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
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.
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
#
# #
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:
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
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