Maruti Ertiga LXI – A perfect budget crossover

Pros : Spacious cabin, reasonable price, lots of features

Cons : Retro looks, doubts in its success due to Maruti’s history with big cars

Maruti Ertiga, an upcoming MUV which now has become a well known and much talked about vehicle in India, in coming in April 2011. After taking a look at the car at the January’s auto expo, I had decided that it is going to be my next vehicle and I will book this MPV as soon as company starts the bookings.

Now, one may ask why I am so eager to buy this vehicle when a number of other options like Toyota Innova, Mahindra Xylo and upcoming Ford EcoSport are there. My answer is, being a Maruti portfolio car, what Ertiga carries along with it is the peace of mind in terms by offering lowest maintenance and servicing cost in its segment. Moreover, when you go the sell out your vehicle in the used car market, it fetches back a good amount of money and that too without any hassle.

However, I am yet to decide that which version I am going to buy among the options of a petrol and diesel version. As is expected the petrol version of the car will come powered by an all new 1.4L K – series petrol engine which will be delivering a high power output of 70 Kw at 6000 rpm along with a peak torque of 130 Nm at 4000 rpm. While taking about the diesel version, it will come powered by the same 1.3L multijet engine which has already proved its high performance in the vehicles like Maruti Swift, Maruti Ritz and Swift Dzire.  

I hope the company will keep the price tag of this MUV as low as possible, because if its price range goes over Rs 8 lakh, it will become out of my budget. The petrol base model with a price tag of Rs 6.8 lakh is what I am expecting.