For decades Maruti and some other local brands have sold cars so well only by cracking ultimate Indian consumer’s final question to a sales pitch as to ‘what if my car breaks down in middle of no where’. Maruti retorts with expanded chest that one gets the ‘Mistry’ for their cars even in a village miles away from town. However they never explains as to why the largest number of cars stranded on roads are theirs always. Indians don’t appreciate reliability as a concept which must be at top of the priority while buying. They just don’t know why and how to confidently rely on the quality which promises to rarely fail unless they are riding a aeroplane which never needs a ‘Mistry’ on way. In 15 years of continuous use I never saw even once my two Hondas ever stopping midway looking for help. So goes for Volkswagen or Hyundai I assume. But people love to have Mistry ready looking for a car to break down. Those who make cars below mediocrity but forget to price not so mediocrely, thrive.
Work from home and city traffic
We had some opportunity to decongest the cities when Covid made us test 'work from home' successfully. Continuing with that with necessary tweaks could have brought transformational change to how we productively contribute to growth while relieving roads sans unneeded commuters. However short sightedness of corporates and triggered by some so called respected business leaders made us lose that opportunity. Govt should now reconsider to enforce such practices for some industries like software along with bringing in staggered office timing to save the cities.
Buying car of a local brand?
Never fall for buying some inferior products for sake of your love for country unless you have enormous money which you can easily forgo for patriotism. If it is your hard earned money and car being an aspirational possession, one deserves best what a consumer anywhere in world could buy.
Do thorough research on not just popular brands and models but their track record of after sale services and more importantly quality of the manufacturing and work ethics at the shop floor where faulty designs, casual workmanship and loose superintendence could result in bringing out substandard product.
Some local brands spend disproportionally high on PR for some reason.
Global brands operating here too are as much Indian as these claimants are in terms of material used and manpower. What separates is the quality of even tightening of a small bolt somewhere and the organisational discipline.