Pak Suzuki to replace Mehran with 660cc Alto

[Basel]

The only Chinese vehicle that did have some success in Pak was Cheryy QQ... and now we dont even find it anywhere on the road..

in mid 2000s... Geely also tried entering with their economic sedans but didnt make it...

There are 2 problems any brand in Pak faces:


Monopoly of japanese assemblers who are looting people and selling shyt at the price of gold.

Availability of spares for new vehicles.. unless any other brand enters .. it should also establish a factory for spares etc.. otherwise.. you may sell a few thousand or hundred thousand units.. but they will fail in the long run... you have to have support facilities for your vehicles ... and bribe the govt.

I had personally visited showroom of Cherry QQ and find out that they were not interested in making cars in Pakistan, they only want to import for some time and move on to other model if they had success, they even had motorbikes too but also failed there because no make in Pakistan mind set. Cherry QQ had good features but under the hood production quality was much worst then Mehran.

 

[Fireurimagination]

Aren't export of other small cars from Volkswagen, Hyundai, Renault, Honda, Tata, Toyota, Fiat etc to Pakistan allowed from India? Suzuki itself has 6-8 small cars in India, how many do they have in Pakistan?

 

[Abingdonboy]

Any Indian members here who could shed light on what £5,000 buys on the car market in India?

Not in India but a quick google shows for aprox £5,000 one could buy:

Maruti Suzuki Swift

Renault Kwid

Ford Figo

Tata Tiago

Tata Bolt

Datsun GO

Mahindra KUV100

Hyundai i10

and more:

https://www.cartrade.com/new-cars/by-price/3lakh-5lakh

 

[prashantazazel]

Any Indian members here who could shed light on what £5,000 buys on the car market in India?

@Sinopakfriend @AndrewJin @Nilgiri @flamer84

£5000 will get you one of the smaller hatchbacks like alto, kwid, nano. All crap cars. If you stretch the budget slightly to 6000£- you get chevy spark, beat. Ford figo is good too.
The real good stuff is priced 6000£ plus.
I have lived in 4 metros here, and the real demand and competition is present in this segment (6-8000£).
I will list some names which I really liked - Hyundai i10 (powerful, great ac, dad's first car ), suzuki swift- good power and handling, honda brio- a cheap but quality Honda, i20 (good power, spacious), toyota etios liva, tata indigo.

I mostly drive bikes and a civic(honda).

 

[Indus Pakistan]

Compare that list with

And there are people in Pakistan who want to protect this 'industry'.

 

[Asian.Century]

Suzuki Mehran and Alto has become a cancer in mighty Pakistan Car industry....30 year old model, cheap sub-standard parts and no safety features. Its a grand loss to Pakistani government and citizens....infact every Pakistani buying such expensive low tech cars is at LOSS.

These Toyota, Suzuki & to some extent Honda have become a cancer to pakistanis charging excessive loot prices and low quality imported Japanese accessories and safety features. It is a sad loss to Pakistani exchanger hard earned money and consumer satisfaction.

Government of Pakistan need to action quick.....200 million Pakistanis need cheaper and better quality cars !!!

 

[Abingdonboy]

That means that every single car in India(new model or old ) will have to get a new engine in a couple of years.

Don't think this is the case bro, I think it will mean that every new vehicle sold in India from 2020 will have to comply with Euro 6 (Bharat Stage VI) with Euro 5 (Bhrat stage V) being entirely leap frogged. There will be no need to re-engine existing fleets but there will be a heavy penalty on operating legacy engines and thus an incentive given to opt for the new standard.

Well, a ridiculous number of Indians were dying on account of road accidents. Something had to be done.

Its an interesting story of GoI vs Auto makers

When first proposed the auto industry said let us do it voluntarily.
They did not. They did introduce airbags but only on the top variant of all cars over a certain cost.

GoI finally floated the idea to pull the plug and make it mandatory starting next year seeing the non-cooperation of the car manufacturer's.

Auto makers then demanded that cars over a certain cost must have this mandatorily instead of all cars as it pushes up cost for the poor common man (what an excuse!).

