2012 Auto Expo - Overview

Well, to say the truth, I used to consider the Auto Expo as a festivel of the like minded, a platform where like minded people, who love vehicles, who want to know more, who want to experience opportunities, which they might not get every day, come together, discuss, enjoy and go back enriched. But from the past couple of times, I'm getting the drift, that there are only 10% of the people who come to the Auto Expo think like me, and for the rest 90%, well don't even ask. The other side of the coin is, my expectation might be wrong from the very begining and it's too much to ask for a little sanity and common sense.

Long story short, like in 2010, this year's Auto Expo has been a 7 day testimony of the dark side of THINGS (I'm using the word things because I don't want blabber around here about every detail and spoil your mood). So, keeping those incidents aside, what was there in this years Auto Expo!!

This year's Auto Expo was pre-dominantly about looking into subtle and detailing it out. Not only in motorcycles, but also in four wheelers, manufacturers tried to cater to the common man more, bringing out more value for money products, trying to be different and innovative, while keeping the aam janta into picture. Almost all the major players tried to do things differently, and in that race, I guess Royal Enfield won the race by bringing the new Thunderbird, Machismo and the super gorgeous Cafe Racer.

Hero Moto Corp as always chose to play very very safe and brought out a new Passion (their nth version) and models based on Honda

Bajaj turned out to be the smartest player in the lot and chose not to showcase it's bikes in the Auto Expo this inspite of the fact that there was a monumental anticipation that Bajaj would showcase the new Pulsar and the KTM Duke 200. I would call Bajaj the smartest player here because, the Bajaj think tank knew that the Auto Expo would be a mayhem in which it's important product portfolio would get dampened and Bajaj didn't wanted that to happen. Bajaj wants to strike right and strike big.

Honda Motorcycles India reached out to the common man by launching a new motorcycle in the 100-110cc segment apart from launching the much delayed Honda Fury.

Mahindra 2 wheelers showcased the legendary Mojo (or it's ghost!!), Stallio and it's range of scooters. The center stage was captured by the Mahindra MotoGP motorcycle, which was speaking out loud what can any Indian manufacturer can achieve, given the will to achieve.

Nothing much was happening Suzuki as India has already it's major Indian and International product protfolio.

As always Yamaha India turned out to be chick and show cased the oh so delicious 2012 Yamaha R1 along with some scooters and the limited edition Yamaha R15 v2.0, Yamaha FZ 16 and Yamaha Fazer 16.

The International People's Choice Award would go to Triumph who showcased their international range of products including the Rocket III and the Daytona and at very very competitive price range. The Daytona would be the second Super Sport Motorcycle officially available in India about the Ducati 848Evo.

Ducati showcased the much awaited Monster 795 Asian edition amongst other motorcycles already available in India. I was very much hoping that Ducati would showcase the mighty Panigale, but alas!!

Harley Davison was spot on with it's long muscle motorcycles. Really, even though I'm not a HD guy, but when you are surrounded with HDs and so many of them, you can really feel the aura of what's a Harley Davison is all about, there's an enigma which attracts you and which you can't escape from.

All in all I would say that the 2012 Auto Expo could have a very exciting event if some basic things could have been taken care of, sans which, it actually turned out to be a havoc. India is the only country where we break the trumpet if don't like it's sound, instead of trying to make the trumpt melodious and it's a mentality disorder, which is very hard to go away. I would say this year's Atuo Expo was again a wonderful opportunity to show the rest of the world that we have the capability to host such event at a grand scale, but if we can't do justice with events like CWG, then the Auto Expo should not come into consideration. Stay tuned as I try to manufacture wise details in my forthcoming posts. Happy reading