Im one of those few lucky people who had a chance to intoduce QUALIS and later on INNOVA too in the Indian maket scenario. Initially I was doing road shows and all sorts of promotional campaigns
as was working with a sub-dealer(sales only) in Hisar called Supreme Toyota with its main branch
being GLOBE TOYOTA in Karnal. Infact I have been a avid fan of TOYOTA vehicles when I saw them
operating in Afghanistan during the war times. TOYOTA entered Indian market in 1997 and lauched
its first product "QUALIS" in 2000. I never doubted the superiority of TOYOTA vehicles especially in
diesel segment. As I drived QUALIS while doing road shows for it in the Distt. of Hisar, Rohtak, Sirsa
Bhiwani and Kaithal, my feeling of being such comfortable while driving was simply great. As skeptical as ever it took a while for Qualis to prove its trustworthiness for Indian cost concious
customers. Though it was criticised for its looks and many people felt that TOYOTA had chosen the
wrong vehicle for entering Indian market. But my passion for both TOYOTA and QUALIS enhanced
by leaps and bounds even after leaving my job with the sub dealer.The competitors at the time QUALIS was launched were mainly Tata Sumo and Mahindra & Mahindra’s Bolero.
As Qualis captured Indian customer’s preference giving full value for money, the Sumo’s and
Bolero’s were left way behind and MUV segment was created as contemplated by TOYOTA.
The call centre and Delhi Police PCR boom saw the sale of Qualis growing day by day and when
General Motors announced its intentions of entering MUV sement by TAVERA, the sale of Qualis had touched an all time high with TOYOTA appointing 3S Dealers network.
In the second phase when I had a chance to work
with Galaxy TOYOTA in New Delhi, TOYOTA announced its plans of stopping QUALIS manufacturing to introduce INNOVA. This sudden development took everyone by surprise as at that
particular time QUALIS was selling like hot cakes. Infact after driving INNOVA I instantly knew that
TOYOTA had provided the next generation car and it stopped Qualis because of promoting INNOVA
TOYOTA had done something of which a majority of people considered a bad decision including me. But it was also great news for car market as TOYOTA was giving the luxury of a sedan for just a
few more bugs in the form of INNOVA. Infact there is no doubt that INNOVA was better in each and
every thing as compared to Qualis. Though it took a while to wipe off the image that had been
created of QUALIS in Indian customers mind and now the QUALIS story is repeating itself as
INNOVA sales have been growing constantly. But even till date one cannot ignore the repricurtion of
withdrawal of Qualis decision as almost 90% of taxi operators to whom I sold INNOVA asked me
the first question on meeting them that Why was Qualis stopped ? It was a blessing in disguise for
the competitors as it gave a chance to Tavera to bide more time for settling in market and ofcourse
Tata who had introduced the Victa model of Sumo at that point of time and had Qualis been there
in market, it would not have given these brands breathing space to build on the market. But one cannot deny this fact that INNOVA is modelled for changing times in the growing Indian car market.
As again I had to leave my job for some personal reasons, even till date TOYOTA vehicles have been my passion for I want to see it conquer the position of No. 1 in terms of manufacturing cars in
the world where right now its No. 2. Now though im still working but in different sector my weakness of caring for TOYOTA still remains. If I would have had my way, I would have introduced
the improved version of QUALIS which was at that time selling in Indonesia by the name of KIJANG and introduced INNOVA a couple of months later as INNOVA is still with times in terms of
technology. I have until now covered the entire story of TOYOTA from 1997 till date and it is depicted
in THREE VOLUMES OF TOYOTA file which I will continue to upgrade until I can do so, but two times I have been lucky enough to get a break in dealer network, and GOD WILLING I will get third time lucky too and this time in TOYOTA KIRLOSKAR MOTORS LTD.
PLEASE EXCUSE ME IF I HAVE OFFENDED ANYBODY BY WRITING THIS VIEW, BUT IT IS STRICTLY PERSONAL AND MY OWN OPINION.
DATED : 09.09.1975
ROHIT YADAV
P.S. Strangely today’s my B’DAY as well.