Maruti Suzuki has recently recalled its 100,000 A-Star models owing to a faulty fuel tank part. The company fears a serious setback on sales due to the situation in hand. Its shares have already tumbled 3.2 percent in the market. Chairman RC Bhargava, however, seemed unperturbed about the impact of the recall on the company’s image and sales, observing that defects such as those found in the A-Star “happen in the normal course of manufacturing”.
Maruti had earlier recalled its Zen model few years back. According to a top auto industry executive, “There was a Zen recall some years ago when that model was exported and Maruti had to send teams to the distributors in major markets to fix the problem at the workshops.” “The good news for the company is that its distributors in its major export market, Europe, are appointed by parent Suzuki and Maruti acts as a contract manufacturer.”
Moreover, in 2001 Maruti had also recalled 75,000 Omnis to replace a faulty routing of fuel hose. There had also been faulty pinion in steering systems in M800 in 1997 when the company had recalled approximately 50,000 units.
