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-   -   Maruti Jimny sales tank 78% in Jan 2024; only 163 cars sold (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/276983-maruti-jimny-sales-tank-78-jan-2024-only-163-cars-sold-6.html)

Rather than slashing the price after falling sales, Maruti should have priced it aggressively at launch to attract customers. Maruti seems to forget that the Jimmy is a small car and not a premium one. They should have focussed on its excellent off-road abilities.
Speaking as a UK resident, despite the non-commercial version being banned here (due to safety issues), the commercial version is a hit (purchased actually by non-commercial buyers). Moreover, used Jimny's sell at a premium. Maruti has failed to correctly judge its customer base and the price-point of the vehicle.

Maruti should consider replacing some of its MBA-sales team with people who are actually passionate and know about cars, and who can transfer this to passion to the buyer. This actually applies to all Indian Car companies.

And lastly, pitching the Jimmy at the same price point of the much bigger Thar was foolish and doomed to end in disaster (as shown by the falling sales). Maruti should not jump to the conclusion that Indians dont like off-roaders. This is a niche market and Maruti just doesn't understand it. That is why they also failed with the Gypsy (aka Samurai)

Just wondering - How did the Jimny do in Feb 2024?

200%, Jimmy was always a cheap and cheerful package. It should've been treated as such in India as well, especially when the mighty Thar is available for prospective customers.

I think comparing Jimmy's performance overseas and applying that same logic to India is not going to work. Success of a product depends on many factors, and a healthy competition being one of them. One may say that comparing a Jimny with a Thar is like comparing apples and oranges. However, one must not forget that both are 4WD vehicles, in the near same price bracket and that's what puts them in the same league. Unless one is a Gypsy fanboy, the Jimny is going to be compared with Thar for sure.

The 3 door Jimny is a small, cheap and excellent off-roader. That's it. Period. And that's it's USP. If the 3 door was launched in India, I'm sure it would have beaten the sales of the current 5 door one. If you decide to stretch the 3 door into a heavier 5 door one (rear seats just for the sake of it), use the same engine without turbo, same wheels/tyres and mess up the off roading specs (all the angles here), what do you get?? You get a product that is not good at anything!!

The Thar, though not a perfect vehicle, ticks most of the boxes - excellent off-roader, excellent power, fun on highways, killer looks and last but not the least, solidly built. And what an upgrade it is from the old Thar, which already had a cult following. Kudos to Mahindra.

Pricing is not the solution here. The 5 door Jimny is a poorly designed product, period. Pricing will not revive it. It's not Indians that are dumb to reject it, as some put it here. Maruti/Suzuki were dumb enough to think they could get away with it here.

322. rl:.

That's a disgrace. I actually sold off my Jimny 3 door here in Japan at appx same price as my purchase price. The Jeep Wrangler is of course way more expensive in Japan and does not sell and has a poor reputation for service. So, Jimny has no threats except for some similar mini Pajero type vehicles. But the Indian sales run has been so disappointing...

Agree with you 100%, Maruti have messed up with the Jimmy in India. That is why, it is important that Maruti and other Indian/Asian companies should replace their MBA sales team with people who have a passion for cars. Would also like to add that unlike Maruti, Mahindra made sure that the Thar carried the rugged pedigree of the Jeep.

Adding to my earlier reply, the reason the Jimmy succeeds in Europe and UK is because, they have stuck to the qualities that made it such a loved car. Maruti on the other hand tried to sell a rugged off-roader as a family car (5-door etc). That's where the Mahindra differed. They added creature comforts to the cabin, but made sure that the Thar remained a true off-roader. That is why it succeeded where Maruti failed. 'Kitna deti hai' philosophy is not a one-size fits all mantra that can be applied to every car.

When I saw the Jimny in the showroom, I was completely disappointed due to its size & proportions (actually, I had visited the showroom to see the XL6 when I was in the process of buying a car in June 2023 and later on, ended up buying a Scorpio-N). IMHO, Maruti Suzuki went wrong in proportions, comfort, and VFM.

1) All seats are pretty low on comfort due to the lack of minimum under-thigh support.
2) The VFM proposition is completely off considering the quality of the vehicle.
3) The Jimny should have taken a little attitude and styling from the Gypsy.
4) Even while marketing, Maruti didn't link it to the Gypsy.
5) Almost all the interested buyers went to the showroom to find Gypsy DNA in it, which was missing.
6) At least 5 seats could have saved the car.
7) Even after discounts, the sales are muted. IMHO, the bodyshell and stance of a Gypsy can work better. If MSIL works on the Gypsy body and chassis to make them compliant with BS6 safety norms, revives the Gypsy with a 1.5-litre engine and makes it available 2 variants - 4x4 & 4x2 (hardware of Jimny can be utilized):), then see the sales charts! :loveit.

http://youtu.be/Fl1bUKobaPs?si=kFQmCos6lGtc-lmS

This video shows just how confused Maruti guys are! Now who is the real Mountain Goat???

What do you mean that the Thar is a "true off-roader"?? Last I remember, the Thar's bestselling variant was the diesel manual and petrol automatic, both in their RWD versions! Heck even in the 4x4 versions, I can bet that 90% of those cars have never left pavements!

People buy Thar not because it is a good off-roader, but because it is a big car that is powerful as well. That's it! Most Thar owners don't even care about off-roading. If we use the "4x4 last used in xxx kms" data of all the Thars of India, the results will be embarrassing!

There's a simple reason why Jimny doesn't sell, and that is because it is small and slow. People of India buy the Thar mostly to satiate their ego and bully others.

Jimny with its small size and poor on-road performance, does not let them bully others. This specifically is the reason why Jimny doesn't sell.

Heck if we are talking about off-roading, most of the experienced folks say that the Jimny with All-Terrain tires is way superior than Thar.

