It's now a well-known fact that the Maruti Suzuki Jimny has struggled at the sales box office. And one can point to two broad reasons for that - price and variant mix - both of which, in hindsight, ring true.
First, of course was the product category. Off-roader as a product segment was never going to be a number spinner. Now, one can argue that the new Mahindra Thar, a proper off-roader, has been a roaring success. And there’s no argument there. The bigger question is, did it really sell because it was a capable off-roader, or for its sheer street presence? We would argue it was the latter. How else do you justify majority of Thar sales today being accounted for by the rear-wheel or two-wheel drive version?
Size vs price
Jimny never had that. Even with the elongated wheelbase and the addition of two doors, it was still only a ‘small car’ when it came to visual drama. But, Maruti could have compensated for that by pricing the Jimny significantly lower than the Thar. We are a market that associates price with size; capability, heritage, and technology, only come second. And even though we gave Maruti officials this feedback soon after the media drives, they insisted, heritage would carry Jimny over the line, so to speak.
That obviously didn't happen. What’s worse, Maruti read the market for the Jimny wrong. It allocated huge numbers of the Jimny for the domestic market instead of playing the balancing act with the export mix. And then, they prioritised the entry-level version with the manual gearbox instead of the top spec Alpha with the four-speed auto. The end result: the dealers had an unmovable inventory pile than ran into months.
The Thunder Edition
And that's where the Jimny Thunder Edition came in; much to the delight of prospect buyers, and to the disgust and dismay of existing Jimny owners. You see, the Thunder Edition was Rs 2 lakh cheaper, and it came loaded with accessories as standard, pushing its effective cost down by nearly two and a half lakh! Naturally, the early adopters and fans of the Jimny felt cheated. And even though many wrote to Maruti for a refund, it didn't fly with the company.
It does remind one of the price correction Maruti had done for the S-Cross many years back on account of poor sales once again. But then, it wasn't a special edition that came to the rescue to clear stock; Maruti realised that if S-Cross had to have a future, it had to come on the back of a lower price tag. At that time, S-Cross owners did receive some refund for their early, high-priced purchase.
With the Jimny, Maruti hasn't revised the prices. The prices are now back to what they were originally. But now, the Jimny production is more skewed towards exports, automatics and top-spec Alpha variants. So, even though the introduction of the special edition has left early Jimny owners with a bad taste in their mouth, they ought to recognise that the Thunder Edition was only a stock clearance strategy, and nothing more.