FLOP cars in the Indian car market!

So, we all tend to think about the cars that set the sales charts on fire. But somehow, always tend to forget the ones that never made an impact. Sadly, there are cars that flopped because they were upto no good, and others flopped because of poor support and exhorbitant price tags.

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Three points should be made clear-

1. A flop car DOES NOT mean that the car was not good at all. Some cars were excellent for the time it came in, but overall as a package, it failed. So, a good car might feature in the list because it never sold. A bad car might not feature in the list because it sold well. Good and bad are considered subjective terms as far as cars are considered.

2. Sales (as used here) is also relative. A Mercedes Benz can never be expected to sell as much as a Maruti 800. Sales figures depend on the segment, positioning of the car, the target market etc. So, sales figures are compared based on company targets and competition.

3. Limited editions are not considered simply because they are produced in limited numbers as the name suggests.

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What are the recent flop cars in the market, as I see it? (In no particular order!)

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1. FIAT Palio- This car comes first in my list of one of the biggest flops in India, mainly because its an excellent car ruined by FIAT. It was received well by Indians, but after a few months FIAT somehow managed to turn everything around and sales plummeted to pathetic levels. The 1.3 JTD was the last ray of hope, but then FIAT again played spoilsport by allowing Maruti to take away all the glory. Current sales of the Palio Stile stand at around 400 cars as against around 9000+ for the Swift, which is a pity considering car-per-car the palio can give the swift a run for its money.

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2. FIAT Palio Adventure- Talking about the Palio, the conversation naturally shifts to the FIAT Adventure, which was an awesome car let down by the lack of a diesel option. Low mileage and pathetic after sales service killed the car, and the fact that it was an estate car in ‘woodland’ looks destroyed which otherwise was a wonderful package.

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3. FIAT Sienna Weekend- Estate car! End of story.

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4. FIAT Petra- To recover the sales of the dying Sienna, FIAT introduced the face lifted Petra, and tasted failure yet again!

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5. Maruti Suzuki Versa- At a time, it would seem impossible that Maruti could get a model wrong. Then came along the Versa and the Baleno. The Baleno suffered from its pricing and recovered well towards the end once the pricing was corrected. But the Versa never did!

A family car at less than the amount of a proper sedan, sounded like a very nice idea from Maruti. But what really hurt them was the lack of a diesel option. A high revving esteem derived petrol unit was not what was needed for a people carrier, and neither was the ad campaign projecting it as a luxury car.

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6. Baleno Altura- Estate car, although an awesome one! End of story.

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7. TATA Safari petrol- How many people even know there is a petrol version of the Safari? And all those who know, remember it from the jumping Safari ad, rather than any experience with the car.

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8. Ford Fusion- Overpriced, and payed the price. Fusion was a hatchback positioned as an SUV crossover with a 1.6L petrol engine infamous for its FE figures at the price of C- segment sedans. When the diesel finally came into to save the day, Ford slapped on another big price tag.

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9. Opel Vectra- Pricing, poor marketing and Opel brand! By the time, this one rolled out, it was time to close down the Opel brand to give way for Chevrolet.

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10. Hyundai Tucson- To start with, even owners didnt get the name right. The story continues with Hyundai’s difficulty in selling cars above D-segment in India. However, the car was a good package with diesel option, but sales never justified its existence.

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11. Hyundai Elantra- A classic example where styling can destroy a whole package. This was a phenomenal package at its time with ABS, Traction control (which is not present in the segment even now), a class leading CRDi engine and more goodies. However, the styling didn’t impress and so did the sales!

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12. Mahindra Voyager- Mahindra tried its luck with this old Mitsubishi and failed rather badly. The target segment never existed.

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13. Chevrolet Forester- This was a hardcore Subaru, hiding under the skin of a Chevrolet. However, the vehicle was introduced into an imaginary segment, and there was no demand.

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14. Chevrolet SRV- Its a sports hatch with a luxury car price tag, and manages to be neither sporty nor luxurious! Quite a looker though!

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15. Chevrolet U-VA- The hatch variant of the Aveo hasn’t had success in the Indian market. Now rumours indicate the chance of a 1.3 diesel engine coming in to save the day.

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16. Lancer Cedia- HM was real late in introducing this lancer in India, and when they finally did, the tried to position it above the existing Lancer. The car was brilliant, but the same can never be said about sales.

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17. Ford Mondeo- An excellent driver’s car, but let down by high maintainence costs, price tag and lack of image.

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18. Opel Corsa Sail- Pioneers mostly live a tough live. Corsa sail tried to open a premium hatch segment in India, and died trying.

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19. TATA Sierra- TATA trying to enter the passenger car segment. Although sales never clicked, this car had brought an image about itself thats helped TATA with the Safari too.

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20. TATA Marina- Another estate car, to add to the extensive list of estate cars that have flopped in India.