The Great Automobile DisasterBig is bad news. It was in the automobile industry. The flooding of the market-based more on hope than reality-with mid-sized Opels, Daewoos, Fords and Mercedes was an unmitigated disaster. Consider the first-off-the-block Cielo. It projected sales of 72,000 cars for 1996-97. That figure was continuously scaled down during the year until it fell to 35,000. Even then the company sold only 17,000 cars. Its competitors are similarly stuck with unsold cars. India's middle class clearly needed small cars priced around its average annual income: Rs 1.8 lakh. To make it big, car companies have to sell small.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Jan 5, 1998--- ENDS ---
