Allen but one of the good ones

You know... the nicest car I've ever owned (state of current model aside, that's totally self-inflicted through rough treatment and neglect) is my Mahindra. They're excellent vehicles, extremely affordable, well-built, and very popular - it's gotten extremely rare to do a school run or pop out to the shops without seeing several on every journey.

And yet... the motoring press acts like they don't exist. The occasional rare "Just run the press release as it is" announcement of a new model is about all you ever see.

Meanwhile, we get full articles and reviews on chinese cars that aren't even on sale yet, that don't even have published prices. How does that work? Does Mahindra just not worry much about that kind of marketing?

Nov 11 at 7:51amWeb
Show threadAllen but one of the good onesNov 11

"What do you mean by affordable?"

Well. I have a big family. I drive a 7 seater SUV because I need all seven seats (and if we're taking any luggage, I have to hook up a trailer). So my car is a big turbodiesel that takes up a lot of space, although that's entirely relative - it was just about the biggest thing on local roads when it was built in 2013, now it's slightly below average.

It has all the bells and whistles. All the luxuries. One of those cars where they make a fuss about how many speakers it has, and which company they bought them from. Heated this, electric that, very nice. And yet... the cheapest on the market in its class. By a LOT.

Even the very cheapest of the new chinese SUVs is still about 10% more expensive. 3 years ago, it was HALF the price of the next cheapest car with the same passenger capacity.

And for some reason the resale value isn't great, so you can get a still-good used one for cheaper than a basic city runabout.

Maybe that's the marketing strategy. Stop trying to impress automotive press who will write 4 paragraphs about how aggressively masculine the shoulderline is (whatever that means), and just sell good cars that people can afford.

Show threadKevin Karhan Nov 11

@uastronomer yes and no.

Not shure if #Mahindra even tries to comply with #EuroNCAP or even.has a singoe importer in the #EU.

  • Cuz #Tata didn't even try to market the #nano outside of #India and it's direct neihhbours sans *"P.R." China…

#TataNano

Show threadAllen but one of the good onesNov 11

@kkarhan Yeah that's true. I know they sell well in Australia, and Southern Africa (and Australian automotive press actually covers them pretty well).

I seem to recall older models like mine boasting about safety ratings, although I can't see anything on their website for the current models. Interesting. All the features are there - multiple airbags, the various driver aids, 360 cameras, etc, so why no rating?

Show threadAllen but one of the good onesNov 11
@kkarhan Ah. They use India's BharatNCAP and don't bother with EuroNCAP because they're not in that market.
Show threadKevin Karhan Nov 11

@uastronomer thus they are irrelevant in the global north.

  • Kinda how #China can't sell their #Comag jets because they've yet to get #EASA certification and EASA expects that to take at least another 5, more likely 10 years.
Show threadAllen but one of the good onesNov 11
@kkarhan Agreed. But that still doesn't explain why the local South African motoring press have such a blind spot for them.
Show threadFrank KüselNov 11
@uastronomer That's very interesting. I know someone who has a Mahindra pick-up. He constantly complains about the fact that it keeps breaking, and he can't wait to get rid of it. I've been basing my judgement of Mahindra on that, perhaps wrongly.
Show threadAllen but one of the good onesNov 11
@anagnostes Oh really? Might just be a bad unit... mine has been pretty bullet-proof, I haven't even serviced it in almost 100,000km... with the exception of the tailgate latch and the driver's window regulator, all my failures have been directly related to previous owner abuse or lack of maintenance.
Show threadLeon CowleNov 11

@uastronomer Had to Google it. Looks nice! I left SA before the car brand explosion. So I only knew brands common in Europe and the US at that time (2001), and that's still my only reference point. And things aren't great here in the US. Too much lobbying to keep the protectionism racket going. So we never see the fantastic (and affordable) models coming out of India or China. New car prices have recently crossed an avg of $50k (which was picked up in the press, because it's ridiculously high), which just goes to show what a lack of competition results in. I mean, we have "competition", but only amongst the established brands, and they're stubbornly protecting their turf by not allowing China or India a foothold here.

I very jealously look at the EVs available in Europe (many of which are never released here, even from manufacturers that ARE here), not to mention the incredible ones in China.

And now, several EV models are being cancelled, plans for EV production lines/factories are being scrapped, etc, because of Trump's interference. And because we don't have a functioning competitive market, others can't step in to fill the voids.

Urgh.

With SA being mainly an import market for cars, you have it better in some sense -- no established manufacturing incumbents bribing the govt to keep the status quo. (I know there are many other drawbacks, but that's a pro).