The Hindu Business Line : Indigo Marina a lifestyle car, says Ratan Tata

THE first chapter of Tata Motors' foray into car manufacturing neared full circle here on Wednesday as it confidently hosted one of the slickest domestic car launches in recent times, the Indigo Marina rolled out to the theme of `carry a world'.

"This is a continued moment on a road that we decided to traverse six years ago," Mr Ratan Tata, Chairman, said.

Unlike the commercial launches of its brethren from the same platform, which were held at the city's racecourse, the Marina's launch shifted indoors to the Jamshed Bhabha theatre at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA). But like before pricing remained a mystery until the last moment and for some in the media a close shave with print deadlines.

A shade above the Indigo sedan's across variants, the Marina's pricing is aggressive compared to other players in the station wagon category. Of the Marina's five variants, four are priced below the Rs 5 lakh mark ex-showroom here. Logical, for the station wagon market needs kick-starting and existing players have sold few numbers.

Acknowledging the segment's present condition in the Indian market, Mr Tata, said, "We hope that we can again break tradition by giving the Indian public a lifestyle car. A family car in the true sense of the word, not a utility car, not a high end car, not an airport car."

With Wednesday's launch denoting the slow maturing of the platform, Mr Tata did not forget to look back at the trying years gone by. It may be recalled that the car foray itself was bitterly criticised, the same only gaining momentum with the teething troubles of the original Indica and the Rs 500 crore-loss suffered by Tata Motors in 2000-2001.

As he put it, when Tata Motors decided to get into the passenger car business there were many in the auto industry who thought the company had "lost its marbles and gone crazy". Further, "when we got to the prototyping stage, many of my friends started to distance themselves because they thought they were too close to failure."

In a lighter vein, Mr Tata noted that the shadow of the company's learning curve in a new vehicle segment followed him after the Indica's launch with customers complaining of the car's quality. "Many of the mundane pleasures we have, have disappeared," he said of the toll taken by the project.

"We have no doubt this car can have an interesting market overseas. But we would like to see it being successful here," he said of the Marina, the third commercial offering from the Indica platform since the original hatchback and the Indigo sedan.

The flair in the station wagon's launch seemed to indicate just that, a first chapter narration coming full circle.