GoI then decided that every car even if it is a tin can on 4 wheels must have airbags. This way when everyone is forced to make it, the cost of airbags will come down drastically as there are millions of cars manufactured in India each year. So volumes can be used to reduce per unit cost for everyone.

The seat belt audio warnings are the most irritating. Some Indians will ofcourse do jugaad and fit in a metal rod in the seat belt catch. But Government is betting that it will be enough to force majority of the drivers to use seat belts properly.

The Euro 6 thing came as bolt out of the blue when the pollution index was released. Our air is toxic, this seemed to be the only way. Only thing is, it will cost GoI over $10 billion to technologically upgrade all the oil refineries in India to be able to jump Euro 5 level and directly produce Euro 6 compliant petrol and diesel.

Still..massive changes afoot in Indian automotive sector in the next couple of years.

Good thing about this is the frankly sick (but understandable from a business perspective) policy of "Indian specific" models from global OEMs will be effectively killed which will mean that the Indian automobile industry will be able to supply their production models to a greater global market with Indian production models finally being in line with the standards found in the West. Right now most of the Indian automobile capacity makes Indian-specific models that cannot be exported to the West and only a number of developing countries that have simiarly lax safety standards.

This move by the GoI will actually greatly help Indian automobile manufacturing so as to make them more competitive globally.

 

[Baba Google]

Mehran main beth kar aisa lagta jaisey Fiat Tractor chala rahay ho Allah karey is navi Alto main beth kar Massey Ferguson tractor ki yaadein taaza ho jaein bas... aur kuch nai chahiye

 

[Jackdaws]

I was seated next to automobile head on a flight who was once a senior management guy at Suzuki - he told me Mr. Suzuki was on his way to Pakistan when he heard about the Indians looking for a partner during the Sanjay Gandhi days and decided to make a stop en route before proceeding to Pakistan. So in a weird kind of way - Suzuki India must thank Pakistan for its 50% share in the Indian market.

In India people are very conscious of average fuel consumption i.e. running cost of the car. And Suzuki beats the rest in this category also. The model posted by me returns 22 KM per liter of Diesel

In Canada when we say Economical we mean good gas consumption and for that Suzuki is the worst, totaly failed brand in North America.

Totally different markets; totally different products. Suzuki in RoW is a motorcycle manufacturer which happens to make cars - in India it is a car manufacturer which happens to also make motorcycles. The biggest advantage Suzuki has in India is that it licenses its economical 1.3 l diesel engine from Fiat. Fiat has less then 1% market share in automobile sales but in diesel engines has more than 80% of the market.

View attachment 345538

This is Suzuki's S cross 1.6 alpha which I usually drive on highway. It returns me an average of over 20 Km. and it is smoother than my Toyota Etios. But Toyota Corolla Altis is definitely classy any day

I intend to pick this up or the Creta - but am waiting for either of them to launch it with Android Auto. You happy with the S-cross?

 

[Laozi]

I intend to pick this up or the Creta - but am waiting for either of them to launch it with Android Auto. You happy with the S-cross?

I have Alpha 1.6 and you won't regret buying it if you love to drive on High Way. be it ride comfort, speed or stability

For city drive I don't use this much

do take a test drive of both the vehicles at high speed before deciding

 

[Jackdaws]

I have Alpha 1.6 and you won't regret buying it if you love to drive on High Way. be it ride comfort, speed or stability

For city drive I don't use this much

do take a test drive of both the vehicles at high speed before deciding

I did test drive them. My driving is mostly in traffic in Bombay with very few highway runs. So the 1.3 Alpha or even Zeta should suffice for my needs - but yes, the 1.6 on an open road is a different animal - I did TD it on the new Eastern freeway, I can see why you enjoy it. The Creta has better interiors but is more sedate. Let's see how it pans out.

 

[Laozi]

I did test drive them. My driving is mostly in traffic in Bombay with very few highway runs. So the 1.3 Alpha or even Zeta should suffice for my needs - but yes, the 1.6 on an open road is a different animal - I did TD it on the new Eastern freeway, I can see why you enjoy it. The Creta has better interiors but is more sedate. Let's see how it pans out.

