Do the math dude,
HH & HMSI together sold 472166 motorcyles, Bajaj sold just 192026
HH & HMSI together sold 103380 scooters, Bajaj NIL
Honda combined 2W domestic sales stands at staggering 575546 vs Bajaj's 192026. A huge gap of 3,83,520

Times Chennai - Record car sales in Jan; total vehicles sales up 19%

well i honestly don't think strategies are made by seeing the numbers only. Had that been the case, Honda's might not have entered the Indian scooter market at all, looking at the Bajaj scooter sales numbers at that time. It needs a lot more than that. A unique value proposition, an unexplored opportunity, and most importantly a strong gut feeling.

That said, im sure Bajajs will face some issues on the gearless scooter front. The machines from Honda & Suzuki are pretty refined when it comes to that. And also, reliability is one factor that drives scooter sales a lot, where Bajaj doesn't stand as tall as the Hondas, IMO.

It's almost two years since Bajaj's exit from scooters, how do you expect to sell them anything when they are not producing??

I know the numbers.. now HH& Honda are about to part ways.. if you could just tell me how many motorcycles did Honda sell and compare it to Bajaj.. the mathematician in you will realize they are far away from Bajaj.

Also HH & HMSI together sell 5 models in 150cc between them with the same engine.. I'm sure P150 alone selling more than that? isn't that enough of proof for you? so much for Honda.. can't make a 150cc bike that can outsell P150 since last 8 years.. and you people talk so much of their quality, engines... blah blah.. what's the use of it, when that doesn't sell in the market??

^^ Let's leave the thread for others...there's PM for you brother...

Pity.. I thought you had something new for me.. you came up with the same old beaten to death points.. anyways, I've replied your PM.

Option 1: Get the R&D busy trying to get into making a scooter

Option 2: Focuss the R&D completely to develop New Gen Pulsars


Take your pick as a biker.

Chill guys.
I remember the time when Bajaj Kristal sold just some 250 units/ month or so only.
It's this figure that resulted in the end of Bajaj scooters, not Sir Rajiv's personal bias.

Rajiv ji is just being practical, while Rahul ji is on the sentimental side. Why produce something that doesn't sell enough? Simple management decision, abort it.

However, I think if they manage to bring out a cool looking, 100cc geared scooter with mileage around 65-70 kmpl (not a big deal, remember Honda Eterno?), then they might grab the market, just like Discover 100 did.
In today's era, Numbers do matter to the Indian customer, especially mileage.

Even the Activa-Aviator (best mileage in class) manages some 50~ kmpl just because they went gearless.
By going the gear way, Bajaj might actually beat the competition hands down in mileage.

past mistakes???

If you remember, Rajiv Bajaj and team have made one wrong decision in the past which they themselves had to corect accepting their mistake.
That is the down fall of the 100 CC market.
Bajaj had stopped making 100 CC bikes suddenly and the focus was on the XCD 125...but they had to accept their misreading of the market and take corretive action.

Will this "No Scooter now" policy be another mistake ?

only my views.

It was unwise of Bajaj to exit scooter market when they did , leaving the field open for HMSI and HH . Bajaj scooter sales went down then because of poor products they had in market then , and no new developments ,I felt . There is still market in India for new innovative and sturdy geared scooters which is totally missing now . Automatics too , but hate plastic clad automatics .

What is the use of buying something which everyone buys ????

People who buys Honda, Yamaha or Suzuki for that matter, have different tastes.
TVS products also have a different set of customers.

Bajaj cashed in when the 4T era began and all other manufacturers were battling options.Pulsar had looks and were priced right.
Hero Honda CBZ had looks and was priced high.
TVS Suzuki Fiero had the right pricing but very sordid looks.

Since then Pulsar series tried to keep up their game everytime by raising the benchmark of the 150cc market.But when all other companies poured in, people did go for others too.FZ,Unicorn,RTR,Hunk........people does buy these bikes too.

Though Pulsar is still the most sold, afterall it is in a Democracy where people votes on being influenced by others rather than their own consideration.

I would like to portray here an incident,
There was this boy who used to ride a bicycle but would like to have his first bike as a 150cc.Pulsar 150 got an upgrade at that time and FZ was newly launched in the market.His friends at college had mostly had Pulsars save few new RTRs and all of them advised him to go for the Pulsar.......Think of his friends who had no options in the market like the FZ- an ultra stylish bike before and had only the Pulsar as a mean looking street machine,which loves to make noise,can be ridden across dams and is deemed definitely male But this same boy came to me for advice, as he loved my 2T bike and the way it performed, he had this image in mind that I am a very mean biker.I asked his priorities,he needed style,light weight,superb handling but comfortable,fast acceleration and was not much worried about mileage.He would only use it for college and run errands like a daily young boy.I told him,the only way to shock his his friends is by opting for dynamically designed FZ.Very soon he learnt all the ways of biking on his FZ,how to use disc without falling,how to ride fast and now is into stunts.He shocked his friends with the FZ,and many tried racing him with their Pulsars.But he never raced them as he loved his bike and I had already told him that in order to increase his bike's life ride it cautiously at all times.

Whenever he was taunted with the fact that his FZ is not as fast as Pulsar, I rode his bike to his college to go for joy rides with his friends where his friends started accelerating in fourth gear all of a sudden and I used to downshift and surge miles ahead of them,well they just had to keep up.

Now, I am not going into the fact that which bike is faster and which is slower,both bikes are equally capable and does not break new grounds anywhere especially when Superbikes lead the ultimate performance figures now in India.But most of the customers in India don't even know about the bike they are riding and where are its plus points and minus points.

