Have you looked out your window or down your balcony recently?
I ask this of course because, not too long ago, all of us were forced to be home.
But say you did or do manage to peep out then, all you will see on our Indian roads is this.
Can you imagine?
Only a few years ago, you and I hadn't even heard the brand named Kia and today their arrival
is a case study in MBA schools across the country.
The Seltos it is that catapulted Kia to success, but how did the car become so popular?
Well, we stayed safe and we've come back stronger.
Welcome everyone to the Great Indian Auto Show.
Let's begin.
Alright, so that one thing that contributes the most to success, we've been told and as
we know is, timing, which means being there at the right place at the right time.
The Kia Seltos managed to do just this, because by the time it was entering our market, well,
there was one player wiping the floor clean in the compact SUV segment,
which was Hyundai Creta.
The Seltos came and locked its horns straight against the Creta.
By that time, there were too many Cretas on the street, the shape was very familiar,
the headlamps looked the same,
but Seltos came in and showed the meaning of what new can be, to us Indian buyers.
During the day it looked beautiful, at night, it bedazzled us even more.
If you visited Karol Bagh a couple of years back, you would see Creta owners upgrading
their infotainment system or speakers or headlamps or wheels
and suddenly this Kia came along and offered those things as standard.
The Seltos was the Creta they actually wanted, but, why?
Ask any marketing guru and they will say that good marketing is half the job done.
I just made that up, but the Seltos did have brilliant marketing, from cover page ads to
a ripped Tiger Shroff, driving it off a helicopter, brand Kia and it's highly anticipated car
got the upper middle class talking, so, the word spread and when the word spread, Kia
managed to ship out one lakh units of the Seltos, making it the fastest growing
auto brand in the country basis sales volume.
And then, out of excitement when folks did walk into Kia showroom, well, Kia had enough
variants of the Seltos even to fill in a periodic table.
Pre-Seltos, when you walked into a showroom a couple of years back, all you had to do
was pick from three different variants, base mid and top, over the odd Special Edition
thrown in sometimes, but in this case, they had a car ranging all the way from
9.99 lakh rupees to 17.5 lakh rupees.
Kia was pulling off the Baskin and Robbins of the SUV world.
Backing up the long list of variants was also well, the choice of drive train options, so,
there was a 1.5-litre petrol variant for the gentlemen, the 1.5-litre diesel variant for
the business men and the 1.4-litre turbocharged petrol variant, that the boy racers bought,
these are the guys who also went in for the GT badge.
And it's not just the engines, the Seltos also offered a lot of transmission options, as many as
four to be specific, while most cars offered just two.
And all of these engines were actually fun to drive, okay, the 1.5 petrol, not so much,
but it still was incredibly refined.
The 1.4 turbocharged petrol though, peach!
Now looks are subjective, yes, we all know that, but we can all agree that Kia Seltos
did and does look the part, so, the thing about Seltos is that, it looks really premium
on the outside, but if you open the door and take a seat inside,
well, then it is as premium on the inside too.
The interior architecture of the Seltos reminded people of fancy German cars with its big screens
and flat-bottom steering wheels.
People, it seems, became a lot more reluctant to step inside their Cretas and Dusters and
Captures, instead of the Seltos and Kia knew what Indians loved in terms of how their cars looked.
The other good part that Kia did was of course, it did not rest on its laurels.
So you see, you could have said that the chink in the armour, the Achilles heel for Seltos
was, the lack of a sunroof, but now in year 2021, well, the car has a host of new updates
like, a sunroof, an IMT transmission.
They've even thrown in a new Kia logo just to be sure.
Now I have a feeling that the Kia Seltos having done such a good job, it is going to remain
popular for a few more years until the competition thickens, that is and it is thickening because
there is a real German in form of a Czech that is breathing down the neck hard and that
is well, the emperor, the king, Kushaq, Skoda Kushaq.
Will the emperor, the king, Skoda Kushaq manage to steal the crown from Kia Seltos to become
the most popular, compact SUV on our Indian roads.
Well, I don't know yet, we will know maybe next time, by the time I meet you again, on the
next episode of The Great Indian Auto Show.
For now, you can let us know the same in the comment section below.
It's time to say goodbye.
Goodbye.