Five cars we bade farewell to in 2013-14

We bade farewell to a few cars in the Indian market last year. While some models were ditched owing to low sales, others had simply been around for too long.  

 Here's a look at five cars that were discontinued in the last financial year.  

The first to go was the Skoda Fabia hatchback. The Fabia was the first to roll out from VW India’s new plant at Chakan in 2009 and racked up sales of 5,000 odd units in its very first year. The figures went up by 60 percent a year later and ended last year with half the numbers. The are several reasons: Despite its good build quality, the car was not easy to maintain, spares were an issue and Skoda wasn’t really making money on the cars.

Also bidding farewell was the decade-old Hyundai Accent. In its heyday, the brand offered the customer a spacious car and was pitched against the Maruti Esteem. Hyundai has now moved to  aesthetically more pleasing cars – the fluidic design — and so this was an old vehicle that had more than served its purpose. 

Another car that was pulled out by its manufacturer was the Jazz, the upmarket, spacious premium hatch that didn’t quite bring in the numbers thanks to the fact that it was only available in petrol. Honda dropped prices on the Jazz that boosted its numbers but then thought it wise to bring in a new model sometime this year which will have a diesel variant.

And finally, in 2013-14, we bade adieu to the Maruti 800, the car that got India’s middle class moving, literally. Over 2.75 million were sold and back in the day, the car was a visible sign of an Indian family having arrived. Those who bought the first batch still swear by it.