MAHINDRA COMING TO THE PHILIPPINES: ITS THE INVASION FROM THE SUBCONTINENT

After the entry of Tata Motors early this year, it seems that another Indian car manufacturer is coming to the Philippines. According to Top Gear Philippines, Mahindra Motors will be coming here, bringing with it a range of Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs), 4x4s and Pick-Up Trucks.

Mahindra Motors, or Mahindra and Mahindra is famous for being a manufacturer of rugged no-nonsense SUVs, pick-ups and trucks. It was founded in 1945 and one of its early products was a Willy's Jeep with a Peugeot diesel engine in it. One example was featured on Top Gear: The Worst Car in the History of the World. James May in that show described it as a very real contender for the worst car in the history of the world: “. . . [I]s made from hand me down bits . . . It started life as Willys Jeep . . . when the war was over, the Indians decided that they would keep on making it, only with a few alterations. . .” Anyway, May found the car to have a very poor ride, bare interior and sloppy steering, but it's redeeming feature was that it was very cheap. Of course, Mahindra would soon go on to refine its manufacturing processes and improve its products' quality.

Here is a screencap taken from that film.

In other words, Mahindra pretty much started like our car industry: cobbling together owner jeeps and jeepneys with secondhand and refurbished parts sourced from junkyards.

According to the Top Gear report, Mahindra will be testing the waters with the Xylo which is a practical MPV and the Bolero. The Bolero is what I'm really excited about—it looks like a good ol' rough a tumble four wheel drive. The specs confirm it:

Bolero Specifications from Mahindra Bolero

We see that the Bolero is a no nonsense 4x4—Manual transmission, 2.5 Liter Diesel engine, ordinary window winders on some models and look! No power steering on the low end model. Joy of joys. Now, you can truly boast to your friends that you get all the exercise you need from just driving.

Competition

Tata is being imported by the Taj Autogroup and has showrooms in Marikina City, Rizal Province, Davao City and with more showrooms to be opened in Quezon City and in Cagayan de Oro. Mahindra on the other hand, will be imported by an affiliate of the Peugeot distributor (I guess Mahindra and Peugeot go way back), so we should expect to see some competition between the two brands. This is all good because there is nothing better than a bit of healthy competition.

A Tata Manza Spotted on East Avenue, cor. EDSA last July 14, 2014

Picture courtesy of Kristelle Marie Gonzales

The Indians gave us a choice

These cars are competitively priced. They cost less than their Korean and Japanese equivalent, though slightly more than the Chinese and they are of good quality. Plus, they have heritage, one example is the Hindustan Ambassador, they have been making that car for years and it is the darling of Taxicabs—it was inspired by the Morris Oxford, and they have been making it in the same way ever since.

Hindustan Ambassador in a race against other Taxis

Lets look at it from this perspective: Indian cars are like British cars, only tougher. Oh ok, maybe it isn't like that at all, but cars like the Hindustan Ambassador trace their origins to the old Morris. Theirs newer cars like Jaguar and Land Rover, are quite literally British.

On toughness and durability, Indian roads are some of the worst in the world.  I bet their traffic is horrible, the roads are in disrepair.  Their cars have to face extremes of heat and cold, they have to be able to climb steep mountain passes and navigate a maze of urban slums.  An Indian car has to be tough to go through that and simple--you can fix it "with a brick and a piece of string" and a hammer.

I said that Indian cars are competitively priced, so while I can't get the exact price list, the entire suite of Tata cars available for sale in the Philippines is between P550,000 to P750,000. Thats at most P750,000 for the Tata Sumo Gold. Thats a bargain.

Furthermore, China does not really use diesel engines in their cars (trucks like the Foton Blizzard and the JBC are exceptions), but the Indians love diesel, heck they even have a Toyota Vios. Anyway, this is what the Manila Times says about Tata's diesel program:

“TATA Motors is an expert in diesel engines, a result of its trucks predating the brand’s cars by decades. These days, Tata is the planet’s fourth-biggest seller of commercial vehicles. These run on diesel.”

Anyway, Tata is going to export some diesel Manzas here, so that is something to look forward to. Hmmm, I wonder if Tata is going to make buyers sign a contract with buyers prohibiting them from using their cars as Taxis just like Honda, I hope not. They can be the next Isuzu Gemini. Mahindra also has a long tradition of diesel as well, so I'm sure that these two firms, Mahindra and Tata are fairly close to each other in quality

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In other news, the July 22, 2014 issue of Manila Times featured a Filipino-Japan partnership to manufacture electric cars. From what I understand from the report, it seems that this new company is set to assemble/manufacture electric cars here in the Philippines. It also has the option of selling the chassis only. This is a boon for backyard manufacturers—we can have a coachbuilding renaissance using this set-up.

I also hope they go into hybrids, Tesla style, because thats the only way we can popularize eco technology in a roadtrip which involves belting up the Kennon road and the Caticlan Zigzag road as of now.

Update 10/15/14

Mahindra was recently featured in the news.  Apparently, it won a bid to supply the PNP with 560 brand new Patrol Jeeps.  Mahindra won the bid at Php895,000 per unit, or lower than the Php900,000 per unit allocation of the PNP.  PNP is currently conducting tests and if they like it, then they will likely proceed with the purchase:

[Director Francisco Uyami, PNP Directorate for Research and Development,] clarified that the PNP has not yet bought the units and is still subjecting the vehicles to test their functionality and durability.
He said the functionality test of the vehicles began on Monday in Camp Crame and is expected to last for three days including a long distance drive to test the vehicles’ durability.

He added that they were done in dimensional test in Subic, Zambales, which includes speed tests, break tests and ascension tests. Next will be subjecting these to a long distance drive.

The patrol jeeps will be driven for 1,500 km from Manila to Baguio and will be brought to rugged areas in the Kalinga, with a full load of 1,200 kilos representing 13 passengers.

These jeeps are most likely Boleros, like the one I briefly commented on above.  And I expect the Bolero to simply dance through the PNP tests, they having survived worse conditions in India.  Let us just hope that "Daang Matuwid" would carry the day and Mahindra would not need to line the pockets of yet more Directors and Officials, after all, 560 brand new jeeps will go a long way into making the Philippine Police force, a more credible and effective police force.

Again, the Bolero is going to be sold to the Government at P895,000.00.  In other words, that is a great big diesel SUV at the price of a compact sedan.  Not a bad deal.

In other news, it seems that Tata is pushing its Tata Indigo as a livery vehicle.  Again, this is a good move since the areas in which an Indian vehicle is expected to excel is in its durability and reliability

The Tata Indigo Taxi

Source:  Top Gear Philippines

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