Hyundai sticks to its 'five-seater' claim

Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) has defended its stand regarding an advertisement campaign positioning its B-segment car, Santro, as a five-seater and some rival models as four-seaters.

In a reply to clarifications sought by the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), Hyundai said the campaign was launched in public interest and it would be willing to compare the Santro with rival models if ARAI so wishes.

"We are only saying that Santro is a five seater and we not putting the ARAI in bad light by doing so," B V R Subbu, president of HMIL, said.

He added that HMIL would continue run the campaign and would provide the list of other five-seater cars in the advertisements if ARAI wants the campaign to be model specific.

He said, heeding to ARAI's request, HMIL would stop using ARAI's name in the advertisements and simply say that the five-seater classification has been given by a 'premier certifying and homologation agency' in the country.

Replying to ARAI's queries, HMIL has said that, carrying five people in a four-seater car would deny the safety of a seat belt for the extra passenger. Hyundai has also clarified that the company had not made any negative reference to competition or ARAI and that the focus was only on safety.

The controversy began when ARAI's chief, Balraj Bhanot, shot off a letter asking the company to clarify its advertisement, launched a week ago.

The moot issue, according to Subbu, was that consumers are not aware of the seating capacity of cars as certified by ARAI. This, for example, could create problems if traffic regulators rise objection for carrying more than four people (including the driver) in a four-seater car.

Hyundai officials also said the company did not plan to take the issue with transport authorities and that the intention of the campaign was only to educate consumers.

While Hyundai 's advertisement does not name any of the competitor's models, the target of the campaign is obviously the popular models from the Maruti Udyog stables "" WagonR and Alto.

"The issue is not just about how many people Alto or WagonR can actually carry. The campaign puts pressure on buyers, owing to issues related to traffic rules. This could even force consumers to strike out the Alto or the WagonR from their list," said an industry observer.

Sources also said that fact that sales of WagonR in February overtook that of Santro has put Hyundai on the defence, which in effect prompted this fresh campaign citing space differences in the models.

"Santro sales dropped in February due to a minor fire accident in our plant. We had to prioritise export sales over domestic sales. In March, we are confident that Santro sales will bounce back to over 10,000 units," Subbu said.