Mohtaram Spectra Sahib spectra,
I'm a die-hard Toyota fan and my favourite line is its Lexus. I'm disappointed by Toyota Altis' performance. It came about in 2008 with a 1.8L engine and a manumatic transmission. Toyota thought that it would be received well by the public. People still preferred the Honda Civic then, for Altis did not attract them despite it being a 1.8 like the Atlas' Honda Civic.
What did Toyota do in 2011? It reduced Altis' engine from 1.8 to 1.6 and took out the manumatic transmission and replaced it with a full auto one. I interviewed a Toyota sales executive then and asked him why had Toyota gone with a step backwards. He told me that the main issue was price, that if they had gone with the same specs then the price of the vehicle would have gone up considerably. He told me that he wanted to make his product more price competitive. I suppose he was referring to making it attractive to the buyer so that he (the buyer) had to pay less as compared to Honda Civic. He was hoping his product to sell well by having a reduced price-tag. It did not happen.
For full three years, from 2008 to 2011, Toyota Altis and Honda Civic were in the same bracket; 1.8L. In those three years, Toyota Altis was not able to compete with Atlas' Honda Civic. It (Altis 1.6L) is still not being able to compete with Honda Civic with its reduced price-tag which was Toyota's original strategy to sell it because it came cheap. I would take Toyota Altis a downright faliure. What's more interesting is that 1.8 Altis did better than 1.6. Indus Motor's strategy of reducing Altis to 1.6 from 1.8 in 2011 was a market failure. People didn't like it. 1.8L Altis has a better resale value than a 1.6 one.
You can gather this fact by going in the used car market addressing the model years 2008 to 2011 for the 1.8L Altis against the Civic and the new 1.6L Altis since 2011. Honda Civic holds its value better amongst users than Altis.
Let's hope that Indus Motors learns from its mistakes and makes the necessary adjustments about its 2014 Corolla. I would like to see competition between the two, for it favours the end user (us).
If Indus comes with a good 1.8L Corolla in 2014 I will go for it, if not and it keeps the field open to Honda then I will go for the Honda Civic. Toyota will lose me as a buyer and it should realise that it is losing many like that with its marketing strategy.
Toyota is doing very well in the 1.3L market. Both Xli and Gli are doing well. They are price-competitive and give good quality for their price. The sad thing is that they don't come with an immobiliser in 2013 making it an easy prey to the highly professional car thieves of Pakistan. This is also true for Gli 1.6 and Altis 1.6; no immobiliser.
I need a new car very badly but have very limited choices because of the government's auto policy, but I have to buy a car. I've addressed the topic in quite detail in this post of mine: https://www.pakwheels.com/forums/wheels-pakistan/223964-lets-buy-car-pakistan-today
Regards.