Maruti today announced their new sedan in the Indian market to try and gain market share in this segment. Maruti is hoping that the Maruti SX4 sedan can do what the Maruti Baleno didn’t do for them.
The Maruti SX4 comes with a 1.6 litre engine and has two variants. The VXi version which is the lower version is priced at about 6.18 lakh and the ZXi costs Rs. 6.89 lakhs. There is another higher version of the ZXi which goes as high as 7.24 lakhs.
The SX4 has the looks of a Maruti Swift and is all set to take on the Honda City and other cars in this segment. According to the company data the car is the longest and widest car in the ‘C Segment’ with excellent legroom and headroom. The car has a very good ground clearance of 190mm.
Maruti and Hyundai both have decided to hike car prices starting from the month of January due to the increase in input costs. Speaking to the company representatives, they felt compelled to do so due to a increase in freight cost and other input costs.
Managing Director of Hyundai Motor India Ltd, said, “There has been an increase in the input and freight cost for car manufacturers. We have tried to absorb as much of the cost as we can.” Hyundai car prices have been raised by close to Rs. 2,500 - 3,500 in all variants.
Maruti have segmented the rise to various amounts depending upon the cost of the car. The Maruti Baleno will now be expensive by over Rs. 12,000 which is a pretty big rise. The new cars like the Zen Estillo and the new WagonR which were introduced at discounted prices will see a rise of about Rs.3,000.
Hyundai, Maruti February 2nd 2007
The Maruti Swift Diesel LDi model is now available in India for a Ex-Showroom Price of Rs. 4,84,961. This is the pricing current released in Mumbai city and is lesser in Delhi. The estimated total On-Road price for this car is close to Rs. 5.4 lakhs.
The Swift Diesel has a 43 litre fuel tank capacity along with a 1.3L DOHC DDiS Diesel engine. Other specifications include -
Power 75 PS @ 4000 rpm
Torque 190 Nm @ 2000 rpm
No of Cylinders 4 cylinder
Cylinder Configuration Inline
Valves per Cylender 4 valve
The car comes with 14 inch 165/80 R14 tyres with a Steel wheel type. It comes in various colors from blue, black, red silver, gray and one of my best, ‘Mint Frappe’.
India, Maruti January 28th 2007
We had earlier reported that Maruti was planning to launch the diesel version of the Maruti Swift and that has infact become a reality now.
In an interview with Business Standard, Maruti officials spoke on this topic regarding the specifications of the Maruti Swift Diesel. The car will be priced at close to Rs. 4.5 lakh ex-showroom Delhi.
The ‘Maruti Swift D’ is going to be powered by a 1.3 litre multijet Fiat engine. The company had earlier decided that they would not be manufacturing units of the Esteem diesel and the Zen diesel. The price of the Swift diesel is just Rs. 50,000 more than the base version of the Swift Petrol LXi model.
MUL has seen the rise in diesel cars which currently are 30% of the total vehicals sold in the country. According to various studies, this figure is only going to rise and could go as high as 40-50% by 2010.
India, Maruti January 13th 2007
The new Maruti Zen Estilo has been fully launched in Hyderabad now, and bookings have started rolling in. The car has been released in Hyderabad and Secunderabad and will be sold through the biggest dealer there, that is RKS Motors. The Managing Director of RKS, Mr Vinay Saboo, commented “Zen’ brand and the ergonomic design and comfort value were pushing the passenger car well in the Hyderabad market, which is growing rapidly.”
Already they have seen over 200 bookings for the car, and the number is expected to double in the coming days. Lets now see how the car actually does in the more important cities like Mumbai and Delhi.
Maruti December 18th 2006
