Would prospective car buyers opt for an SUV instead?

Last month it was the Honda city,this time its the Mahindra Scorpio which has achieved a phenomenal rise in sales.Sales are up by 48%.

Scorpio sales, including exports, grew by 48% in February ‘08, with sales of 3,909 units as against 2,637 units for the corresponding period last year.

So did prospective C segment car owners switch to the SUV segment cannot say that yet,the important word is exports,don't know how many units were exported.The budget has not brought down prices of either the SUV segment or the C segment cars,its the Hatchbacks which have benefited the most and it would not be surprising if the B+ segment of cars actually grows at the expense of the C-segment cars[Will take up this in a later post].The Scorpio would have to contend with the Sumo Grande from this month onwards so it would be interesting to see how sales are impacted and how big the SUV segment is actually.Its with the Sumo grande that we would know if C-segment car owners[prospective] would choose an SUV instead of a sedan.

One huge disadvantage is that in India a women driving an SUV is to put it politely not something that is acceptable.So thats an area where the SUV just cannot take the place of a family car atleast in the near future.

However we have traditionally accepted the big is better concept on the roads.Besides the anti-SUV environmentalist party is an absolute minority in India if it is actually present.

Apart from the Macho image and the utility factor what should help the SUV's is that two strong players Maruti and Honda don't have a diesel offering.Increasing parking woes and the traffic mess in our cities is something which would work against the SUV's.Although theoretically the Sumo grande is expected to be much easier to drive than some of the C-segment cars even.

But even after taking into consideration all these factors I don't feel the C-segment cars would be in danger because of the SUV"S simply because they would be appealing to two different segments of people.Its only the in the advertisements we would see the SUV being a replacement for a family car.