Logan sales defy gravity to rise after months of fall

M&M, after taking over the responsibility of the Logan in India have shown the first signs of recovery in sales of this practical car. The Logan faced over five months of continuous fall but has recorded its first rise in May 2010. Mahindra’s extended marketing and price revisions seem to have worked a bit. M&M sold as many as 450 units in May compared to 303 in April and 351 in March.  December 2009 was the lowest month of sales with the Logan selling just 272 units.

Its been 50 days since Mahindra took over MRPL and M&M say that they have witnessed a substantial increase in enquiries and an equally impressive booking rate for the Logan in the past few weeks. The differences in the JV had badly hit Logan’s sales and now that the car is back on track, we can see a rise in sales.

“Earlier, people were really unsure about the future of the company which makes the Logan, as was evident from their questions, but now the enquiries are more related to the car. Billing has gone up substantially in the past few weeks, despite there not being any major engineering changes made to the car,” said Rajesh Jejurikar, chief of operations.

Mahindra will not leave the sales there, as they plan to sell 600-700 units a month in the next three months gradually increasing that figure to over 1000 by the end of this year. Keep your eyes open for a new advertising campaign that will hit the screens very shortly. “In the last six to eight months, there was no campaign for the product at all. It was essential that we give the assurance to our buyers about the reliability of the product and the company, which will help clear a lot of doubts and uncertainties,” added Jejurikar.

Within a week of taking over MRPL, Mahindra slashed the prices by up to Rs 80,000 not due to cutting equipment but through rationalisation efforts at the Nashik plant. The Logan presently has low levels of localisation and the entire powetrain is imported. Mahindra will concentrate on increasing the localisation levels to bring the cost down further. Renault have started localising the K9K powerplant and that should give lower the costs but the biggest reduction will come in the form of a shortened Logan that we scooped months ago. A sub-4000mm Logan will really hit the sweet spot. Mahindra have promised a refreshed Logan for 2011 and this might just be it.

Source