[Eshan Joshi]

What if Porsche discontinued the 911 in 1982?
The halo car for Porsche would be a front engined GT car.

What if Christian von Koenigsegg never saw The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix as a kid?( The movie that inspired him to make his own supercar.)
Maybe no Koenigsegg supercars.


What If Tata decided to focus on SUV's (Sumo , Sierra, Safari) instead of hatchbacks and sedans during the 2000's?
Tata would probably be king of the SUV segment.

[Lalvaz]

Originally Posted by Eddy

What if.... Tata had marketed the Nano better?

What if.... Tata had made the Nano better?

[fazayal]

Originally Posted by Porcupine

What if ... Hindustan Motors and Premier also found foreign partners and stayed competitive with Maruti and eventually Mahindra and Tata?

Mitsubishi, ISUZU and General Motors were foreign partners for Hindustan Motors. Fiat and Peugeot were foreign partners for Premier.

[fhdowntheline]

On a more practical and realistic level:

1) What if Renault had continuously upgraded the Duster at par with its European variants and kept AWD option with the petrol engine?
2) What if the BRV had the VX (top) variant with CVT option?

3) What if the WRV had the 1.5 iVtec with CVT option? - Could have kept it ahead of the game wrt Nexon, Brezza, Venue etc.

4) What if Maruti had gotten the Jimny earlier ? Would people have made a beeline for the Thar ?

[dragracer567]

Originally Posted by GTO

- What if super aggressive & dynamic Daewoo HQ in Korea hadn't gone bankrupt? Would we have a formidable Daewoo fighting Hyundai tooth & nail then? I personally loved Daewoo's designs compared to the then weird Hyundais. Consider the beautiful Matiz or the Cielo.

That's a good one. Daewoo was a really competent company globally back in the 90s and really showed potential. No wonder GM absorbed the car-making business of Daewoo giving the only competent GM cars in India like the Cruze, Spark, Beat & Captiva. If Daewoo survived, the growth of Hyundai in India wouldn't have been as formidable with Daewoo stealing valuable market share. Assuming that nothing else changes in this timeline, Maruti will remain dominant, so Daewoo and Hyundai will be fighting for the same 20-25% market share. This would encourage Hyundai will bring in Kia much earlier to claw in some of the market share. Globally, Daewoo would probably become another giant as East Asian car brands generally do giving the only real competition to Hyundai/Kia from Korea. Also, Daewoo in the Indian market would climb upmarket much earlier than Hyundai and will probably be the first to strike the goldmine that is the Creta segment today leaving Hyundai more as a competitor to cheaper Maruti cars or playing catch up in the Creta segment.

Also, this means that Daewoo trucks would have survived and hence Tata wouldn't have been able to acquire it. So, we wouldn't have seen the excellent commercial products from Tata like the prima.

- What if Team-BHP wasn't created in 2004. Who would you trust today with honest reviews? Which platform would you use to interact with other petrolheads you'd never met? Where would you create this "What If" thread?

Most likely, no-one. We have to keep in mind that there in no T-Bhp equivalent for the Tech/smart phones that I know of for example (except for our own shifting gears section), so we would still have to depend on reviews from traditional media or word of mouth. Interaction between petrol-heads would remain in traditional forum sites like reddit used by a small niche, nowhere near as expansive as T-Bhp is today.

This is not taking into account all the people T-bhp has helped, lives changed, lifelong friendships formed etc. Infact, my decision to do my PhD was influenced by members from T-Bhp (amongst others) who provided me excellent guidance in the thread - PhD Degree at a European University or continue working in Dubai?

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

On a more practical and realistic level:

1) What if Renault had continuously upgraded the Duster at par with its European variants and kept AWD option with the petrol engine?

In that case, the Duster would have almost surely remained popular. Even without being upgraded, the Duster kept doing decent numbers, so a revitalized Duster will steal a lot of the sales from the Seltos & Creta while MG & Mahindra would work extra hard on the Hector & XUV700 because of the competition. The Tata Harrier twins would probably struggle as well since the Duster would be taking a lot of the sales from that segment, a mediocre harrier would've almost surely been buried affecting Tata's confidence in bringing out so many successful products back-to-back.

[RohaNN_kWh]

Very Fun Thread Indeed !!

Very similar to the Marvel Series: WHAT IF, which is currently streaming and shows what would have happened in alternate realities.

What If, The Indian Government didn't impose 100% import tax

What If, Indian Government banned Maruti for their build quality (would be interesting to see the market share after that, probably Hyundai taking a major chunk)

What If, Autobahn was in India

What If, Hyundai offered the real i20N below 15L

What If, Bunch of government-employed auto enthusiasts didn't make decisions for countries motoring needs (ex: sound instruments instead of regular horns)

[malim]

Gosh, this really is a thought provoking thread. Nothing like a good counterfactual to get you thinking.

