Bluebytes News Private Limited has ranked Mahindra & Mahindra's XUV 500 as the 'Most Reputed Car' in India. This rating further strengthens the position of the leading Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) manufacturer's latest flagship vehicle in the market. Bluebytes News, which has come up with the first edition of Reputation Benchmark Study for the nation's automotive sector, is the most prominent news research agency of India.
The agency conducted a survey as well as in-depth research of more than 11,000 hours regarding the cars presently available in the market while coming up with the results. It studied 75,000 news articles associated with the auto industry from October 2011 to March 2012, which helped it ascertain the XUV 500 as the Most Reputed Car in the country presently.
Mahindra XUV 500 was rolled out amid heavy anticipation in September 2011 at an introductory price of Rs. 10.80 lacs, though prices were raised later in January 2012. It met with a resounding success in the market, with bookings exceeding the supply by a large margin, which compelled the manufacturer to stop taking orders for the model twice. This car was designed and developed at the car maker's Research & Development (R&D) centre at Chennai and is produced at its Chakan, Pune plant.
Powered by a 2.2 L mHawk engine that produces 140 bhp of maximum power and 330 Nm of peak torque, this car has many features found in vehicles positioned in the Rs. 14-16 lac segment in the Indian auto market. It is placed above the company's previous flagship, Scorpio, and competes with the likes of Tata Safari, Force One and upcoming models like Ford EcoSport and Tata Safari Storme.
Tata Nano emerged as the second most reputed car in India in the same ranking, even though Mahindra XUV 500 had a 74 per cent lead over the smallest car in the world. In the same survey, Maruti Suzuki was awarded the position of the Most Reputed Car Company of the nation. Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Hyundai India and Audi India were the next in line in the 'Most Reputed Car' category. Notably, Audi India leads its German rival Mercedes Benz in the ratings by 48 per cent, even though they are positioned consecutively.
Piyush Jain, Business Head, Bluebytes News, stated, "In this report we understand Reputation by classifying, measuring and understanding what the media transmitters are saying about the company or brand, as if they were radio waves that could be tapped into for reception."
