Maruti hikes prices with Immediate Effect

Maruti has increased the prices of its cars with immediate effect and has stated “rising input costs and introduction of BS IV norms” as the main reason behind it. List of car models and their respective price rise -

A-Star/Ritz	by Rs. 1000
Estilo/Omni/Swift	Rs. 2500 – 3750
Dzire	Rs. 7000
SX4	Rs. 9000
Eeco (New)	Rs 10000
Maruti 800/Omni LPG (BS III)	Rs 3000

Hyundai to launch 800 cc car in India Soon!

Hyundai will be launching an 800cc petrol car in India by 2011-2012. Currently the lowest cost model from Hyundai is the Santro. But the company wants to launch a car which costs even less than the Santro and the i-10. It wants to produce the car on scale comparable to the Maruti 800 (which has been phased out in 13 metro cities all over the country because of the stricter BS-IV emission norms). Though the company said the car will be cheap, it made it clear that it does not have in mind to compete with the Tata Nano because it can’t afford to produce a Rs 1 lakh car right now. The car will be for both the domestic and international markets.

Maruti won’t pass on Tax Benefits to New Swift Customers

Maruti Suzuki has recently got the benefit of lower taxes for the new model of its Swift car. The company will save around Rs 40,000 per car thanks to a lower excise duty for the new Swift’s smaller engine.

The smaller 1.2 L engine attracts an 8% excise duty, 12% lower than that of the phased-out 1.3L version. Cars under 4 metres with 1.2-litre petrol engines and 1.5-litre diesel engines attract an 8% excise duty while other passenger vehicles are taxed at 20%.

Traditionally, car makers pass on these benefits to customers in the form of reduced prices. But Maruti has decided to keep the price of the base model of the Swift same i.e about Rs. 4 lakhs.

Maruti attributes this decision to the rise in commodity prices and the cost of the new petrol engine. However, industry experts say that Maruti has taken this step keeping in view the upcoming launches in the premium hatchback segment by rival companies such as the Ford Figo, VW Polo & Toyota Etios. At that stage, Maruti will attract the customers towards the Swift by lowering prices. Swift has been the leader in its segment ahead of hatches like the Honda Jazz, Hyundai i20, Fiat Punto & the Skoda Fabia since its launch in 2005.

Maruti Suzuki does a Price Hike

• Maruti Suzuki India has hiked prices of most of its models by an estimated up to Rs 10,000 depending upon the model
• The average increase in prices is of around 0.6%, it varies from 0.12% for the Ritz VDi at the lower end to 1.9% for the Dzire LXi models
• The refreshed Estilo which was launched in August last year will now be expensive by Rs 1,200- Rs 2,400 depending on the variants.
• Acc to the Company, "The price increase is to partly recover the increase in the input costs arising out of raw material costs (including steel) over the past one year."
• Maruti’s recently launched multipurpose vehicle Eeco, Petrol variant of the small car Swift and its Gypsy models will not be affected by the price rise.
• Recently, Other car manufacturers such as Honda Siel Cars India and BMW had also taken similar measures.

Maruti's DZire crosses one lakh sales mark

NEW DELHI: The country's largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki India, today said its entry level sedan 'DZire' has crossed the one lakh units mark in sales within 18 months of launch.

"MSI today achieved a cumulative sale of one lakh units of the DZire," a company spokesperson said.

The company had launched the DZire in March 2008 in both petrol and diesel variants priced between Rs 4.49 lakh and Rs 6.70 lakh.

This follows the company's recent milestones, including achieving 80 lakh units of cumulative production for all its brands, followed by roll-out of one lakh units of its KB-series engines and launch of the 1,00,000th units of its flagship export model 'A-Star'.

The company has scaled up production of DZire from 4,000 units initially to 7,000 units a month now, the spokesperson added.

"Yet the car is having a waiting period of up to four months," he added.

The entry-level sedan competes in the A-3 segment with cars like Tata's Indigo, Ford's Fusion, Hyundai's Accent and General Motors' Aveo.

MSI has a market share of 38.6 per cent in the A-3 segment during the April-August period of this fiscal, up from 27.2 per cent during the same period last year.

Suzuki's Factory in India Soon

Suzuki Motor plans to spend about 30 billion yen ($322.6 million)to build a factory in India around 2011, boosting its production capacity
in the country by 30 per cent.

Suzuki's Indian unit, Maruti Suzuki controls about half of the country's market share. Maruti Suzuki Chairman R C Bhargava said earlier this week its management was considering whether to expand production capacity, adding it would be known soon.

Source - Economic Times

New Estilo from Maruti Suzuki Launched :Aug 25, 2009

Maruti Suzuki India, the country's largest car maker, today launched a new version of its small car Estilo with a fuel efficient engine

Price

Between Rs 3.12 lakh and Rs 3.95 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).

