Mahindra Automotive will begin selling three models—2-door and 4-door pickup trucks and a midsize 7-passenger SUV—in late 2008 or early 2009. Features include a 4-cylinder common-rail diesel engine mated to a 6-speed automatic transmission, available shift-on-the-fly all-wheel drive and a 4-year/60,000-mile warranty.More competition is always good, I suppose, but I have doubts about the viability of another auto company, especially an Indian one, entering the American market, the most competitive auto market in the world and the most difficult to crack.
The 2-door truck will have the longest and deepest bed in its class. Pricing and specifications will be announced in a few months, but it should be priced around $20,000, with the 4-door version in the low $20s and the SUV starting in the mid-$20s.
The Chinese are coming too. And the pie is only so big—and contracting—and there are no slices, big or small, left. The barriers of entry, in my opinion, are just too high. Many auto companies, mostly from Japan and Korea, have tried to enter the U.S. market only to leave soon after, leaving tremendous amounts of red ink in their wake.
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