Gm Drives In Chevrolet Beat To Take On Small Cars

[nisarnadaf]

 

 

 

 

 

Chevrolet Beat.

 

The mini car is priced aggressively under Rs 400,000 to take on Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai Motor. The two are India's largest and second largest carmakers by volumes, respectively. Beat sports a 1,200 cc petrol engine with the base model priced at Rs 3.34 lakh and going up to Rs 3.94 lakh for the top variant (ex-showroom, New Delhi). Chevrolet Beat will take on contemporaries -- A-Star, Swift, Ritz, Santro, i10, Getz and i20 -- in a market where small cars constitute 78 per cent of the two million cars sold per year.

 

"The Beat will be our highest seller this year after Spark, which sold 45,000 units last year. We expect to easily breakthrough the 100,000 unit sales mark in 2010," president and managing director of GM India Karl Slym told a press conference.

 

Beat is the company's second car under GM's global 300 series platform after the Cruze sedan, which was introduced in September last year. GM India sold about 70,000 units in 2009, Slym said. It already sells two other small cars -- the Spark and the Aveo U-VA in the Indian market.

 

"A diesel version of Beat will be rolled out later this year," Slym said. The carmaker will also start exports of the hatchback to European and A s i a - Pa c i f i c markets by the end of the year, totaling retail in about 150 countries.

 

Beat is manufactured with 60 per cent local content, and within the first year Slym expects localisation to go up to 90 per cent.

 

"The Talegaon factory will go on a second shift this year with the introduction of the Beat," Slym said. The Talegaon factory has a capacity of producing 140,000 cars annually.

 

Other top global carmakers Toyota Motor, Volkswagen and Ford Motor are also set to storm in with their compact cars this year. The local car unit of Suzuki already sells six hatchbacks, holding almost two-third of the Indian car market.

[amtz.zero]

I wouldn't drive that.

[P71_CrownVic]

I wouldn't drive that.

 

I wouldn't drive any of these small, b-class POS rollerskates.

 

They all look like crap, don't get that great of mileage (Fiesta gets the same mileage as the c-class Cruze), and they're too expensive for what you get (a death trap).

[Nytemare]

Didn't they use that car in Transformers 2?? Or were those two small cars aveo's?

[unit731]

This is a truck forum.

 

Big or little guys/gals with large trucks.

 

GM has to remain competitive and small cars are part of this.

 

There is a market for a small fuel efficient car. Look at the original Volkswagen. They sold a kazillion of them. Even when gas was cheap.

 

Make a good cheap car and people will buy them.

 

Look in history what Ford did with the Falcon. Put a new body on it and call it a Mustang. They sold a kazillion of them. Falcon, at the time, was the smallest Ford on US market. Exclude the Cortina and other imports of that time.

[jro909]

Didn't they use that car in Transformers 2?? Or were those two small cars aveo's?

 

 

 

yes they were the steryotypical african american autobots lol

[Nytemare]

The thing looks hideous though....I do however like the wheels.

 

The Volt is actually starting to grow on me...but for 32K Canadian to start...for an electric cobalt....screw that.

[AlenWoods]

ahaha. i like the steering wheel and thats about it...

[daylower]

i bet those headlights are expensive to replace

[RyanbabZ71]

The color is hideous but I bet it would be a good back and forth to work vehicle.

[unit731]

The color is hideous but I bet it would be a good back and forth to work vehicle.

 

 

Well, I had 4 Chevettes. Two new and two used. I loved them all. And I am not a small guy. I fit into these cars and the seats were not uncomfortable.

 

I was living in the city/suburbs and had a good commute. These little Chevettes could scoote around traffic and easy to park in the city.

 

I say take as much of the electonic crap off of these new small cars - but put a decent radio in - put a low/reasonable price tag on them and GM will sell a bunch.

 

But I worry about the management at the new GM LLC. And the idiot hipster dufus marketing types at GM LLC will screw the whole thing up with odd ball color and too much content and price the small car out of the small car market. Or worse, source it in Korea with the cheap rusting steel and crap fading plastic that the Koreans use.

 

A good idea and a good car. Hope GM LLC doesn't screw it all up before it is born.