We at IAB, actually lost the count of Chevy Sail spyshots that are flooding our inbox every day.
We have a rich collection of inside-out photos of the Chevrolet Sail being tested across the sub-continent, in almost every possible color that GM India has planned to paint the car in! And our latest addition to this collection comes from Dr. Parminder Sidana, Mohali.
GM India, as you all know, is preparing the epitaphs for their Aveo and U-VA. Both these cars never commanded any serious consideration by the Indian car buying mass, even before the petrol prices went haywire. So the sensible thing to do is to put them into rest and move on.
That’s exactly what Chevrolet did. With that mercy killing, the in-bound Sail twins are entrusted with responsibilities to do what their predecessors couldn’t do. And that prompted us to do a little case study on the Sail.
For starters, the looks (both the hatchback and the sedan) certainly won’t win any beauty contest and the interiors, at best can be described as half decent. Not much to appeal to the heart then. But on the high side, the cars seem very spacious and despite their Chinese roots, they carry the national engine of India (Fiat’s 1.3 multi-jet diesel) in their bosom.
Forget about the beauty contest when these cars can win the marathon. Also everything about them look and feel like it’s been built to a budget and that should make the Sail brothers the VFM kings in their respective segments.
Add to it Chevy’s three year free maintenance plan and it slowly starts appealing to the mind. That’s a not a bad thing because people listening only to their heart to buy a car is the minority here.
So, have GM India done enough to keep their Chevrolet ‘Sail’ors afloat? Will they have cracker of a start this Diwali and replicate their success this side of Himalayas too? Well, a killer price tag would be a step in right direction.
