Mahindra Won!

Mahindra wins IPR case against Fiat Chrysler in US, can now import Roxor SUV

It's a shame there was a lawsuit to begin with.

 

hopefully importing them brings the price down a bit. they are nice but 14 to 18k for a toy is a bit steep for most common folk.

 

not really.. look at the darn thing.. its a knock off Jeep..
they have every right to try and block that from landing here.

15K GM employees would agree...

 

I don't disagree, BUT its a knockoff of a jeep thats been out of production for 30 years plus. Would that mean that the companies making replica cobras should be sued either? How about IKON4x4. What about the companies making the reproduction jeep bodies?

They are not selling them as a 50 state legal road vehicle. Some states will allow it and others will not, so who are they really competing with?

GM has no model in the market, only Fiat/Crysler.. and they are doing very well it seems selling to every other person a JK unlimited... Which is really nothing like the cj7/5 they are basically copying with zero safety standards of a modern vehicle.

 

The Roxor is for all intents and purposes a genuine Jeep because Willys gave Mahindra/India license to build Jeeps or clones--They're just squabbling over the Intellectual Property/trademark issue of the classic 7-slot grille....which Mahindra, if I understand correctly, utilized freely in India and elsewhere prior to all this. It's just a no-no in the states cause it would cause "confusion and unfair competition" between Mahindra and Jeep.

Like 47v6 says, why should they even care? The design it copies has long been out of production.

 

as an enthusiast and promoter of the brand I just don't like it.
a jeep grill is a jeep grill.. FCA had every right to try and quash it
Land Rover did a similar thing a year or 2 back again to protect the brand.. took the work "Rover" out of aftermarket use..
ROVERdrive had to become ROAMERdrive

yes GM has nothing to do with it, just a state of the industry comment when cheap oversees crap comes in..

some more fun reading:

https://jalopnik.com/this-is-why-mahindra-can-build-tiny-jeeps-1823472625

Land Rover protects its Defender nameplate from Bombardier in court

 

What this explicitly shows is that there is a market that is not being filled in the US. The consumers are being ignored by, now Fiat, and want something akin to what their grandfathers had. The alternative is to buy a 45 year old hulk and try to resurrect it. Its not cheap, requires a lot of work and you need space to do it in. If you have the money to buy a cheap YJ or Jk you clearly have the 15K to buy something new that needs no repairs.

Instead of Fiat suing mahindra, how about they make a satellite company to produce what a smallish niche segment wants? Why? Because its expensive and they cannot compete, so they sue and deprive the consumers, albeit a small fraction of the overall numbers, of what they want.

Thats a form of protectionism that Fiat attempted the US government to impose and goes counter to free market economics. Thats why they got denied their claim along with their long standing license to produce this anywhere aside from the US.

Now, if Fiat actually had a relevant competing model, things would be different.

Competition in markets is good.

 

Spot-on. I certainly agree. Remember the 2016 Wrangler Shortcut concept vehicle?

 

now thats a truck

 

What bugs me about a some of this is that Fiat is leaving a lot of money on the table. The market for aftermarket bolt on junk for the JK is enormous and they aren't getting much of a slice of it. If they were to offer a stripped down version of the JK/JL and actually made factory and quality bolt on mods, like jeep did in times past, they could inject themselves into this market and easily squeeze out Mahindra...

But they don't want to seem to innovate or compete. That concept above is what would wreck mahindras chance of inserting itself into the market here in th state if it was priced appropriately.

Would it be safety legal in al 50 states? Thats for the engineers to figure out.

 

but were not the target audience...

remember when Homer Simpson designed the dream car

 

We may not be the target audience of the roxor, but the idea and principle holds true throughout the automotive industry.

 

Isn't Mahindra supposed to be coming out with a PTO set up for the ROXOR?

 

This is great news. Fiat and Chrysler IMHO haven’t been making the best decisions with the jeep brand since day one. Square headlights etc... renaming the renegade the rubicon, I could go on and on. I’d like to have a roxor some day but it’s not in the cards for a long long time. Keep in mind the roxor is assembled in Michigan so it’s bringing jobs to the table too.

 

Fact of the matter is: the wrangler and Roxor do no compete. The Roxor has no chance of being federally road legal, and the wrangler could never be made a such a low price point. (weird state laws allowing Roxors to be road legal notwithstanding). If there is any overlap between potential Roxor and Wrangler buyers, its it minuscule. No one at any auto factory is losing their job because of the UTV market, which is where the Roxor is.

This isn't going to hurt Chrysler one bit, but they were right to challenge the Jeep trademark claim against Mahindra. I also think they outcome of the case was the correct one.

I'm waiting for the impending thread lock as this conversation veers towards politics.

 

For the Roxor to be street legal, what exactly is holding it back? It'd have to have a reinforced roll bar, a windshield, air bags and all that?

You said it, not I. 'Speak of the devil and he doth appear'. So uh, what aspect of politics were you wanting to discuss?

 

Very well said.