Mahindra Voyager

Voyager was an ambitious brand, aiming to create a new segment in the Indian automobile industry. But rather than creating a new category, the brand went down the history as a failed one.

Voyager was Mahindra's foray into the consumer vehicles segment. The brand was created in collaboration with Mitsubishi Motors .Voyager was launched in India in 1997 and lived a very short life of a little over two years.

Voyager was India's first and perhaps the last luxury Multi-Purpose family van. The brand was positioned as a luxury family carrier and Mahindra hoped that the association with Mitsubishi will give enough reason to charge a premium .

Voyager was based on Mitsubishi's 1968 L300 van. Although the L300 is still in the market, Voyager failed to survive.

The van (MPV) segment in India was and is still dominated by Maruti Omni. The segment was a stagnant one . Indian consumers were never thrilled by the concept of a family van. One of the reason was the poor marketing and product development in that segment. Although some families own Omni, the main users of the van was in the commercial segment. Compared to cars, the van seldom offered a comfortable ride and there were issues regarding A/C and safety. Many consumers buy van for the functional benefit .

Mahindra felt that there is an opportunity for a premium family van. And thus born Voyager.

To begin with, Voyager had the support of one of the leading global automobile brands of that time in Mitsubishi. Voyager had a powerful engine and large space . But Voyager put off the consumer in two aspects - Design and Price.

More than the design, it was the price that killed Voyager. The base version of the brand was priced at Rs 5.25 lakh which was more than the price of a decent sedan. The arrogant pricing virtually

scared away the Indian consumers. The consumer was not willing to pay that much money for a non-A/c vehicle.

Second factor that put-off the consumer was the design. Voyager was too boxy and Indian consumers did not like that design. Having said that, we have seen vehicles like Qualis thriving in the market despite poor looks. But in the case of Voyager, it could not boast about the quality , value or brand name.

Another aspect was the service factor. Mahindra and Mitsubishi were brands that are new to consumer market and there was suspicion about the level of service and after-sales support for the product.

The brand campaign was also not able to impress the consumer.The campaigns of Voyager essentially talked about the space and luxury but couldn't find any meaningful differentiator that justified the premium pricing of the brand. Consumers viewed Voyager as a functional product and not as a luxury one and that prevented consumers from paying a premium .

Distressed by the response from the individuals, Voyager aggressively pursued the commercial segment and became popular ( to certain extent) as ambulance vehicle. That was a final nail in the coffin. Voyager suddenly was branded as an ambulance vehicle which further distanced the individuals from the brand.

Indian consumers only have one reference point for vans i.e Maruti Omni. Omni is a highly functional product and its pricing also reflects that aspect. Voyager failed because it could not break away from that functional association . Neither the product design nor the benefits forced the consumers to think differently about the product. Since Voyager looked and felt like a van, it should also be priced like the van ( Omni) could have been the justification of the consumer while rejecting the brand.

Mahindra today said its new MUV developed under the name of Ingenio is christened as Xylo (pronounced Zy-lo). The XYLO has been created with customers for developing a vehicle around the lifestyle and aspirations of its end-customer, it said. The vehicle has gone through testing in India and other countries, Mahindra said. “XYLO has been developed by a team consisting of 160 experts who have created new benchmarks in styling, technology and performance,” Mahindra Auto President Mr Pawan Goenka said in a release.Xylo has gone through testing in India and other countries and pictures of disguised Xylo is freely available in net. Xylo is expected to be priced between Rs6.5 lakh to Rs7.5 lakh and will compete with Toyota Innova and upcoming Tata Indicruz Crossover. Mahindra will launch the Xylo by December 2008.

Mahindra’s earlier launched Voyager van jointly with Mitsubishi in the MPV segment.  10-seater Voyager was originally sold as a family vehicle, it was later touted as an ambulance and even a mini-bus but none of the variants went well with Indian customers. Voyager was  found to be steeply priced and failed. After the failure of Voyager, Mitsubishi departed from Mahindra alliance and joined hands with Hindustan Motors.

As we earlier reported Xylo may also gets a petrol engine in addition to the Common rail diesel engine. For Xylo, Mahindra may source the petrol engine from its logan partner Renault. The common rail would be the 2.6L one which is already doing duty in Scropio. Xylo’s engine would produce 100bhp+ max power and 283Nm of max torque. Xylo will also get Mahindra’s latest Fuelsmart technology. Mahindra already said that the MUV being built on Ingenio platform (Xylo) will get this system. Micro hybrid variants of Xylo may also be out at the time of launch.  Xylo is built on an all new platform and will be an eight seater MPV.  As the Xylo will exported to other countries, it is known that Mahindra has paid special attention to the quality of the materials used in Xylo.

A flop car DOES NOT mean that the car was not good at all. Some cars were excellent for the time it came in, but overall as a package, it failed. So, a good car might feature in the list because it never sold. A bad car might not feature in the list because it sold well. Good and bad are considered subjective terms as far as cars are considered.

Mahindra tried its luck with this old Mitsubishi and failed rather badly. The target segment never existed.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS OF MAHINDRA VOYAGER

Engine Specifications

Engine XD-3P BM Diesel

Type ---

Bore/Stroke ---

Capacity 2498 cc

Maximum Horse Power 72.5 @ 4000 RPM (DIN70020)

Maximum Torque 15.3 kgm @ 2000 RPM (DIN70020)

Fuel Injection System Distributor pump

Compression Ratio 23 : 1

Weight Of Engine (Dry) 200 kg with flywheel and starter

Cylinders 4

General Specifications

Cooling System ---

Clutch Type Single plate,Dry type cable operated, Hydraulic actuation Facing outside dia 230 mm .

Transmission Ratio 5 speed manual, floor mounted,cable control 1st gear 4.032 : 1 2nd gear2.393 : 1 3rd gear 1.521 : 1 4th gear 1.000 : 15th gear 0.842 : 1 Reverse 3.760 : 1

Transfer Case (for 4WD only)

---

Front Axle ---

Rear Axle Capacity Semi floating differential hypoid type. Ratio : 4.375: 1

Steering Ball and nut type Ratio : 21.5 : 1 Column - fixed angle- titlt adjustable

Turning Circle Radius 4.4 m

Brakes Front : Ventilated disc 255mm dia Rear : Drum 254 mm dia Parking : Pull out, cable operated on rear wheels

Suspension Front : Independent coil spring and anti roll bar Rear : Rigid axle, leaf spring and anti roll bar

Wheels, Rims, Tyres 5jX14, Steel 175/80 SR-14

Frame ---

Electricals System 12 Volt battery / 70 Amp.Hr. Alternator : 12 V 65 amp with vaccum pump

Instruments ---

Fuel Tank Capacity : 55 litres

Seating Capacity 8 + 1

Curb Weight 1430 kgs

Gross Vehicle Weight 2205 kgs