Renault-Nissan and VW-Skoda are two majorly known car maker alliances where the products are similar but are badge re-engineered. Different brands have different appeals in different countries and companies introduce bade re-engineering to bring similar products to the market under a different brand name. For instance, the Scala-Sunny and Rapid-Vento badge re-engineering seems to be doing wonders for both the companies in alliance.
And now Suzuki has gone down this road. The Suzuki Ertiga is the car which gets the treatment seeing that the car has been very popular in every country that it has gone to. Today we have for you the news of the Ertiga being rebranded in the Indonesia as the Mazda VX-1 and the car has nothing new than the global Ertiga on offer. It gets Mazda badging in places where there were the Suzuki’s badges. The images come courtesy of Ertigaclubindonesia.org who have posted the spy-shots of the car.
Mazda VX-1 will be assembled in Indonesia from the CKD kits manufactured by Maruti Suzuki and exported to Indonesia from India. Also worth mentioning is that it would compete with the Ertiga in the Indonesian market which just got itself a facelift. Moreover the car is bog similar to the Ertiga and there are no visual or mechanical changes, except the Mazda badges. The VX-1 would compete with the likes of the Avanza and Xenia in the Indonesian market.
The Mazda Carol kei which is sold in Japan is also badge re-engineered and the root car is the JDM Suzuki Alto. Mazda is also planning its Indian foray in the Indian car market but should see as to what has happened with rebranded cars in the country. The Renault Scala did not manage to take off as it was a premium Sunny and the Skoda Rapid ate into the sales of Vento. And since Maruti cars are considered the cheapest, they’ll fail if they offer rebadged cars at a premium and will eat into Maruti’s sales if they slot themselves below Suzuki. Which way will they go?
Source – Ertiga Club Indonesia via- IAB