Most of the purchases are suggestions of a stab in the back friend or a showing off neighbour or are based on beyond reality and well staged advertorials which are both far from real life situations.

Scooters on the other hand are for a whole lot of different sect of customers.
Well it is an irony that the Bajaj which produced the mighty Chetak and radical scooter like the Cub,stopped production of its Kristal,while another new entrant the Hero Honda Pleasure survived and is still being sold.
The very Honda ousted Bajaj out of the scooter market,maybe Honda's 150cc bikes may not appeal a lot to many but they are least worried because Bajaj is far from producing a Fireblade and challenge the real Honda.Till then Bajaj would either show us KTM or the Kawasaki.

Rajiv Bajaj's strategy of exiting scooters may be wrong or may be right.. time will decide that..

All he wanted was to focus on nearly 30 million strong market of motorcycles. In order to do that, he thought all his resources must be focused on motorcycles, instead of domestic gearless scooters which is very tiny (in relative terms).

So, In order to achieve that, he wanted to get away from scooters and there by no efforts were made to revive Kristal or to put in a new product in market.

Kudos MACH50

Well explained bro...

YYeah.. well explained bro... what was the point you were trying to make here?? If you think that majority of the buyers are tricked or fooled by their not so good friends to buy bikes.. then think again.. there isn't more ignorant opinion than that..
Would you agree that same goes for all those buying Activa?? Honda has lot of experience in making automatic scooters, which is the reason for their success. On the other hand Bajaj was never on their own in scooters.. though they were making geared scooters, but that was a JV.

In bikes.. it's a different ball game.. Pulsar was built from scratch by Bajaj, sure initial iterations were not perfect, but they were able to upgrade it successfully to outsmart all the biggies. Can never understand why is it so difficult for people to acknowledge a good effort...it is a stupendous effort by Bajaj.. the big three are competing against Bajaj unsuccessfully, where Bajaj got just 10 years of experience in making bikes. Pulsar will remain the largest selling bike for the foreseeable future.. japs can't even come closer.. with KTM in their fold.. Bajaj's graph is only gonna go up from here.

Who doesn't acknowledge Bajaj for their efforts ???
They showed the world what Indian market needs when it comes to performance and looks.While Bajaj was upgrading and revamping their bikes,the other manufacturers sat ignorant to the need of the Indian biking populace and kept producing detuned 125cc bikes or outdated looking and underpowered bikes.They underestimated the need of the market and paid for their deeds.
Then all the companies started bringing out their share of tricks from the bag on realizing that Indian market is ready for radical products, but is still yet to learn the smart art of Value-for-Money pricing.

So Bajaj does deserve the sales they have now.
But that is no reason to undermine products from other companies, every vehicle has their own share of goodies and baddies and customers who trusts their own choices buys respectively.

Again on the other hand there are also certain set of customers who always watches what is selling most in the market and buys that product without even ascertaining if the product meets their priorities.

And such mentality is not only restricted to the Pulsar series....people are also crazy about Discover series too.

Thing is that people buys anything that Bajaj has to offer now and trust me many local mechanics thanks and suggests that effort, after all it is such a decision which earns the local mechs their livelihood. Bajaj bikes frequents the daily mechanic's garage more than any other bikes from other companies do.I can photograph some local garages if need be for that matter.

And KTM is not a company which can be compared to the big four of Japan.
The fastest, the biggest and the most maverick machines always have to come from the big four.Bajaj is lucky to have Kawasaki on their side for that matter.Kawasaki on the other hand is the biggest user of Suzuki bred technologies.
And when it comes to European bikes for their beauty and brawn, BMW, Ducati and Triumph leads the game there.

Pulsar series may remain the highest selling series, but all other 150cc bikes are selling too and FZ16 is one of the most loved, Unicorn is one of the bikes highly respected, and GS150R is one of the bikes which is of the most intriguing type.
RTR and Hunk remains the popular type of bikes to be ridden around.

Only praising one company without any respect for any others is a straight on fanboyism.

And exiting scooter market deems Bajaj as company bad at multi-tasking.Honda too sells Bikes and scoots both so does Suzuki.Heck,even the very Indian TVS does(and TVS is even younger than Bajaj at in-house scooter business)...............it now seems, Bajaj always vouched for a share of Yamaha market(and Pulsar did replace RX series,everything else remains unchanged) and so long Yamaha did not bring in the scoots Bajaj remains the focused Mobike maker to keep up with the market.Now that Yamaha suddenly plans to rope in their own scoots, the Bajaj's idea of assessing its scooter producing capabilities resurfaces.

I think Bajaj should re-enter the scooter market again and fight it out on all fronts and leave no page unturned for the modern two-wheeler market in India.

...it is a stupendous effort by Bajaj..

@ vrugonnab
Please answer the following HONESTLY,

1. FZ/GS/Hunk/Uni overall handling is better than Pulsar
YES/NO ?
2. FZ/GS/Hunk/Uni Engine Refinement is better than Pulsar
YES/NO ?
3. FZ/GS/Hunk/Uni suspension and comfort level is better than Pulsar
YES/NO ?
4. NITROX shocks on Pulsars is inferior to CD delux suspension on potholes
YES/NO ?
5. Engine oil life sucks on Pulsars ?
YES/NO ?
6. 10 years of Pulsars (variants,upgrades and modifications), there is still scope for improvement ? (still not perfect)
YES/NO ?
7. Which is the largest selling bike in the world ?
Splendor/Pulsar?
Bonus question ?
8. Which brand enters CNBC OVERDRIVE HALL OF FAME ?
Pulsar/Pulsar