Does Badge Engineering Work? Toyota Rumion VS Maruti Ertiga

Let us have a look at Badge engineering work with the lens of comparison between Toyota Rumion VS Maruti Ertiga.

Toyota Rumion and Maruti Ertiga

Source : Somnath Chatterjee

We have already seen a number of badge-engineered products while undoubtedly it has been Maruti and Toyota who have brought out the highest number of products here. It all started with the Glanza and Baleno while we have seen bigger changes with the Toyota Hyryder and the Maruti Grand Vitara. Lately, we have seen the Invicto and the Hycross while now Toyota will sell the Ertiga with its badge and will call it Rumion. For Toyota and Maruti it is profitable to sell each other's products with changes and expand product line-ups without huge cost.

The Rumion is an Ertiga while it does get some small design changes including a new grille plus alloys. Inside too the Rumion will be different with a new colour scheme while the feature list would be similar to the Ertiga. There would be a petrol powertrain and a torque converter automatic and a manual gearbox. There would also be a CNG version due later.

The bigger question is what all this means for the buyer and here it is a question of choice along with appealing to a wider customer base with essentially the same car. Another reason is meeting new norms regarding CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency) where the entire fleet of models is considered and here a badge-engineered car is a cost-effective solution.

The Rumion will not eat into the Ertiga sales instead increase the visibility and attract new buyers in the form of the Rumion with small changes to distinguish. Further on we do expect deeper changes with badge-engineered cars that only make the other more appealing and by giving it a different identity.

Cars like the Hyryder and the Grand Vitara are completely different in many ways while the same cannot be said for the Glanza and the Baleno.