This Week's Driving - Jan 12th, 2000 - Log 15

The usually diffident first press conference before the boring formal inauguration of the Auto Expo is also known as "curtain raiser". It is attended to some extent by the serious media listening inside and to a larger extent by the other kind of media outside grabbing for the bags and gifts! Well, this year's programme was slightly different. The press conference was enlivened by some excellent deliveries straight off the bat by Rahul Bajaj and the organisers played spoilsport by not including any gifts in the grab bag! Which is, frankly, a great way to start a press conference.

Why are we reporting a press conference on driver's log? Well, simply because it is easier to update on the fly, and also because the way industry thinks, while not necessarily relevant or for the larger good, is at least an indication of where they hope they are headed.

The first place they are headed is towards a tightening of belts and review on the very logic behind such "melas". The abscence of manufacturers like Hindustan Motors-Mitsubishi and Honda Siel, as well as companies like Good Year was sought to be glossed over. Nobody can deny, least of all the organisers, however, that this year's Auto Expo has been a very expensive proposition for some previous participants, who have, in their wisdom, chosen to keep away totally or better still, downsize. Hindustan Motors-Mitsubishi, as a matter of fact, chose to launch their newly upgraded and therefore costlier Lancer a few days before the Auto Expo.

The next place the industry is headed seems to be a collective paranoi towards the question of import of second hand motor vehicles. We've dealt with this vexatious subject in the past, and it is very easy for people like Rahul Bajaj who have grown fat and cash rich off the lie of the premium driven motor market that existed, to call the rest of us anti-nationals if we choose to try and exercise our rights towards buying cheaper and better automobiles. But we on the Internet don't have to essentially subscribe to his dogma that if you are not on my side you are anti-national; we would rather look at the simpler aspects of trying to get across the facts.

And the facts are that:-

a) What gives India's automobile industry, such as it is, the right to expect sympathy and support from a long suffering public?
b) It is not just 2nd hand luxury cars, but also trucks and buses. Imagine the benefits here.
c) The customer will benefit from getting a better product at a lower price with equally good (or bad) after sales service.
d) The argument that second hand vehicles will be bad for the environment is laughable; if all we get in the guise of new vehicles from manufacturers like Toyota is 10-year old diesel pick up trucks, then we will gladly buy 2nd hand vehicles. They will be newer.
e) Anti-national is the manufacturer importing kits under foreign exchange realised from the government and labelling them "Indian", or anti-national is individual buyer saving vital foreign exchange by using his own hard currency funds?
f) Most of all, coming from a man who was single-handedly responsible for the cheap and reliable low-cost mobility which put the country on the move, to deny the next quantum leap to the country in terms of better and low-cost mobility, is amazing.

Sorry, Mr. Rahul Bajaj. We respect you, but on this one, we think we need you to take a slightly larger view. And if you can capitalise on it, as is so easily possible, benefitting both the customer and the industry, well, good luck!

Prices of the new Opel Corsa in 3 versions, the Toyota Qualis in half-a dozen configurations and the Ford Escort 1.3 have been declared. The amazing part is that in all three cases the impression sought to be conveyed by the manufacturers was that these prices are the result of careful "positioning". Damn the costs and raw material prices involved, it would seem, let us just "position" our vehicle to see how much we can pilfer from the buyer's pocket.

For what it is worth, it is this correspondent's firm opinion and prediction that these prices will be subject to speciality discounts right away. If not already.

Prices are further complicated by the expected new sales tax laws. But brifely, the Opel Corsa ranges from 5.36 lakh in lowest 1.4 litre trim through 6.8 in the highest. Ford pushes the 1.3 Ikon for about 4.75 lakh and the Qualis ranges from 4.6 through 7.4 lakhs, Delhi prices. We'll have the exact prices up in a while, as soon as the've figured out the taxes! Real point is, what will the market discounts be, especially for fleet and corporate buyers? Informed reliably by a competitor that 30% is not a difficult figure to look forward to for cash refunds over the sticker price of the 5-lakh plus cars.

A day before the fair opens, and a walk about showed most stalls still under construction. Tata were busy painting a bus in-house, Hero Honda had still to set up and Maruti were busy adding trim to their range. The only stall that seemed to be really ready in all respects was the Mercedes-Benz stall.That too because they had a rather long-winded press conference followed by a sort of public mutual admiration society meeting between the outgoing CEO and the incoming one. Why do they have to make love in public, these Germans, is something I have always asked myself since my shippie days off the Reeperbahn in Hamburg. To answer a question oneself, it is probably because they take themselves very seriously and feel that people watching them must be having fun.

The truth is that we actually come for the cap and jacket we get. This year it sports an unrecognisable logo, allegedly for Chrysler-Daimler. Would anybody in India buy the Benz if it was called "Chrysler"? Doubtful.

The average is at least one breakfast "one-to-one", which we refuse because we simply don't have the infrastructure to handle interviews and feel that they don't add value here as yet.

Then at least three lunches per day. A few high teas thrown in. And once again, about 3 dinner invites too. All with booze. Good booze. They should have these exhibitions every quarter! We ask readers, shall we put up an advance list, so that all of you so inclined can crash them? As it is, we are not called to half of them because they don't like what we say, soon the other half will stop, too.

There is not a single insurance company participating at the Auto Expo-2000. Symbolic?

Drivers Log
Veeresh Malik
The Edit Team
bluepencil@cybersteering.com

LOG Archives - 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14