Buy 1.6 variant only if you really Drive on High Ways otherwise for Mumbai or Delhi buy any automatic version with a good audio system & A.C. and enjoy the traffic

 

[Nilgiri]

The Mehran is face of all that is wrong with so called Pakistani industry. Enjoying protection, after 28 years production of what is a simple model, not too differant from what was being made 60 years ago in second rate European countries like Poland. Yet even now they have achieved only 70% indigenous production.

Like I have said before these so called industries are nothing but rackets. In fact I would categorize these industries, in particular the large concerns in Karachi as "legal bhattas" . Holding an entire country of 190 million as hostage, cartels enjoying legal monopoly to fleece the customer with shoddy product - the customer of course having no choice to go anywhere else.

The cartels are unholy alliances involving :-

(i) foreign companies who get to earn profits from the products that they stopped making three decades ago in rest of the world. In this instance Suzuki.

(ii) Local employees - who use the employment as 'welfare benefits'. No real competition. Shoddy work practices. Lazy work routine reflecting low productivity. The unions and managers connected up with local political parties (in Karachi this being MQM mafia) make sure jobs are protected and given to their favourites. Jobs are sold. In return for payment and or connections a regular income is assured. This means most jobs will go to within the MQM fraternity. Indeed chances are a illegal migrant from India will stand more chance to get a job in these cartels then somebody from the north. This is most unfair as the cartels milk the entire country but then make sure the benefits accrue only to their local community. This applies to all cartels including PIA.

(iii) These cartels have bought out political power and any attempt at change is difficult as they use street power and their connections to frustrate change. We saw this in PIA, K-Electric and same applies to the auto industry.

How bad the Pakistani customer is being fleeced? How much of his hard earned money is keeping these lazy workers who are nothing but parasites fed? Some of that money doubt going to India as remittances.

Well this piece (below) of junk apparently costs £5,065. I used this site > http://www.paksuzuki.com.pk/automobile/pages/allpricesautomobile.aspx

For £5,490 in UK you can buy Romanian made Dacia Sandero

This Dacia is made in Romania. Transported across whole of Europe. Sold in one of the richest markets in the world. Subjected to very strict legal safety requirements and yet it is on sale for almost the same as Mehrani is sold in Karachi, the city where it is made in. Is there something wrong here? Does that tell you what pelf is going on under the 'guise' of industry?

That is why it is time CPEC opened up Pakistan to Chinese industry. This would create sufficient political pressure (from China) that would force the Pak establishment to start dismanting these 'bhattas'. Nobody defends the criminal bhatta groups on the grounds that it gives employment to people. Well there is not much differance here, although I would say the legal bhattas are worse because they prevent genuine competive industry from emerging.

Any Indian members here who could shed light on what £5,000 buys on the car market in India?

@Sinopakfriend @AndrewJin @Nilgiri @flamer84

Thanks for the post and tag, and yes Pakistan needs to sorely break its cartel here for sure, especially to get the relevant auto MSME clusters that have been a lifesaver for India's manufacturing (as mediocre as that sector overall has been thus far compared to potential).

Replacing the mehran with alto is just a cosmetic thing. There needs to be sustained competition from many producers.

In answer to your question, for 5000 UK pounds, thats about 4 lakh INR in India. For that price vicinity the most popular models would be the Renault KWID, maruti suzuki alto, hyundai EON, Datsun Go, Tata Tiago all with plenty of extra options from base models (which start around 2/3rds of that price). You can also get base models of: chevy spark, datsun go plus, suzuki wagon, hyundai i10, chevy beat, ford figo and fiat punto I believe to name a few. All of these manufactured locally.

 

[pak-marine]

Appeal to thy in control .. your highness cant we have pak bmw not fussy we will be happy with pak peageot even

 

[Bashido]

Please Dar Sahab Replace Suzuki with Renault now Please



Hideous... Ugly.. Box kinda thing

I think renault twingo is best option. Best mileage .... usually my twingo on Autobahn gives me 100km/5.3l... great driving experience much better than pakistani kabbaar