If Maruti Suzuki has built it, people are going to buy it. That seems to an unwritten law in the minds of Indian customers who have grown to trust the auto brand over last few decades, owing to their reputation of reliable cars, which are priced economically, coupled with cheap after sales service and wide network of company dealerships.
If Maruti Suzuki has built it, people are going to buy it.
That seems to an unwritten law in the minds of Indian customers who have grown to trust the auto brand over last few decades, owing to their reputation of reliable cars, which are priced economically, coupled with cheap after sales service and wide network of company dealerships.
So, it was no surprise then, that the newly launched Maruti Suzuki Celerio at the recently concluded 2014 Delhi Motor Show would quickly go on to making headlines in terms of sales and registrations.
So far, the Indian automaker has received over 14,000 bookings within just twenty days of the Celerio’s launch and the company further claimsthat it receives over 1,000 bookings a day for the Celerio – most of which are made for the new AMT – Automated Manual Transmission – variant.
The new transmission system debuted with the Celerio and is aimed at eliminating the stress of having to deal with a clutch in a stop and go traffic, while keeping the cost low and the mileage figures as high as in the conventional manual variant (23.1kmpl).
The traditional automatic transmission have always added to the cost of the car, and usually this added cost ranges anywhere between Rs 90,000 to Rs 1,30,000 over their manual counterparts. In the case of Maruti Suzuki Celerio however, the AMT variant has been priced just Rs 40,000 above the cost of the manual variant.
Furthermore, the recently announced cuts in excise duty of small cars from 12 per cent to 8 per cent have made the Celerio even more enticing for the Indian customers.
The small hatchback was launched on 6th February 2014 at a starting price of Rs 4.39 lakh (ex-showroom, New Delhi). However, with price cut put into effect last week, the Maruti Suzuki Celerio is now retailing at 3.76 lakh for the base manual variant and the automatic transmission version at Rs 4.14 lakh (Both prices are ex-showroom, New Delhi.) At a price of Rs 4.14 lakh, the Maruti Suzuki Celerio has become the cheapest automatic car in India.
The hugely competitive pricing of the Celerio has captured the hearts and minds of many customers.
On the other hand however, Maruti Suzuki is left scratching its brains to bring the supply of Celerio AMT in tune with the staggering demand. Currently, the Indian automaker is importing the parts used in the AMT system from the international market, which has invariably increased the waiting period for the AMT variant to a few months.
As a refresher, the Celerio hatchback is being powered a 1.0-litre K10 petrol engine that is rated at 67PS and 89Nm. ARAI tested mileage is a class leading 23.1kmpl. The engine comes mated to either a 5-Speed manual transmission or the new clutch less AMT. Maruti Suzuki Celerio Diesel variants are expected to launch at a later stage. In India and in the global market, the Celerio hatchback has replaced the Zen Estillo and the A-Star models.
The all-new Maruti Suzuki Celerio is literally, a tiny bomb that has quickly declared a war on the Hatchback segment.
With its aggressive pricing and the trusted Maruti backing, we have no doubts that the newest small car is going to break some big records in terms of sales in the months to follow.
