We have Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland as homegrown survivors from the onslaught, while Standard Motors, Premier Automobiles and Hindustan Motors have perished.
BHPian anjan_c2007 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Having homegrown, domestic automobile brands that are not only surviving, but flourishing need to make us proud. More so, the Indian car industry mainly was caged and immune to any foreign competition and onslaught till the mid-1990s. Earlier, in the two-wheeler segment, the competition heated up by the mid-1980s. This is when two-wheeler majors like API, Ideal Jawa Ltd and Scooters India Ltd and its off-shoots (or tributaries??) along with other smaller players felt the heat. They all perished either within a few years or a decade or so. Bajaj Auto, TVS and Royal Enfield endured and grew in strength.
Coming to the car scenario, we have Mahindra&Mahindra, Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland as homegrown survivors from the onslaught, while Standard Motors, Premier Automobiles and Hindustan Motors have perished.
The above list of survivors and ‘RIP’ ones are strictly based on the pre-liberalisation scenario to classify an automaker as a homegrown brand. Johnny comes lately as Maruti and others can hence be excluded.
After this background information, coming to the topic the questions posed in this thread are:
- Do you feel a sense of National pride to see flourishing, homegrown brands? You need not own one, but our own brand surviving could give many of us a sense of pride.
- Do you vouch for quality irrespective of the automaker being Indian or foreign?
- Do you feel that the influx of foreign brands makes no difference to your mindset?
- Or you prefer to remain undecided?
Please cast your vote in the poll featured above. Check out the results of the same, here.
The U. K. has only a few upmarket homegrown brands that have survived the 1970s and 80s crises that saw their several decade-old, homegrown brands of commuter cars annihilated. There were multiple reasons but the most important one was the lack of a top leader at the helm, as visionary. The thread link discusses facts behind the downfall of U. K. with views from many members.
In Germany, US, France and Italy and Sweden, homegrown brands continue to lug on and flourish, though some are under foreign management.
Summarising, if your homegrown automobile brands get weak for any reason, knocking at your doors are the Japanese, South Korean and lately Chinese brands, who are ready to fill the vacuum.
Here’s what GTO had to say on the matter:
Yes, seeing Tata & Mahindra do what they do makes me incredibly proud because:
They are fighting with the best global car companies, and even beating them in many segments. The fact is, Tata & Mahindra have a fair share of best-in-class products (e.g. Altroz, XUV700).
Before, they used to fight & sell just on price or value (e.g. Indica, Bolero). Today, cars like the Nexon, Thar, XUV700, Scorpio-N, Safari etc. are selling well even with a premium price.
That being said, we shouldn’t buy a car just because it is from an Indian company. MNCs like Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Kia & others also employ thousands of Indians, invest thousands of crores in India, engage with thousands of vendors & greatly contribute to this country’s economy.
Here’s what BHPian Turbohead had to say on the matter:
This answer might piss off a lot of people.
We’ve certainly come a long way and I’m happy about that – the XUV 7OO, for example, is a leader in its class since it’s an all-rounder. Tata and Mahindra are doing rather well.
But here’s the problem – our vehicles are performing extremely well against watered-down international products. Basically, if the foreign brands brought out their international portfolio to India, our Tata’s and Mahindra’s would largely remain ignored in their current state.
Honestly, the tax structures and stuff are holding back our manufacturers from bringing out the very best we have to offer but they are there for a reason i.e creation of jobs.
We have a really long way to go and this heightened sense of pride in our homegrown brands that I see in society today is a side effect of the nationalistic rhetoric coming out from the political arena which is beyond the scope of the thread and forum but something our manufacturers have ridden the wave very well.
The only way you can say that our homegrown brands have made it is when the international market warms up to our products instead of the well-established brands. I’m thinking Hyundai has taken the game to Honda and Toyota in a big way compared to pre-2007.
Our brands can definitely do it but right now, there’s nothing to be actually proud of.
Here’s what BHPian Nithesh_M had to say on the matter:
No. If anything we must learn from other countries especially the UK whose local manufacturers were selling subpar unreliable machines to people in the name of “British engineering” with a nice UK flag on them to fool people into buying them. When people realised they were being fooled in the name of nationalism and that they could buy something that’s more reliable for a better price, the UK-based automotive industries shut down one by one.
When a brand has to use nationalism to sell its products you have to see what they’re hiding behind it. If a product is genuinely good and the manufacturer has a good aftersales reputation it will sell and create goodwill for the manufacturer.
It’s even more repulsive to me when a homegrown manufacturer uses its local political clout to make rubbish rules and hit foreign brands with additional taxes so people don’t have a choice to look elsewhere.
Here’s what BHPian saket77 had to say on the matter:
I don’t have extra soft corners for Indian brands alone but do have the same for quality.
I neither undermine nor back Indian (or any foreign brands) for the matter. I look for reliability and quality of the product. And India is capable of producing high-quality stuff and hence I am not surprised if I come across one- be it auto-related or any general product. The good thing is that Indian companies can provide good quality products at a more ‘value for money price point compared to foreign brands due to localization, saving on customs, import duty etc.
But when it comes to something extraordinary, eg. space missions, difficult rescue operations, innovations, or achievements of the first kind; then yes; I feel a great sense of pride for my country. (& not because some giant company’s CEO or some International politician has Indian roots etc.)
Here’s what BHPian shankar.balan had to say on the matter:
I am extremely happy about this. For example, across the family, we’ve had and/ or used some Mahindra or others for many years.
I am happy that Mahindra has done a great job with its latest generation of vehicles. And I’m happy to have put down my money time and again to buy these, the Bolero, the Scorpio and now the Thar.
Buying a Maruti is also as good as buying an Indian since Suzuki India is more or less almost all Indian.
It’s sad that Premier, HM, Sipani and all couldn’t succeed. But in some measure that was the same malaise that gripped the British Auto Industry through the 1970s, 1980’s and 1990s – constant strikes and agitations, complacency, zero innovation, poor Management Policy and poor Relations between Management and Workers.
Keyword: Tata & Mahindra flourishing among foreign competition: A proud feeling?