Here's mine: what if Penn & Teller hadn't asked MIT for help creating their "magic chair"? How many children's lives have been saved by the resulting innovations in airbag activation technology?

[vredesbyrd]

Wow. This thread is like some alternative timeline lore (say Fate series) from games and anime.

What if our countrymen preferred driving dynamics and safety over gizmos and air purifiers?

What if Toyota wasn't as greedy as they are?

What if VW emission scandal had never happened?

What if the government didn't hate cars so much?

What if make-in-India was not enforced?

OT: This song deserves a mention in this thread:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkHjFzw1TUg

[jigar1791@gmail]

Few What Ifs -

1. What if the CSUV segment had never been created in India's automobile history? Imagine - Ecosport being a dud, MSIL not coming up with the Brezza and other OEMs not even giving the segment a thought?
We'd have seen a flurry of sedans in the C1 and C2 segment - Honda City could have been the ultimate aspirational wishlist for many, within the 10L-15L bucket.

2. What if we never had the Swift from MSIL?
We'd have never thought of a competent, fun-to-drive yet affordable hatchback option, EVER! Forget the likes of Getz, Polo, Fabia and there on..

3. What if Ford could have come up with something in between the Ecosport and the Endeavour? What if Ford's marriage with M&M didn't result in a divorce?
A brilliant and a capable SUV in the 15L-25L segment with Ford's DNA, backed up by M&M's reach. Recipe for a runaway success yeah?

4. What if TaMo never had introduced the importance of safety in it's cars? Starting from Tiago/Nexon and carrying it right upto Altroz?
Us, Indians, could never have understood the importance of strong and sturdy cars, let alone get along with the importance of NCAP ratings

5. Finally, what if..we never had TEAM-BHP?
A large part of us could never imagine the dearth of unbiased content we'd have been missing in our lives. The neutral reviews, price checks, comparisons, route suggestions and experiences and what not..

[KiloAlpha]

RC Bhargava's book "The Maruti Story" describes how Maruti were oh-so-close to inking a deal with Peugeot, but did not do so because the 205 would not meet Indira Gandhi's deadline of a car launch in 1983.

What if Indira Gandhi had compromised on this deadline, and Maruti had partnered with Peugeot? Instead of the 800, we would have got the brilliant 205. Then, Maruti might have released the 309 in place of the Esteem, with the 306 sedan half a segment above. And once Peugeot and Citroen merged to form Groupe PSA, maybe, we would have got some of the innovative Citroen cars. However, their cars would have been a bit more expensive than the Suzuki cars we have had, and significantly less reliable too!

[am1m]

Here goes:

What if...city planners in the 70s understood that with our population density in cities and narrow roads, what we needed was a Metro system with autos and buses that ran as they were supposed to?

What if...all those crores that go in to road widening, repair, re-repair, flyovers, demolishing flyovers, etc. etc. were spent on healthcare and education? What if the overwhelming percentage of spaces given over to supporting vehicular infrastructure were handed over to parks and other open public spaces?

What if...consumers understood that the car is a mode of transport, not a status symbol or a measure of your life's worth and purchased accordingly?

What if...our cities were designed for people instead of cars and parking? What if you could really walk or cycle to access amenities closer to you and could take public transport for anything further? What if streets were safe enough so that children started cycling early on and continued well into adult life?


We'd have very different looking cities and fitter people for sure!

[Jhinchak]

Interesting Thread. Here are my few "What ifs" .

1. What If Honda did not launch the Activa. The most popular scooter which revolutionized the scooter industry.

2. What if Kingfisher Airlines was successful and the king of good times did not require him to sell his industry and flee the country.

3. What if we did not have the swiggy and zomato app. Will we be home delivering so many times?

[saurabh2711]

What If:

1: Tata had better Quality Control Measures in their Assembly line. I am sure they would have been king of the Indian roads in all segment.

[Kingston]

What if?

1. German cars were as reliable as the Japanese/Koreans?

2. CBUs didn't carry a hefty premium?

3. Our roads where good enough for sedans that SUVs aren't as lucrative as they are now?

4. Road sense, lane etiquette, traffic laws and infrastructure (signs, lines, and lights) were existent in India?

–– One can only wish!

[TDIRaghav]

Amazing thread man! I recently came across an article on shelved Tata Motors' concept cars. What if some of those were launched? Maybe we would have had better cars from Tata sooner. Here's the link to this article: https://drivetribe.com/p/cancelled-i...QVizrKKvzU44tw