[pqr]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

I don't really want to speculate but can’t help thinking; is it that Maruti is unable to sell Jimny at the present price?

Despite discounts, Maruti Jimny suffered a sales decline during the ongoing festive season. IMHO, Maruti overpriced Jimny by INR 1.5 lakh. Mahindra Thar data for reference.

[Emvi]

Maruti got the Jimny's pricing horribly wrong, there are no two ways about it. And if they claim that they are happy with whatever they are now retailing and target only a niche market, I don't think there can a bigger lie than this. The very fact that they developed the 5-door version proves what Maruti was aiming for, which is a wide customer base and volume.

The current discount and probably a bigger discount in the foreseeable future would not do any good for brand Jimny and the first lot buyers. What the manufacturer can do instead is, give the 5-door version a powerful turbo-charged engine, if feasible, at the current price point. And probably launch the 3-door version with the current powertrain at a much lower price point. This will keep the targeted consumers interested, not just that, when Mahindra eventually launches the 5-door Thar at a speculated price band of 22-25 lakh, Jimny might seem to be value for money then.

Maruti's forte has traditionally been the mass market, not the niche market, and it would serve them well to play to their strengths.

[solamarpreet]

Mahindra's launch prices are usually very good. I wont be surprised if the 5 door RWD Thar base variants undercut Jimny. Take a look at ScorpioN Z2 pricing.

[HappyWheels]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Do you honestly think Maruti will offer the 3 door here? Is there some trustworthy inside information or is it just wishful thinking?...

That would have been the right approach before this 5D approach. Bring in the available product and then bud the customer base. But releasing the 3D now is going to get the current set of owners feel cheated, especially as that is indeed the true blood Jimny and will definitely be priced lower than the current 5D. A knife stab and and snake bite!

Originally Posted by pqr

Attachment 2525815

Despite discounts, Maruti Jimny suffered a sales decline during the ongoing festive season. IMHO, Maruti overpriced Jimny by INR 1.5 lakh. Mahindra Thar data for reference.

+1 ; I cancelled my early bird booking due to not seeing a value for money. BUT, my opinions is still that the off-roading features and reliability of this machine is not available with other products (minus the brake issue owners have reported) in the market now.

Originally Posted by Emvi

Maruti got the Jimny's pricing horribly wrong, there are no two ways about it. And if they claim that they are happy with whatever they are now retailing and target only a niche market, I don't think there can a bigger lie than this.
...
The current discount and probably a bigger discount in the foreseeable future would not do any good for brand Jimny and the first lot buyers.
...

Maruti's forte has traditionally been the mass market, not the niche market, and it would serve them well to play to their strengths.

Well said on all the above points.

Originally Posted by solamarpreet

Mahindra's launch prices are usually very good. I wont be surprised if the 5 door RWD Thar base variants undercut Jimny. Take a look at ScorpioN Z2 pricing.

Indeed going to be an interesting scenario in how it is going to pan out.

Have again booked an Alpha AT in blue. Going to sell the Safari GX 4WD and make the Jimny my off-road buddy. Wife is also comfortable with this high seating as she is used to such driving seating. More comfortable than the Hyryder for her. Might pick up either during Diwali or new year.

[arjab]

Originally Posted by Emvi

Maruti got the Jimny's pricing horribly wrong, there are no two ways about it.

It is not only the price. A close friend of mine who works with a top Tier-1 to Maruti says that several issues are bunching up together to put a brake on Jimny sales. Apparently they had been part of several recent high level strategy meets and ideation sessions to find ways to increase Jimny sales.

First, is the price. Apart from a select niche of customers, who know what the Jimny is all about, Maruti is finding a hard time to pull in, let me put it this way: "non-Jimny-aware-prospects" .

This segment of buyers, who would get in the volumes & thus drive the economies of scale, are getting put off.
Apart from pricing, the narrow rear bench has come in for a lot of criticism. People understand that this is an off road focused vehicle but to get to the "adventure destination" potential folks do not seem to be favouring perching themselves on a sliver of fabric masquerading as a rear bench.
Surprisingly, these same people seem to.be gravitating towards the Grand Vitara AWD which is not very far in pricing from the top end Jimny and is pretty capable in the rough stuff & at the same time offer higher levels of comfort.

