $1 billion investment, just a year before GM India shut down.

They then announced that GM will continue to run their factory here. I had mentioned it back then = no way in hell! It was just the American way of delivering slow poison.

Thanks GTO. You hit the nail on its head. Not only auto CEO's but CEO's world over in all the other sector lie. I recall in 2011 when Leo Apothekar(The then CEO of HP) announced that he would sell of the PC business. Leo was kicked out within a month when the stocks crashed badly and then Meg Whitman took over from him. She announced that the company will not be split and there would be no sell off. But in 2014, there was final split between HP Inc and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Now both of them exist as separate companies.

So we can actually conclude that the top management is not at all trust worthy. Only thing that bothers them is how well they are able to earn brownie points in the eyes of senior management. In my opinion, there are very few companies who care for the employees down the line.

Coming back to the topic, i strongly believe that GM was either never interested in capturing indian market or it was more than satisfied with its earnings from other countries.

[TechLiveMANA]

This is really bad not just from the Employees perspective who lost their jobs, but also for those who believed GMs lies about supporting their products for 10 years after the shutdown.

I own a 2010 Chevy Beat which hasn't given me much problems yet and servicing / repairs were so far easy due to ease of availability of parts. Not sure how things would pan up in future. I for one was planning to hold on the Beat as a second car for some time as the resale value is anyways not that great and maintaining it was not very expensive either till now. I might just have to rethink that decision now.

[invidious]

Of course it is sad for the 1800 workers. That said, what's GM to do? It's not as if the American Govt is like the French. The French may bail out Citroën and Renault - for the Americans it is survival of the fittest. Just look at how they have allowed Detroit to rot.

The old school car manufacturers are going the Kodak way. It's sad but the writing is on the wall.

I'd rather they not sell to the Chinese. Nationalism aside, China has no pedigree in automotive engineering. It's one thing that they reverse engineer stuff well, but they'd happily cut corners. This doesn't augur well for the Indian consumer.

[SulemanP]

It was sort of expected cause GM was never serious about its business in India, i had almost finalized Beat in 2014 but my Father-In-Law discouraged me, knowing their after sales services back then and suggested to go with i10. It was a good decision to avoid GM...
It will be good if workers are taken care of...

[Nav-i-gator]

It was good till it lasted. Cruze and Beat specially were quite competent cars. I own a 2010 Beat too, super silent engine (till about 2500 RPM, it is still barely audible), easy to drive and not too costly to maintain either.

The day GM packed up India operations, service centres started fleecing customers to keep themselves alive. But parts availability had never been a concern till now.

Tomorrow I am going to trade in my Beat for a new car (what an apt time coincidently). It makes me sad letting go of the car. I have had a fuss free ownership and loads of fond memories with the car.

[Ravi Parwan]

Originally Posted by TechLiveMANA

...

I own a 2010 Chevy Beat which hasn't given me much problems yet and servicing / repairs were so far easy due to ease of availability of parts. Not sure how things would pan up in future. I for one was planning to hold on the Beat as a second car for some time as the resale value is anyways not that great and maintaining it was not very expensive either till now. I might just have to rethink that decision now.

TechliveMANA, we are in very similar positions. I also have a 2010 beat in electric blue that has only done about 45K KM so far. It got serviced once a year and the expenses had been reasonable so far.

Just a month back I got major repairs done to it from my FNG who has taken care of my car from the ASS ( he was service advisor there, when I bought the car). Some of the parts replaced were the clutch, a single rear brake cylinder (leaking) and spark plugs in addition to the oil change etc and some rust removal and repainting of the rear wheel wells. The car has become more quite than when it was new.

I was also planning to keep it till EoL as resale is not gonna get me much and I get a decent bit of kit in the car( it is an LT). The FNG owner was also very upbeat about Chevrolet as he was being told that they would reenter the market in a big way by introducing new models. He has invested large sums in opening his own workshop with focus on Chevrolet.

Don't know what the future holds for the loyal owners of GM cars in India....

[sgmuser]

American Car maker and Indian market never get along well. Actually this is true to some European makers as well but Continental automobiles are big no here in India. If you think a bit, the reason for this that, American like everything big which is completely opposite to Indian buyers preference. At least few small cars and some small SUVs and then some mid size SUVs is the preferred portfolio where the small cars will bring in footfalls and thus you keep float to sell big margin items as well along with it.

For Americans, small cars is a foreign thing! Ford tried some good ideas and that is why they are kind of surviving. Chevrolet is long gone.

Indian roads are another big pain in the back for the car lovers, especially the big engine-d continental ones. We are not there when it comes to good long stretch quality roads. We pay more to tolls than the petrol in some stretches. There are roads with toll for every 2 or 3 kms and people hate these things and avoid cars for long journeys. Countries like US, Canada, Europe, has roads purely to enjoy driving and the quality of the roads are top notch. Here we have just two lanes mostly in one side and expecting GM/Chevy/Ford/Dodge to survive is simply illogical with their v6/v8 where they are specialists and not in pony 800cc and 1.3cc engines. India has a long long way to go to mature in automobile along with some matured policy makers.