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First Ford Escort vanished. Opel Astra will be next. Are the lifecycles of car sub-brands shortening? By Ananya Roy
The Ambassador still runs. The Maruti 800, launched in December 1983, still sells-and in impressive numbers too (40,777 units in the first quarter of 2003-04). These are classics, and India seems almost romantically inclined to extend their longevity as four-wheeled transportation vehicles (okay, cars, if you insist). That is also the reason that news of any car's proposed phase-out is treated with justified disbelief. So what does one make of General Motors India's decision to phase out the 1996-launched Opel Astra? Reaction one: this couldn't be happening. A car once launched stays launched. Reaction two: welcome to the real world. Ford Escort withdrew. So will others. Global trends-and a reasonable feel for market reality---would tilt you towards the second reaction. But to jump from this reaction to the conclusion that car sub-brands are in for crashing lifecycles would, quite frankly, be absurd. Two sub-brands, Escort and Astra, do not form a big enough sample to suggest anything of the sort. Second, both these cases form a uniquely paired story of lousy market entries, subsequently outclassed by latter-day launches that took firmer hold of yuppie mindspace: the Ford Ikon and Opel Corsa. Take Ford. Its global seller Escort hit the market in 1996, retro-adapted to suit Indian road and petrol conditions. The 1.3-litre model was soon seen as 'underpowered', and the 1.6-litre alternative remained just another sedan, with vaguely differing interpretations. It sold on prestige for a few months. But by 1998, it was sputtering. General Motors had better success with its global hotseller Opel Astra, which tom-tommed its 'German engineering' heritage to generate interest, but had to resort to one retouch job after another to keep flagging sales from going limp. The decline took longer in the making, but when it came, post 2001, Astra lost its radiance in a matter of months. Needless to say, neither Ford nor GM are crushed by the failure to re-ignite interest in those two sub-brands. The Indian market, as they discovered, needed cars that were adapted to local conditions right from the drawing board stage-not the much-touted global hotsellers. So in came Ford Ikon, the 'josh machine', and Opel Corsa, the attention-getter, and established themselves firmly as cars with character. Are these likely to suffer a phase-out like the Escort and Astra? Not if their marketers keep the sub-brands charged up and relevant to the market.
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