Indian passenger car buyers seem to never get enough of the Maruti Suzuki and whatever the company presents, it instantly becomes a top-seller in the domestic market. The trend started when the Maruti Suzuki launched the Maruti 800, a re-badged version of the Suzuki Fronte, in the Indian passenger car market in 1983. The Indo-Japanese alliance gave the Indian audience their first city car, which then went on to become the most successful car of the country with total sales close to 2.5 million units.
A huge reason for the massive reception of Maruti 800 by the Indian car enthusiasts was its aggressive pricing, which has been the company's usual strategy till date. The Maruti 800 gave the Indian public, their first affordable four wheeler and the car carried along a sense of 'style statement' for its owners.
Over the years, the 800 model followed a number of cosmetic changes, such as addition of an Air Conditioning (AC) system in 1986, the Multi Point Fuel Injection (MPFI) engine and body graphics in 1999 and the dual fuel petrol-LPG '800 Duo' variant in 2008, among others. The car continued to reproduce its previous successes with its new models and the Maruti Suzuki felt no real need for discontinuing it.
Maruti Suzuki didn't just limit itself to the small car market but has continuously explored new different segments, with its immensely successful Sports Utility Vehicle Gypsy and the family micro-van Omni that was also used as an inter-city carrier. To some extent every segment the car maker picked, the Indian consumers followed with admiration and respect. The strategy of revamping its popular models have worked wonders for it and every now and then Maruti Suzuki chalks out a different model that again proves why the company is considered champion of the Indian automobile market.
At present Maruti Suzuki, the country's largest passenger maker, has many segment leaders in the country under its kitty and its domination in the small car market is unparalleled. The company has Alto, Alto K10, Estilo, WagonR, A-Star, Ritz and Swift hatchbacks, Swift DZire, SX4 and Kizashi sedans along with Utility Vehicles (UV) like Ertiga, Eeco, Gypsy and Grand Vitara in the Indian passenger car market. The company's history of engineering and designing vehicles complying with the needs and requirements of Indian public has accorded Maruti Suzuki with the title of 'People's car maker', and another automobile firm taking the same title in the country seems definitely far fetched.
