With the focus shifting from hatchbacks to compact vehicles (SUVs, MPVs and sedans), India’s largest car maker and undisputed king of small cars, Maruti Suzuki India has witnessed dent in monthly sales.
April sales report clearly shows that the only segment that grew was the compact hatchback segment that too on the back of new Celerio. Presence of Automated manual transmission and a lucrative price has made Celerio a viable offering for customers. On the other hand MSI’s only sedan offering in India, SX4 faced sharp fall in sales in April 2014 at 76 units as compared to 601 units sold in the same month corresponding year. Maruti has always grappled to woe customers with its sedan offerings, with such steep fall in SX4 sales no wonder, MSI is hastening Ciaz’s launch in India. Probably this is the right time to discontinue SX4 and bring forth its replacement Ciaz in domestic market.
The grand unveiling of Ciaz at 2014 Auto Expo grabbed eyeballs of auto aficionados and on lookers. Expected to be launched in India ahead of festive season, Ciaz shares design cues from Suzuki Authentics Concept. Ciaz sports contemporary design unlike SX4 that comes with more conventional design. The capacious sedan is expected to offer ample headroom, legroom and shoulder space inside the cabin. A diesel engine is also expected to be made available for customers along with a petrol motor.
Petrol variant will come equipped with a 1.4 litre K-Series engine, while the diesel trims could be housed with a 1.3 litre multijet diesel powertrain. However the high end diesel version is speculated to be powered with a 1.6 litre multi-jet-diesel engine. Along with a five-speed manual transmission a CVT tranny is also expected to be put on offer. Pricing and mileage are two vital factors in India for cars to do well, being a Maruti product mileage is likely to be decent, as far as price is concerned a hypothetical starting price of Rs 7 lakh is being expected for the sedan.
