Thursday, May 03, 2012
By Manoj Kumawat
Maruti Swift topples Alto, becomes the top selling car in India
Maruti’s entry level car Maruti Alto, that has been the ruling the A segment along with the domestic market has finally been skidded to the second spot by its sibling Maruti Swift. Maruti’s premium hatchback Swift has always been a hot seller ever since it was rendered in a new avatar.
The diesel variant of the new Swift is selling like hot cakes in the domestic market, thanks to the ever soaring petrol prices that helped diesel variant to have an edge over the petrol variant. Maruti’s entry level Alto had been ruling the number one slot for the past seven years. Around 20,000 units of Alto are sold every month. New Swift too is selling in good numbers, around 20,000 units a month, as mentioned earlier the diesel version is receiving out stripping demand. Even before the launch of the revamped Swift, the company managed to garner huge booking numbers, around 80% of the bookings belonged to the diesel variant. Due to the recurrent labour strikes at the Maruti’s Manesar plant the production got hampered, due to the sluggish production, the Maruti Swift sales suffered enormously.
| See More Maruti Swift Photos | Get Maruti Swift Price |
The company of late inked a pact with Fiat as per which Fiat will source diesel engines to Maruti. This has helped Maruti in shrinking the waiting period of Swift to four to five months with was earlier 7 to 9 months. The fall in Alto’s sales could be because of the lack of diesel mill as the car is present in petrol and CNG variants only. The hatchback was launched in India around a decade back and now it is a high time, the company should make some changes to the looks of the car. Auto makers have rolled out entry level cars that adorn much contemporary looks as compared to Alto, for example, Hyundai Eon which was launched in October last year in India.
| See More Maruti Alto Photos | Get Maruti Alto Price |
The company is now planning to launch a new model which will be placed below Alto and replace the medieval Maruti 800 hatchback. Maruti will definitely work towards making it a best seller once again.