Maruti's original plans for the Jimny was that it should achieve around 5000 units in monthly domestic sales. At present it is doing less than half of that, with average sales hovering around the 2000 units per.month mark.

In the short to medium term, Maruti needs to rejig the product, (increase rear seat squab support and length). This can be done on the existing rear seat frame by tweaking the cushion/squab length and under-thigh support. I don't think any tooling change is required to add a bit more cushion.
Second: Maruti should expand the grade-walk. Jimny needs an LXi, VXi, ZXi equivalent.
LXi can come with only AC, front power windows, basic central locking.
VXi can remain to be the present day Zeta. And ZXi can be the present day Alpha.
Automatically with respect to the above, prices will get rejigged,.lowered and spread out, widening the potential customer base.

Will Maruti do it? No one knows. Corporate ego's are of Himalayan proportions and I'm sure the blame game & finger pointing has already started within Maruti because of Jimny's lacklustre sales.

On the ground, NEXA dealers are under tremendous pressure to push Jimny sales. Factory offtake of Jimny's per dealer is being increased & stock is being pushed down the dealers gullett.
I, personally have been receiving almost daily calls from NEXA dealers offering Jimny test drives and whatnot. What is funny is that these were the same dealers, who all in the early part of this year, were thumping their chests and even refused home test drives!
I have a feeling early 2024 will see good discounts on Jimny, if not an official price & variant correction. And also to get rid of 2023 stocks.
Interesting times ahead

[vikramvicky1984]

Originally Posted by arjab

On the ground, NEXA dealers are under tremendous pressure to push Jimny sales. Factory offtake of Jimny's per dealer is being increased & stock is being pushed down the dealers gullett.

I have a feeling early 2024 will see good discounts on Jimny, if not an official price & variant correction. And also to get rid of 2023 stocks.
Interesting times ahead

Thanks for the insightful post. Dealers are indeed being pushed. They are also being forced to take more variants as test drive/ demo vehicles. The above October wholesale number would have a percentage than normal of unsold/ dealer stock compared to ther vehicles

[IB290]

So all the talk about ~30,000 pre-launch booking, daily booking rate post launch, what was all that? Even with 50% cancellation, there would be lot more cars to sell with those numbers as reference.

[DicKy]

Originally Posted by arjab

LXi can come with only AC, front power windows, basic central locking.
VXi can remain to be the present day Zeta. And ZXi can be the present day Alpha.

Like the sound of that. Add a non touchscreen music system too.

Most probably regardless of their earlier stance. they may swallow their pride and launch a version without the second lever near the gearlever.

[Sherlocked]

Originally Posted by DicKy

Like the sound of that. Add a non touchscreen music system too.

Jimny is already barebones in its Zeta variant with a touchscreen being the only luxurious feature. Even if they introduce a variant below that sans the screen, that would hardly reduce the pricing by 30-40k max.

[DicKy]

Originally Posted by Sherlocked

Jimny is already barebones in its Zeta variant with a touchscreen being the only luxurious feature. Even if they introduce a variant below that sans the screen, that would hardly reduce the pricing by 30-40k max.

Yes, that is why I specifically mentioned the touchscreen system. Like I mentioned in my above post, they have to launch a 2WD version to cut the prices down significantly. Or cut down the standard 6 airbags to two.

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by DicKy

Yes, that is why I specifically mentioned the touchscreen system. Like I mentioned in my above post, they have to launch a 2WD version to cut the prices down significantly. Or cut down the standard 6 airbags to two.

But what is the use case for a 2wd Jimny with terrible rear seats? What are the cars at that price point that it goes against?

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by DicKy

Yes, that is why I specifically mentioned the touchscreen system. Like I mentioned in my above post, they have to launch a 2WD version to cut the prices down significantly. Or cut down the standard 6 airbags to two.

