Indian Autos blog

Maruti is extremely delighted. 100,000 KB-Series engines have rolled out of its Gurgaon plant into cars in India and abroad since operations began ten months ago.

The KB Series engine powers the Ritz and the A-Star (sold in Europe as the Suzuki Alto and Nissan Pixo)

The next model to be powered by a KB-Series engine could be the Estilo, followed by the Wagon R. The company will take this as an opportunity to face lift these cars and prepare them to combat challenges posted by the Euro IV emission norms next year.

The engine is lighter, powerful and more fuel efficient than the exisiting line-up. company produces Bharat Stage-III, Bharat Stage-IV and Euro-V emission norms compliant KB-series engines.

Maruti Suzuki is likely to roll out cars with stop-start technology soon. This technology will boost the fuel economy by around 5-10%, but will increase the car’s price by Rs.10,000-20,000. Bosch is said to source this patented technology to Maruti.

You can catch our Maruti Suzuki Ritz Special segment to learn the earlier developments and the car

Just hours ago, MSIL (Maruti Suzuki India Limited) launched the Suzuki Ritz (Splash elsewhere) in India in petrol and diesel variants. The Ritz is the seventh small car in Maruti’s portfolio, positioned in the A2 segment.

The Ritz will be available with two engines- you choose either the K-series 1.2 litre, four-cylinder, 85PS Petrol engine or the 1.3 litre, 16-valve DDiS, 75PS Diesel engine that Fiat and Tata customers are happy driving.

The diesel variants cost Rs 4.65 lakh and Rs 4.99 lakh, where as the three petrol variants cost between 3.90 lakh to Rs 4.80 lakh.

Petrol Versions –

Lxi – Rs.3,90,000/-
Vxi – Rs.4,20,000/-
Zxi – Rs.4.80,000/-

Diesel Versions –

Ldi – Rs.4,65,000/-
Vdi – Rs.4,99,000/-

(All prices Ex-Showroom Delhi)

Suzuki designed the Ritz on the Swift‘s platform, and the high degree of localization additionally helps bringing down the costs.

The company was able to achieve 85% localization for this car.

The Ritz is also India’s first BS IV compliant hatchback. Maruti’s spokesperson declined to comment on the number of cars they were targeting to sell due to the twisted market conditions, but assured it was equipped to meet any level of demand.

Maruti Suzuki India Managing Director and CEO Shinzo Nakanishi-

“Ritz is our parent Suzuki’s fifth global model and it will be the first Bharat Stage-IV emission norms compliant Indian car. We have launched it at the beginning of the fiscal and we hope it will bring excitement in the market”

We’ll update you when more information is available.

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The new Suzuki Alto (Indian A-Star) is ready to go on sale in the UK from the 1st of March and from where else will the car be sourced? Maruti Suzuki will export the first few Euro-spec units from right here in India (remember that the A-Star is not made anywhere else in the world). The base version will carry an on-road price tag of £6,795.

Maruti Suzuki India today revealed its plans to replace three of its cars — the WagonR, Omni and Versa. A person dealing with the projects said the new WagonR will be based on the Suzuki’s MR Wagon platform(like the existing model), but the exterior and interior will be throughly made-over. The new Omni will be built on Versa platform to replace both Omni and Versa.

India’s largest carmaker – Maruti Suzuki has yet again hiked the prices (since its last hike in October’08) of its cars by Rs 5,000-10,000 with effect from January 28, attributing it to higher input prices and foreign currency movement, which affects prices of imported components.

While prices of all variants of SX4 sedan has been hiked by Rs 9,000, the price of Swift Petrol LXi has now been revised upwards by Rs 5,000.

The Latest offering from Suzuki’s stable – The Maruti A-star, re-badged as Pixo in Euro markets and Alto in others, has bagged its first Car Of The Year Award from Zig Wheels.

The A-star will be sold in markets such as Australia later in 2009 and will be named as ‘Alto’. The Alto we know of is the different model, in the previous generation car in the Alto lineup, which turns out to be India’s best selling car as of now.

Chief judge Adil Jal Darukhanawala was impressed by the well designed small cars, which is frugal, simple, reliable and efficient. The judges were very enthusiastic about the A-Star’s all new 1.0-litre engine.

“The car doesn’t break any new ground in absolute power and torque, but in its actual delivery in terms of acceleration from standstill, in-gear driveability and top speed it is the proverbial David with the wherewithal to massacre many Goliaths.”

A few months ago, we brought you spy pictures of the upcoming Suzuki Kizashi testing in the U.S, which you can view here. It looks like the Suzuki Kizashi could well be the next vehicle from Maruti after the upcoming A-Star and the Splash in India. Maruti is taking bold decisions after the immense success of its latest models-The Swift and the SX4. We expect the A-Star and the Splash  [ Read More ]