Engine

The new 998 CC petrol car is equipped with the latest K-series engines, on the lines of the company's other small cars -> A-Star and Ritz.

Maruti Suzuki India Managing Director and CEO Shinzo Nakanishi told reporters,

"Product upgradation is an integral part of Maruti Suzuki's business strategy and future plans. This is a way to include feedback from the customers and offer better products that match their tastes,"

Mileage

According to the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), Estilo would run 18.2 km in every litre of petrol.

‘Zen’ dropped from Name

The company has dropped the very successful brand name 'Zen' from the car as it views that it does not suit the current taste of Indian youth, to whom this car is targeted.

Production

The new Estilo would be produced from MSI's Gurgaon plant, which also manufactures the A-Star and the Ritz. The existing Zen Estilo comes with a 1.1 litre petrol engine.

The New 2010 Zen Estilo ~ The WOW Car!

Yes, that's the new campaign Maruti is running for its upcoming Zen Estilo. It is also heard that the company will strip off the Zen name from the car and will name it something new.

For our coverage of the New Zen Estilo, please click here , here or here.

Take a look at the teaser video -

Maruti to launch KB Series Engine Equipped Zen Estilo on August 25

                                      Spotted – the new Zen Estilo, [img courtesy – team bhp]

Riding on the success of the new fuel-efficient technology in its KB Series Engine, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) will be launching the New KB Engine equipped Zen Estilo on August 25.

The existing Cars from Maruti that house the fuel-efficient KB Series Engine are the A-Star (1L Engine) & Ritz (1.2 Litre Engine). The cars had last month completed one lakh units of Production.

Acc. to Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI),  the A-Star gives a mileage of 19.6 km per litre, while Ritz has a milage of 17.7 Kmpl.

Rumors are alive that the Wagon R will also be launched with a 1.1L K series engine very soon. No official word on that one, though (=

Maruti Suzuki to launch Kizashi in India Next Year (2010)

Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) will introduce its sports luxury car Kizashi in India at 2010 Auto Expo. The Kizashi, which is Suzuki’s first big car developed in-house, has already been launched in the US.

Features

• First-all-wheel-drive luxury car in India
• Suzuki developed 2.4-litre Euro IV engine
• Standard six-speed manual transmission
• Optional automatic transmission based on continuously variable transmission (CVT) technology with paddle shifters mounted on the steering wheel (like those in Honda City and Toyota Corolla Altis).
• Large tyre size of a 21 inch wheel (against Honda Civic’s 15 inch.)

Price

• The Car will be come in price bracket of Rs. 10-13 lakhs

Competition

• Maruti Suzuki’s Kizashi will compete with the likes of Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Hyundai Sonata, SkodaAuto Octavia and Volkswagen Jetta. Maruti engineers have already started work on Kizashi and are likely to customise the luxury sedan for rugged Indian road conditions.

Acc to Sources, the Kizashi Project is the most ambitious project by Maruti in India in the 26 year old history of the carmaker.

Maruti will pitch it as a D-Segment sports crossover — a vehicle that derives from a car platform while blends features from a sports utility vehicle.

Maruti is expected to manufacture Kazashi at its sprawling 500 acre Manesar Facility.

New Revamped Maruti Suzuki Zen Estilo to be launched Next Week

Maruti Suzuki will launch the facelifted version of the Zen Estilo in the second last week of this month, August 09

The car has already gone through the homologation process sucessfully and Maruti is currently conducting trainings on the new model for aftersales and service.

The facelift adresses the biggest weakness with the Zen Estilo, which essentially is a Wagon-R in different clothes - the styling. The front fascia is completely new with new sharper designed headlamps, new grille and front bumper with round fog lamps.

The biggest change is under the hood which now has Maruti’s latest K-Series engine. Its still not clear if the engine would be the detuned 1.2 Litre unit or the 1.0 Litre unit from the A-Star but we will put our money on the smaller engine.

Stay Tuned. More info, pics to come after the launch.

CNG Kit for Alto launched in “only” Delhi & NCR – Price Rs 43,545

The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki has launched CNG kit for its highest selling small car Alto in the national capital region, priced at Rs 43,545.

"The Maruti-authorised CNG kits will be available across variants of brand new Maruti Suzuki Alto at dealerships in only Delhi and NCR from June 17 onwards," the company said in a statement.

The retrofitted CNG Altos would come with a 12-kg tank, which would accommodate 7-7.5 kg of Compressed Natural Gas, it added.

The company had earlier said it stopped working on LPG models as it planned to roll out CNG variants of the entire range of its cars from early 2010, the first of which would be the Alto.

MSI's Maruti 800, Omni and WagonR come with dual fuel (LPG-cum-petrol) variants. Earlier, it had also offered CNG fitted cars for some period, but later withdrew them. It has so far sold over two lakh vehicles fitted with alternative fuel technology.