Word: maruti
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...chocolate-colored exterior is faded and, without a leather cover, the steering is scorching hot in the sun. The Maruti 800 - India's original people's car before the Nano came along - looks dated. The modest hatchback, and the Bajaj Chetak, India's answer to the Vespa, captured the imagination of the Indian middle class in the 70s and 80s and kept them buying for decades. But the small car and the scooter, long ubiquitous on roads throughout India, are no longer the toast of India's aspiring middle class. Over the last month, both companies have announced that they...
...announcement, though sudden, was not surprising. With the staid middle-aged consumers of India's middle class giving way to urbanites and youngsters with a lot of disposable cash, not much hope was left for these two modest modes of transport. A Maruti-Suzuki spokesperson says the company made a conscious decision to phase out the car as the definition of "people" - in order words, India' vast middle classes - has transformed in the last two decades. In January 2010 sales of the M800 were down 55% over the same period the previous year as Indians opt for cars with features...
...will end in India when shiny new Chetaks and the Maruti 800 disappear from India's streets - an era that marked the emergence of a modern India struggling to align its traditional values with modern aspirations. As Singh put it: "It was good while it lasted, but now its time to move...
...Nano six years ago. The project began with an audacious promise: build a safe, road-worthy vehicle costing 100,000 rupees (about $2,000), so affordable that it could allow millions of people in the developing world to park their scooters. Competitors dismissed the idea as folly. The Maruti 800, the Nano's closest competition, sells for about twice as much. Yet Tata has been as good as his word. The Nano is going on sale on April 9 at 470 outlets across India at a factory price of 100,000 rupees, not including taxes and transport costs. Within...
...spend half their salary on car and house payments and will be forced to cut discretionary spending. Some sectors are already getting hurt. New car sales - 80% of which are financed - are slowing. Tata Motors reported a 3% decline in sales in August compared with the year before, while Maruti Suzuki reported a 9% drop. Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath has been warning publicly that the country's GDP growth will slow this year to between 7% and 8%, down from more than 9% last year...