And if Maruti wanted to market the Jimny as a car for the regular folks, they would've gone the Mahindra way and offered a RWD Jimny with a tax-friendly engine 1.2L engine like Mahindra did with the RWD Thar 1.5 diesel.

Maruti has enough cars to cater to the generic crowd. They don't need to make the Jimny big to cater to a bigger crowd. It's Mahindra who needed to make the Thar 'people-friendly' and they did the same by giving it creature comforts and a RWD version with a tax-friendly' engine!

I hope Jimny always remains a small, cutesy, niche vehicle! That way, the Thar crowd will stay away from it.

As far as my memory goes, Evo India is an independent media agency and has nothing to do with Maruti. This is, if my memory serves me correct. Now if it does serve me correct, how does Evo India's views on the Alto makes you think that Maruti is confused?

Friend, before you go ballistic about the Jimny, you should read all my posts on this thread and the context in which they were written. I never questioned the Jimny's capabilities; I specifically mentioned how popular and in-demand it is in the UK.
As for Thar, it carries the pedigree of the Jeep. This makes it desirable and popular. I agree that most people in India buy the 2wd version because they want the looks over the capability. But by no standards is it a big car. It seats only 4, and getting into the back can be quite a squeeze. The Thar is a 2-person car with 2 additional seats thrown in at the back.

As for Maruti not offering a 2wd, it is probably because that's how Suzuki is making the Jimny-- only in 4wd option.

And Maruti has an unenviable knack of destroying the only 2 good cars that Suzuki makes-- Swift and the Jimny. Yes, Yes you can list all the 'wonderful cars' they make, but they are just boring and plain rubbish. Maruti never introduced the 1.6L Swift sport version (till the time I was in India). They have done everything possible to make an otherwise good car as boring as possible with their 'kitna deti hai philosophy'. They will probably do the same with Jimny or maybe just stop selling it, like they did with the Gypsy.

To sum up, the Jimny is a great Car and Maruti has messed up. Maruti does not understand how to market niche cars. They pitch all their cars to the family vehicle category, which does not work.

Exactly what I mentioned brother! People in UK made Jimny popular because they focus on capabilities. Most Indians simply want a car that looks big and dominating. Hence why, Jimny here will never be able to compete with any car sales-wise. Most don't care one bit about the capabilities!

Let's agree to disagree here! An average Thar buyer doesn't give a damn about the Jeep pedigree. Most of them just want a car that looks big on the outside. Thar looks big and goes quick. This along with Mahindra's brand image, is the reason why people prefer Thar.

I don't think it works like that. The 2nd gen Jimny, i.e. our Gypsy, was offered with a RWD layout in many markets but we never got it. Just like the Jimny, our Gypsy was a lengthened Samurai, and was also 4WD-only like the current Jimny.

I mean the Gypsy was discontinued in 2019. It was available on made-to-order basis till then.
Heck I would love if a similar system starts with the Jimny! That way, the wannabe crowd stays away from it and only the ones genuinely interested get it. lol:

To sum it up, I think there's nothing wrong with the way Maruti is marketing this car. Jimny's biggest hurdle from being accepted by the generic crowd is its size and lack of a powerful engine. Since these two things are the sole basic points behind Jimny's existence, I don't think we'll ever see a high-selling Jimny ever.

What success? Suzuki discontinued the jiminy in UK, Europe etc because it didn't meet emissions, safety whatever. They stopped selling it for more than two years now if I'm not wrong. They tried to launch it as a commercial vehicle, but that bombed. It's not sold in the US or china. So worlds largest car markets aren't buying the Jimmy.


Suzuki keeps harping on about Jiminy's supposed popularity but rarely reveals sales figures. I'd wager Mahindra sells similar number of Thar's in India alone Vis a Vis jimnys global sales.

This site shows Jimnys global sales, leave aside Japan and the figures are appalling.

https://www.chinamobil.ru/eng/cars/s...year=23&mon=12

The Jimny is still available in Europe but as a commercial vehicle in 2 seater guise.

Secondly, Jimny in its passenger version could be sold but would compromise on Average fleet emissions which in turn would lead to heavy penalty for Suzuki. I remember Suzuki paying close to 1300 crores of penalty due to not meeting CAFE numbers in Europe.

Thirdly, Suzuki is testing the heavily electrified Jimny with launch scheduled in 2025 in Europe. This is as per reports in Japanese magazines and was also shown as part of their line up plans previously. And yes, I don't think it will make its way to India because the India experiment with Jimny seems to be over.

At the risk of offending many people, the Thar series has always been controversial as it has tended to be design rip offs of Jeep vehicles and even the current vehicle has not been exported due to risk of lawsuits from Jeep. That takes off the shine a little bit from the stellar sales in India.

Concluding, the Indian market is a tough nut to crack, where pedigree does not translate to sales if all other factors do not match expectations. But if there is any OEM, that can revive a dead vehicle with various tweaks, then it would be Suzuki. But, unfortunately, Suzuki Japan team was never in favour of launching the Jimny in India but gave in to the demands of India team which was confident of selling it in India. So, I don't have much hope now.

The Jimny sold 322 units in the month of Feb. The previous months sales were 163 units.

You can read the interview with Mr Srivastava, their boss - It appears that not even Maruti has product clarity as to what this thing was supposed to be. Its questionable what legacy they were even trying to tap into without using the word Gypsy.

Storyboard 18 article

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcpRSIV57yg

And the Ad campaign of Jimny has 2 door model doing things in South Africa and Spain etc , I think the marketing firm had to work with whatever they had and they ensured good initial booking for Jimny tapping into the social media crowd.

There is plenty of Indian market below the social media layer, those who are on ground, perhaps Maruti has lost touch.