Jimny worldwide simply doesnt have a 2WD. Why would they go through with this here? And they should definitely never compromise on the safety aspects. Jimny will probably just remain as a halo model for Maruti in India while they happily focus on export production and earn those much coveted Dollars.
The Jimny will never be appreciated in India. Our mass market consumers value Brute Force and Bulk and ‘Presence’ way too much and the Jimny will never qualify for those traits. It will always attract only a miniscule niche ‘cult’ following even though it is an extremely well engineered, internationally proven and highly desirable vehicle.
Even scrolling down along this thread, one can clearly see that the majority even here on this ‘enthusiasts’ group are not ‘friendly’ to the Jimny.

[R.Daroga]

Returned to this thread after a few weeks and I'm quite amused with the discussions. My few cents:

1. I own an Alpha MT. It is my only car. For only kids in the backseat it is perfectly fine.

2. A very close friend has an Alpha AT. I drove his car which now has a throttle controller installed and the difference is day and night. The car, especially the AT gearbox now responds much quicker to our intentions. Leave it in auto mode and it works beautifully. Fuel efficiency has improved as well.

3. We went for an off-road training course in his Jimny along with some Thars, other Jimnies and a Wrangler. There was no difference between how all cars managed the obstacles. So for off-road use, Jimny, Thar, Wrangler, Hilux, Defender. They're all equal. Let your wallet decide. Jimny's advantage is the narrow track which allows us to dodge rocks and obstacles rather than go over them.

4. The narrow track really helps in city driving. It's a very practical city car that you can drive to work or go grocery shopping with. Just don't put adults in the back seat for too long.

5. If you're sitting on the fence on whether or not to buy the Jimny, go for it if you have a family of upto 4 with no more than 2 adults. With the right basic mods involving the air filer, spark plugs and the controversial throttle controller, the Jimny can ride, crawl, dance and fly the way you want it to.

6. As an owner, for the joy it has brought into my life, I do not find it overpriced. Not. One. Bit!

[ShivC]

As per Mr. Shashank Srivastava in almost all interviews at the launch one word he used very often to describe the market positioning of the Jimny was “niche” – now a niche product is never mass market.

It's possible for a niche product to transition to mass market but that would involve product adaptations, pricing and strategic marketing to back it all up. Don’t know how much MSIL would do this or would even be able to figure out how to do it. Does MSIL even understand if the Jimny is even in the segment of niche or mass market? I wonder!

However few niche products have transitioned to become mass market much due to their unique characteristics and or limited demand. MSIL would do well to understand this one basic fact.

I feel as an owner of a Jimny the communication going out from MSIL is mixed and detrimental to the brand image of the Jimny which is not a very good thing for someone who is invested in it.

I am and remain one happy customer of the Jimny however despite or in spite of everything …..

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by DicKy

I meant it as a reply to the post saying that there were talks of price correction for the Jimny as sales figures are not up to Maruti's expectations. Other than removing the touchscreen, side airbags and 4X4 hardware I really don't know how they can cut prices to make an effect on sales.
[/i]

It is not about cutting stuff out to make this car a value proposition at a cheaper price.

It is that this car wasn’t launched as a value proposition in the first place. And therein lies the problem. You try and sell hype and hope the hype is bought. Some do. Many don’t.

The Jimny, the original Jimny was created by Suzuki as a better cheaper alternative to the Land Rover’s, land cruisers, FJs, Broncos, and the Hummers. It was truly the epitome of value proposition, and stood true to the kei car concept. People bought it because it was affordable, small, gave great economy and easy to fix. These are the hallmarks of an everyday Japanese car. Plus they added the go anywhere trait.

But to take this all and present it as a way of out pricing the car out of the reach of most people or enthusiasts, whatever name tickles your fancy, by saying that because we designed a smaller car we can charge you more, because we put in a terrifically anemic engine, and so we can charge you more, and because we have you an interior that screams cheap bear in mind not Utility like the Toyota pickup, and then expect everyone to continue drinking their cool aid…