India’s biggest car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki is ready to reintroduce a refurbished and cheaper Alto. Maruti considers that the time is ripe to introduce a basic model of its most popular car. It sells nearly 20,000 Altos a month, thus making it India’s best selling car.
With this, the company thinks that slimmer Alto will not only assist it beating competition from new cars in the markets but also substitute the iconic Maruti 800 which is being withdrawn. This new Alto will be fitted with a 1 litre K-Series Engine and will cost up to Rs 2 lakh.
RC Bhargava, Maruti Chairman, said “The Alto will not be much more expensive than the 800 and we will keep trying to do whatever we can to make it more and more affordable. The car will be in showrooms in the next couple of months but don’t expect major changes in design. The company doesn’t want to change the design of its highly successful car model and its not just Alto, Maruti is planning to refresh its entire car line up a new Wagon R which is also expected before the end of April.”
Maruti said that it had spent Rs 290 crore in improving its hatchback WagonR to be rolled out from a new platform with a new engine by this month end.
Mayank Pareek, Maruti Suzuki India Executive Officer (Marketing and Sales) said, “This (new WagonR) is not a minor change, but a full model change. So, a lot of investment has gone for it. We have invested about Rs 290 crore for upgrading the model”.
The new WagonR will be fitted with a Bharat Stage IV emission norms compliant K10B engine. It will be manufactured at the company’s Gurgaon plant.