Arrival of new models almost every month can confuse customers

The Maruti DZire sedan revolutionised the Indian market when it was launched in 2008. Till then there had been a sharp divide between larger hatchbacks like Maruti Swift or Hyundai i20 and sedans like Hyundai Accent or Honda City. The Swift DZire offered many features of a sedan with good inner space and a small boot at a very attractive price point well below the cost of other sedans. Its instant success however quickly attracted competitors like Hyundai Xcent,Honda Amaze and Toyota Etios. As all these cars were less than four-metre long they also attracted a lower excise duty to make them even more popular in a very price sensitive market.

While larger sedans continued to sell they had to mutate with longer platforms and more luxury features but the small sedans soon offered almost all features for luxury and convenience including automatic transmissions and an array of electronic gadgets like keyless entry, climate control, GPS navigation and on board entertainment and communication systems.

To retain its leadership Maruti DZire offered excellent 1200 cc petrol and 1248 cc diesel engines derived from their faithful Swift hatchback but recalibrated them to provide improved torque to economically move the slightly heavier car. The steering and suspensions were also slightly tweaked for larger loads. These made it big enough for an average family but much cheaper to buy and run and also much easier for traffic and parking that was becoming a big problem in every city. These more than compensated for a slight loss of prestige.

The petrol engine Honda City that had become the king of the larger sedans, quickly responded with their smaller Amaze that was made even more attractive with a new 1500 cc diesel option to their 1200 cc petrol model. Hyundai continued to sell their very attractive Verna sedan but soon broadened their base with a smaller Xcent sporting 1120 cc diesel and 1200 cc petrol engines. Toyota, who commanded the MUV segment with their popular Innova, used to have no saloon smaller than the Corolla Altis. They now pushed in their Etios saloon with 1364 cc diesel and 1500 cc petrol engines. It was an excellent car with good inner space and economical and reliable engines but its styling was not a great success.

Though the small saloons proved to be a great success a number of new variants were introduced to entice buyers who showed responsiveness to new models. Maruti’s Ertiga was essentially a stretched version of the DZire to make it into a seven seater mini MUV. Honda similarly launched a stretched Amaze to make Mobilio that they tried to claim was not really a utilitarian MUV but a larger family saloon. Chevrolet’s similar model the Enjoy was not a great success despite good features and pricing.

Though saloons account for just 25 per cent of the market, the small sedans and its variants quickly expanded the market with a confusing choice of many very attractive models. All the new cars are reliable and economical but the arrival of new models almost every month makes customers very fickle so the car companies have to continue to tempt them with more and more models, features and variants.

(The author is the region’s most celebrated automobile columnist)