Once upon a time in India when Premier Padminis and Ambassadors ruled the roost, nobody feared that their cars would look like taxi cabs. Nobody had a choice. Cars and cabs looked alike. This is not such a big thing in many other countries - Germany has Mercs for cabs - but in India, with the launch of new cars, the car-cab equation is big. The equation is simple. If your car model sells well as cabs (tourist operators, taxis), it sales as a private vehicle will suffer.
The Indica is the first one which sort of suffers - the number may or may not reflect it since India, as far as automobiles go, is a far from saturated market. But you can hear it from prospective buyers - well there are too many of them running as cabs. The Sumo and the Qualis were the mainstay for fleet owners and they never really caught on as a private vehicle. The Tavera is also, for all practical purposes, considered a cab.
The Innova seems to be the only vehicle at this point that sells well to individual buyers despite being a premium cab (perhaps because its premium cabs and not ordinary cabs). Lets see which one wins...
Monday, January 15, 2007
Cars and cabs
Posted by ecophilo at 8:51 AM
Labels: automobile
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2 comments:
This sentiment has been exploited by advertisers too. I recently saw an ad for Alto which had the tag line - who wants to buy a cab - implictly making fun of Indica.
Yes, you're right. But have you seen the strategy of Innova, revolving around Aamir Khan. I'm not sure if it will work but it sounds music to someone who still has a big family in this small world. Anyhow, with the emergence of call centre cabs, things have changed drastically, or say even the airport cabs - Esteems I believe. Anyhow I enjoyed reading your blog. Good thought process.
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