Courtesy: Anand Mahindra's twitter feed
To give a bit a little bit of background: Renault India recently announced that it is thinking of restructuring the 49:51 partnership it has with Mahindra to manufacture and sell the Logan. As many of us already know, the joint venture hasn't been much profitable Mahindra Renault reported a decline of 48% in sales during FY 2008-09, the partnership also posted a loss of Rs 490.21 crore on a gross turnover of Rs 741.17 crore during 2008-09.
Renault has had problems with the Indian partner since day one regarding the Logan. A little known fact is that the Logan was virtually recalled hours after the launch, when a gentleman found that the car was not accelerating fully. The trouble was that when Mahindra took the measurements of the Logan carpet, they over looked the fact that the car had to be converted to right hand drive for India. And so the recess on the floor for the pedals were practically covered up due to the wrong measurements of the carpet! When this was told to Renault at the launch, the french were bewildered and ordered all dealerships to 'stop sales' until further notice. Mahindra eventually rectified the problem, before it leaked out to the public domain. .And so its no brainer for Renault, who has already established their brand in India to break free.
The twitter conversation between Anand Mahindra and the other person goes like this:
MrX: read a piece of news..mahindra renault JV in jeopardy..got scared abt my car logan
A Mahindra: We always stand behind our products
MrX: Yes, it would be kinda dangerous standing in FRONT of your products :))
A Mahindra: Haha true.Esp if it was a scorpio!
lol. Just look at the irony. (The Scorpio too isn't a great product, contrary to popular belief)
great read...
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