Change - The only constant!

Ever wondered how do affluent people feel driving an outdated model of an expensive car bought just few years ago? This thought has been doing rounds in my mind since quite a few days. I will examine the case with two cases.

• Small to medium size cars

Owners of small to medium size cars never feel outdated at all. Just look at owners of Maruti Suzuki Wagon R for instance, it was launched a decade ago, but has not been seeing significant transformation over its avatar, yet some cosmetic changes have been gone through and now the latest one comes with a duo option of LPG cum Petrol engine! But never did a owner of the first generation Wagon R felt outdated on the road looking at a more stylish looking current generation Wagon R duo.
Reason: Both are similar in nature, looks wise some changes have been done but the overall appeal of the car is same.
Another instance: Look out for the Indica - the lifeblood of TATA Motors. Ever since Indica V2 was launched, Indica went through some technical changes coupled with side skirts, front fenders, raised wheel arches. These changes were more significant to the Individual owners and V2 first generation was retained to the IndiCab family. Inspite of this modifications and variants in Indica, the car remained the same, V2 owner of 2002 feels at home driving it alongside the latest Indica V2 Dicor!
Reason: Overall form of the car remained the same with the functionality changed to the rising needs of the consumer and market!

Now its the owners who are smiling away because they need not upgrade to the latest Indica or the latest Wagon R for the fear of public eye or the tag of driving an outdated out of production model.

The second section will have a very serious thought though.

• Sedans to expensive D+ segments

Look at the expensive cars in D+ category where the Mighty Honda Accord, Skoda Superb, Mercedes C Class reign. Or for that matter the SUV's Honda CRV, Mitsubishi Pajero live, or even the more expensive categories where for the entire last decade Mercedes Benz E Class ruled and recently BMW 3 Series, Audi A4 have been launched.

Look at the consumers who drive these cars. From head honchos of corporate giants to proprietors of businesses to reality sector bigwigs to affluent NRI's - they comprise of the consumers who are always power hungry, aggressive, driving fuel guzzlers with Pride often flashing their Expensive Toys on Page3 parties.

Take a case of the Honda Accord; the one which is recently launched is the 4th generation Accord in India, meaning it has undergone drastic and significant changes ever since it was launched in India. It is not cheap to own though, the first gen Honda Accord was coming close to 15 Lakhs and the current one launched is a whopping 26 lakhs on road. The owner of the first generation car has to upgrade to the latest or the near latest version if he has to sync with his counter parts parking these expensive cars in the garage. If the owner does not do so, he will be driving an out of production model which again will be looked down upon at parties, corporate meetings, page 3 functions etc.,
Same will be the case with some one who is driving a Mercedes Benz E class of 1999 model which is presently out of production! The New Mercedes E Class(Benz no more relevant now) of 2008 model is totally refreshing, stylish, lavishly done both inside and outside. The concluding part is that the owner after coughing out 35 Lakhs plus during 1999 to own this Car has to upgrade to newer versions of the latest model or else the tag of driving home a old model or even worse getting the ire of driving a "Second Hand" Merc will stick to his back.

The companies of these expensive cars on the other hand have to upgrade them to the latest technology, comfort, driving experience being derived by the discerning customers world wide to catch up with competition and eye for a significant pie in the Market Share Capitalization.

Moral being, if you need to drive expensive toys then better be prepared to upgrade your toys too. For Change is the only thing Constant in Automobiles and Change comes at a Cost!