Maruti cars and influence in Indian lifestyle

In 1897, in Calcutta, the first car of India drove through the roads. It was just a beginning, a very slow one but later it gathered its pace. Until 1930 India has only imported cars. In 1928 general Motors started a plant in Bombay for assembling cars and later in 1930 Ford Motor Co started one in Madras. From onwards even after independence there was not much boom in the industry. The overall Indian passenger vehicle market was not as good as the affordability is limited to certain hands only. Also, there were a lot of restrictions by the government to let other companies to come and start their manufacturing units in India.

1982, a historic year for the Indian automobile industry as that was the year in which the joint venture of Maruti Udyog Limited and japan car maker Suzuki has signed. 80’s were a blooming period in India as job opportunities were increasing, people wanted to have the luxury. Maruti Suzuki, understanding the pulse of the market introduced Maruti 800, which is a small family car. Maruti 800 become a status symbol in a very short time and started the revolution in the automobile industry. For a decade Maruti had no competitors other than Ambassador and Premier Padmini, but both are of different models. This helped Maruti to gain market percentage very easily.

Maruti builds trust in the family for delivering what exactly they need like Omni, Maruti 1000 and more. Within a decade, people in India start wishing for new and more for affordability and trust was Maruti's slogan. In 1993 Licence raj(restrictions on other national companies to start manufacturing in India) was removed and that triggered the actual revolution. Maruti Suzuki will always be remembered as the company that nurtured the dreams of a population to have luxury standards.

By the mid 90’s Daewoo, Hyundai came into India and the competition started. The Indian population has an affinity towards hatchback/small cars for a few years. Hatchback cars are one of the major percentage of cars sold yearly. Even with competitors Maruti Suzuki led the race from the front and in 1997 introduced the facelift Maruti 800 into the market. To date Maruti had introduced about 33 models and in which 20 models are discontinued. But Maruti always tried to reintroduce the favourite models of its customers with the new demands of the people.

Maruti’s chain of dealership and service network is always appreciable as they are adding up around 500 new outlets every year to provide the best service for the customers.

Maruti is always successful in delivering cars of the time for its customers with persistent advancement in design, utility, and technology. Maruti has models in all segments to cater as in Hatchback, SUVs, Van, Sedan, MUV and Cross over. With the constant improvisation in par with time and technology, Maruti always in the front line to address people's needs. These combined strategies helped Maruti to have more than 50% of the market share even then more than 12 leading players are in the market.

From 2017, the automobile industry has been facing a major drop down in the market. Many factors affected the drop as new BS6 norms, fuel price surges and new taxation. But as a leader Maruti comes with a new model in the entry-level of SUV with a competitive price. From the introduction of Maruti S-presso, a significant boom is reflected in the market and other brands got the confidence to invest more in the segment.

Conclusion

As we started with a question as to how Maruti influenced Indian lifestyle and we can list done some key factors

• Affordable and economical vehicles
• Created an industrial revolution in the automobile segment
• Become the root cause for other companies to invest in the Indian market
• Constantly improved the Market by introducing new models and facilities
• The network of dealerships and service stations for efficient Customer service
• Different channels for a variety of customer base as Arena, NEXA, True value