Good products not well received.

Often the automobile market witnesses some reasonably good to excellent products, but somehow they fail to carve a niche for themselves. Its the same with Indian industry too, which has its own share of complexities. There are various reasons that a good product might prove to be a damp squib for a company. It can be bad marketing, wrong product placement, optimistic pricing or market not mature enough to accept the product owing to the product being ahead of its time. I will hark back to a decade and half, because it was after the turn of the millennium that india started waking up to world class cars. This piece is an ode to those manufacturers of gems and also an insight into why they failed to find their worth.
I will start with a Fiat Gem. How many of us remember the Fiat Palio? The aficionados among us would certainly remember it vividly, but my question is aimed at the average joe. It was the first true hot hatch India saw way back in early 2000s. The 1.6 litre gtx variant was capable of hitting the ton in 11 seconds. Yes, you heard (in this case: read) that right. This feat was unfathomable for its contemporaries then. Even today, 15 years after the legend, barring the Polo GT TSI, none can boast of such a feat. Let alone the contemporaries of the Palio then, Tata Indica, Maruti Zen, Hyundai Santro to name a few. All of them registered sales numbers manifold to what the Palio registered. Ironical to say the least. There was a 1.2 litre variant too for the average joe and mileage seeking one. The palio was not just about straight line performance. It also had the handling to harness all those ponies under the hood. Plus, the build was solid, the interior was quite well made. And did I mention it was droolworthy too. Initially it did quite well for itself, but the party was very shortlived. So what went wrong? Well, Its gas guzzling abilities became a byword. But this was more of a virtual perception and only partly true. The engines were powerful and vehicle was heavier than competition too (therefore bound to be relatively inefficient).  But, what not many of us know - the Palio sold in Brazil had smaller wheels. Fiat decided to give bigger wheels for India to increase the ground clearance for India's pothole ridden roads and skyscrapers which we refer to as speedbreakers, but overlooked calibration of the odometer according to the bigger wheels. This led on to the odometer registering less kilometres than what the car actually did. Hence, the perception was heaved down that the car runs less to every litre of gasoline. However, Fiat quietly rectified this faux pas in its next update which was christened Palio NV. Alas, it was too late by then.
To be continued.....  More such gems' waiting to find a mention. Hang on.....