When the best selling cars are not the best

I love cars. Whether it is a hatchback or sedan or SUV, i don't care. I just love them. And one day a question came into my mind- what cars do people like. So to find that out, i looked for the list of highest selling cars in India for the year 2019, and found these numbers,

1. Maruti Suzuki Dzire- 1,94,371
2. Maruti Suzuki Alto (K10 + 800)- 1,92,598 
3. Maruti Suzuki Swift- 1,77,151
4. Maruti Suzuki Baleno- 1,65,398
5. Maruti Suzuki WagonR- 145,186
6. Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza- 118,074
7. Hyundai i20- 1,15,461
8. Maruti Suzuki Eeco- 1,06,471
9. Hyundai Grand i10- 95,095
10. Hyundai Creta- 93,023

What surprises me is that only two companies are in the list- Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai among the mass market manufacturers like Tata, Honda, Ford or Mahindra  and in the battle of the two companies Maruti Suzuki defeats Hyundai by huge numbers. MS has its 7 cars in the top 10 selling cars, and Hyundai has 3. It seems like rest of the companies are not upto the expectations of the customers in creating their dream cars. Or maybe they are and the problem is something else?

Let's take a look at number 2 spot first- Alto, because it has been on number 1 spot for a real long time. The car has been the undisputed king of volumes, primary reasons being it is the first choice for most of the first time buyers and it is suitable for someone who is beginning to learn to drive a car and also, the biggest reason, its low price (around 3 to 5 lakhs) and low cost maintenance. Competition to this car are the cars like Hyundai Eon, Renault Kwid, and Datsun RediGo, which also sell in good numbers but come nowhere near it in terms of volumes, even when combined. And also, the Eon has been discontinued.

Now comes the top selling car, Dzire. The fact that it is top selling is little surprising because for more than a decade, this spot was occupied by an entry level car which was more affordable and hence makes sense that it is top selling, where as Dzire is twice the price of Alto. But considering that the income levels have increased and we have cheaper car loans, so yeah, it makes sense that it is top selling. But then actually it still doesn't, as unlike Alto, it faces greatly tough competition.

Let's start with Honda Amaze. By many auto journalists, it has been described as 90% Honda City at 70% of its price. I don't think that a compact sedan can get a compliment better than this. Then comes Ford Aspire, again a great compact sedan with a classic look and powerful engine. And then Tata Tigor, which is the cheapest of its segment, with not a lot of power but absolutely excelling in looks. Volkswagen Ameo is another great car, particularly known for its awesome driving experience. And one thing is common in all those cars- they all are quite safer than Dzire (actually much safer).

So in short, Dzire has really tough competition and that too by all the angles of competition. So what makes it the number one car in the list of people's choice? One word answer (actually two) - Maruti Suzuki. MS has been dominating the market, having market share of more than 50% for a long time. And what advantage do you have when you have lots of cars of the same model that you have? Better Resale value.

But the biggest reason i believe is its after-sales service. So there is a famous joke complimenting MS's service centres, "if you are at a lonely place with your car, it is hard to find a restaurant or a toilet, but you can surely spot a Maruti Suzuki service center." This might be just a joke but it does reflect some truth. The after-sales service by MS and a strong presence in every city of India are the reasons that have led MS to where they are.

Second reason for MS being first choice for most of the car-buyers is mileage. MS cars give you the best mileage of all other cars. And as MS has been decreasing the weight of the cars numbers for kmpl are increasing, but at the same time what you have is lower build quality of the outer body. So whenever someone hits a MS car, there are no small dents, you only see the bumper completely stuck into the boot. And when you hit a Dzire at its back with, let's just say, a Tata car, what you have is another Maruti Suzuki product, Swift.

Swift is third highest selling car in India. It has a lot of competition from other companies, but also from its own siblings as well like WagonR or Baleno, all priced close to each other. And that is another great strategy by MS which i like- a huge product lineup. But that topic in another post.

Now let's talk about the only company which is close behind MS, Hyundai. While i20 is competitor of Baleno, i10 is for Swift. And all of these cars are in top 10. Hyundai has also worked a lot on its after-sales service since the beginning so you have a tension-free ownership with a Hyundai car. So there is nothing much to talk about these cars, except one.

Hyundai Creta is the only car in the list which is above 10 lakhs in price. Amazing car it is, but its sales figure show the increase in money people are willing to spend on a car because it was always a car below 10 lakhs which could make it to the list. One major reason for its success is that its an SUV which is not that big like XUV 500 but bigger than a 4 meter car, so you have a compact-SUV which is neither too big nor too small. Another car that falls into this category and has surprised all of us is the badass- the Kia Seltos. It is undoubtedly one of the best looking cars in Indian market. Its muscular looks with some features seen in luxury cars, given to people at an affordable price (its top model costs 20 lakhs) made it so popular that the Kia Motors became 5th biggest car manufacturer in India with its first product only.

So there is a new trend to be seen in indian costumers, the old king is still the king, but they are not afraid to invest in the new-comers like Kia or Morris Garages. But there is a huge opportunity for the rest of the companies to be the king and that is electric cars. As we are transitioning towards electric future it will be interesting to see if the old king remains the king or becomes a thing of the past, like we saw in the case of Nokia.