According to latest news reports, Hero Honda(No.1) and Honda(No.2) are top sellers of two wheelers in India. Bajaj is third and TVS comes fourth. HMSI overtook TVS and Bajaj within few months.
Bajaj saga: Bajaj got very good technology, training etc from Kawasaki.Pulsar and CT100 were the firstBajaj products built on Kawasaki’s technology. Based on Kawasaki’s quality and reliability, people bought CT100 created world record and Pulsar was the pulse of Indian biking. Instead of improving minor shortcomings Bajaj after sometime packed their bikes with low quality parts, Bajaj didn’t bother about Gearbox / Clutch problems at all. Bajaj also launched too many models with sole purpose of leading the market. Bajaj got the lessons and now there’s no going back, people have lost faith in Bajaj brand and will sink to danger level with next 6 months.
TVS saga: Well, Fiero FX/Fiero F2 built by TVS using Suzuki technology was no match to the original Fiero. Victor was a very succesful model with small issues. TVS after snatching from Suzuki is doing very badly in bike making. With good R and D, the out puts are not at all note worthy. The Apache150 came out with huge hype, it won 7 bike of the year awards, the overall bike was so bad that very next year it was shelved off. Flame, Star and RTR are very low quality bikes with good advertisements and offers. TVS was one of the first companies to implement high quality systems in their factories, but bikes from TVS doesn’t show that they are good at quality.
Both TVS and Bajaj are thriving on people who cannot pay entire money upfront at dealers. Both offer attractive finance schemes and con the poor customers. A newspaper report says that 75% people buying Honda product walk-in with full cash, whereas 75% walk into TVS/Bajaj showroom for finance schemes.
Hondas will become undisputed in near and mid term, and in the long term, Suzuki and Yamaha will force both TVS and Bajaj to close their shops. Already Bajaj and TVS are facing pressure from dealers regarding inventory and profitability.
Now what was government’s intention? Govt. wanted Indian auto industry to thrive for ever, they made foriegn companies to partner with Indian counterpart so that there is level playing in competition thus favouring Indian auto companies and small scale industries.
But what have Bajaj and TVS achieved? With time they got profit oriented, and not bike oriented, hence will be forced to get out of business. There are thousands of people riding poor quality bikes made by these companies. Many bought the products with their hearts saying "Be Indian Buy Indian", but surely these companies have let us down. TVS and Bajaj have RnDs with high tech brains from IITs, but still deacdes old trustworthy technology of Japan makes sense even today. The fall of TVS and Bajaj will also mean that Indian Engineers have failed to make sensible improvements in the art of bike making, which is real shame.
The next one year will be very important for Bajaj and TVS, the number gaps will just increase and it would be better if the new buyers stay away from bikes of Bajaj/TVS. Afterall Yamaha/Honda/Suzuki bikes are all made in India and by Indian hands. So think about it, don’t read this review after an year with regret!