No A-Class For Indian Market, Merc Confirms.

[350Z]

A lot of people were excited and speculations were floating around in news channels, TV shows etc that Mercedes India will "soon" launch their cheapest model in India - The A-Class hatchback. However, Today an official spokesperson from MBIL has confirmed that there are no plans to launch A-Class. Personally, I believe this move to be a sensible one, Mercedes currently holds its image as a "Luxury car-maker" and better it remains as it is. Also, We all know that even if A-Class came to India, The price won't be any dearer either, I was expecting it to be a Jazz rival, or maybe even pricier than it?



Drive Safe,
350Z

 

[cooldhaya]

A good move maybe , because we Indians wont be spending more than maybe 6-7Lakhs for a Hatch and this one here will be definitely more than this range!

 

[Akash]

Exactly. I dont think pricey(10+) hatches will have great future in india as of now. Example of Jazz is known to all. The car which one numerous awards and sold in good numbers in other countries couldnt do quite well in india.

 

[Umang]

But guys I wonder if they would have launched the A-Class and priced it somewhere near Jazz then I'm sure atleast a few people would have definetly gone for it because of Mercedes Benz Three Pointed star which stands for status symbol truly but if youpersonally ask me, I will never pay more than Rs.5 Lakhs for such a small car.

 

[JammyD]

Mercedes is like Sony is in Electronics. Even if they wanted to, they cannot keep the price cheap as that will damage their image. Brand value is something they cannot ignore.

Eventually, it might offer less for more price and end up a failure. We are seeing what is happening with Jazz. A great car ending up as a failure. These guys do a lot of market study and would have found out some facts about how the Indian market responds.

It is good that they decided against it. Mercedes is Luxury and it better be like that.

If I remember, sometime back they decided not to introduce a LPG enabled luxury car in India since they did not want a Mercedes customer to wait in a queue with autos for filling gas. That, according to them, would have damaged their image. This is how serious they are about their image.

 

[350Z]

That is correct and this is how a responsible car-maker should be, As I said in first post that Merc has made it's image in India as a Luxury car maker. So sure, They won't prefer to go down than it and juggle in volumes with hatchbacks, If they launch any car in small segment, It'll come at a premium just to maintain "Exclusivity" and some people will still have complete faith on it and would definitely prefer choosing one and why not? It is a three pointed star after all. Another comparable example to this would be Honda Siel, Their cars come at a premium but still sell like hot cakes in a country which is popularly known as "cost conscious" Surprise?

Drive Safe,
350Z