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Hyundai Santro Discontinued – Here are the Reasons Why!

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Recently, Hyundai India announced that they will be discontinuing the New Hyundai Santro that was launched in 2018. While the first version of Santro was a runaway success, the 2018 generation Santro was an absolute underperformer.

The car as such was a well-rounded package and could hold its own when compared to other vehicles in the segment, but it never got the sales charts flowing. This is despite the company trying to offer many things like attractive discounts, special prices on Hyundai car insurance and a wide range of accessories and features to choose from.

So, let us have a look at some of the reasons why the car had such a short lifespan

• Too much competition:

When the first Santro was launched, it was successful because the market simply had no choice. The truncated looks of the original Santro were extremely polarising. You either loved it or it made you go "What!”. This has completely changed now. The market has a lot more options in the price segment to choose from and people are looking for micro SUV looking cars like Maruti S-Presso and Renault Kwid. There are not many takers for the Santro, and slowly, sellers and showrooms had started to give up on the car.

• Santro's pricing was absurd:

See, the fact that this is an A segment car means that Hyundai was supposed to operate these on wafer thin margins. However, Santro was priced too high. In fact, the company priced it so high that it started creeping into i10 Nios territory. Most people visiting a showroom thought that by just putting in some more money they could get a higher segment car, and if buying on EMI, the difference per instalment was essentially insignificant. As a result, people simply went for a better car.

• The 2019 Maruti Wagon R:

In a strange case of poetic justice, Hyundai Santro first succeeded because their primary rival Maruti were caught sleeping on the proverbial wheel. But in 2019, they launched a Wagon R which gave everything people expected from the Santro and topped it with the legendary Maruti reliability and customer service as well. Naturally, the Wagon R gave Santro a run for its money.

• Not-great looks:

How can you take something that is already looking not-so-good and make it look worse? Well, that is what happened to the Santro. The looks of the earlier model were nothing to write home about, but the 2018 model just went and made it worse. The previous Santro was selling because of its practicality and performance. The newer model lost out almost completely on the practicality aspect and its performance was nothing much to talk about. With both these factors now in other cars as well, the ugly duckling never got the opportunity to turn into a swan.

• The entire segment itself is on a decline:

Hyundai Santro is an A segment car, and in the last few years, this entire segment has been on a downward trend. Why?Because car buyersare now more aspirational and have greater financial power too! There was a time when Alto, the undisputed king of the market, sold like no tomorrow. These days, Alto is outsold by Swift, DZire and even Baleno, and the Baleno costs almost double in a model to model comparison. With the entire market segment shrinking, there was simply no room for Santro. Another factor to be kept in mind is that many people buying these cars were those looking for a second car, and the rise of app-based taxi services has reduced the market for these cars by a significant margin.

• Chip shortage:

The global chip shortage is hurting everything, and it is showing no sign of improving anytime. The global geo strategic scenario is such that companies are looking to move more and more higher margin products that make them more profit. In such a situation, the Santro was the cheapest that Hyundai India was offering, and since it was not selling well, the decision to axe it was very simple. While experts will keep debating about what went wrong with an otherwise good product that also had a reliable legacy, the real fact of the matter is that if you have this car now, you should be ready to either dispose your car urgently or be ready to keep it for a very long time. For those keeping the car, remember to get good Hyundai car insurance for your vehicle and quickly stock up on spares and parts as their availability might start to slow down.

To make an informed decision about your next car purchase, check out this article on Why Hyundai Should be Your Choice.

Disclaimer: The above information is for illustrative purpose only. For more details, please refer to policy wordings and prospectus before concluding the sales.

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