Indian Autos blog

If you are a ‘Cricket-and-Car enthusiast’ and you have just read our first look on VW Vento IPL edition model, you might think that the choice of car is quite obvious for you. Well, as it turns out, you are also spoiled for choice. When Maruti boffins realized that VW is encroaching on their ‘Special Edition’ strategy, they got very angry. And in this anger and hatred, they decided to  [ Read More ]

Our friends at Maruti Suzuki sent us this TV commercial that will hit the small screens starting tomorrow.

According to Maruti Suzuki –

The TV Ad aims to celebrate the unique moments each Ritz owner has had in his car. Over 1 lakh Ritz models have been sold across the country and each owner has multiple memories attached to his car.

What do you think about it?

Maruti Suzuki, India’s number one car maker is the unchallenged king of the Indian car market. But even by being at the number one position, the company faces problems in making faster deliveries for its products which are perennially in demand. Especially the Maruti Swift, Swift Dzire and the Eeco have long waiting periods.

Earlier Maruti Suzuki offered the best products in the small car segment and almost enjoyed monopoly. But now with the a number of highly competent new players like Ford and General Motors entering the segment, Maruti is threatened and has started losing customers who can’t wait long enough for a Maruti and rather pickup a Ford Figo or a Chevrolet Beat for example

Maruti looks to correct its mistakes and reduce the waiting time on its products by setting up regional car stockyards all over the country. The first of these stockyards would be set up near Bangalore within six months.

A company official stated -

The intention is to set up at least one stockyard in each of the zones, North, South, East and West. Such a concept is important for a vast country like India and will reduce the waiting period for the customers. Very often there is a mismatch between the variant and color of a particular car that a customer wants and the car that is available at the dealership. Setting up regional stockyards will increase availability of the cars and reduce time of transportation.

Maruti Suzuki India has earmarked Rs. 200 crores for setting up these stockyards all over the country. These yards would be spread over 25 acres and this would also considerably bring down the working capital of dealerships who would not need to maintain a large fleet of cars.

Opel has equipped its Agila hatchback with a Start/Stop system as part of the Agila’s upgrade to the Euro 5 emission standard and a Co2 optimization package. The Agila is basically the Suzuki Splash (Maruti Suzuki Ritz in India) hatchback, re-modeled and re-badged as an Opel for sale in Europe by Opel. The car is powered by a 1.2-litre petrol engine producing 94 bhp.

The incorporation of the Start/Stop system on the Agila will help it spew out fewer Co2′s and also make it sip lesser fuel. A Start/Stop system basically prevents a car’s engine from consuming fuel whenever its not required. The Start/Stop system cuts off the engine whenever the car’s transmission is in the neutral position and the clutch pedal has been released. To bring the engine back to life, one needs to just depress the clutch pedal and voila the engine’s running again.

A Start/Stop system proves highly advantageous in city limits by shutting of the engine whenever the car’s idle, thereby decreasing fuel consumption.

Start/ Stop systems are slowly gaining ground in India with UV’s such as the Bolero and Scorpio fitted with the system having found reasonable success. Maruti has plans to make its lineup of cars more eco-friendly by fitting them with LPG and CNG kits. Maruti could look at bringing in Start/Stop systems on its petrol powered cars in the future to improve their efficiency and decrease emissions. They have to find a way to explain the benefits of this system which is not very expensive.

click through to read more

As you can see, coverage of the Maruti Suzuki Ritz on Indian Autos Blog continues, but the intensity has diminished just a little. We’ll continue to give a post here and there and why shouldn’t we? This is a new car and we’re excited about it. The excitement won’t die down till we test drive the car.

Enjoy images of the Indian spec Ritz after the break

In case you did not know, Maruti Suzuki India Limited has launched the Ritz, and we are continuing our coverage on the car throughout today.

We previously showed you the international Suzuki Splash TV advertisement, which has no similarities to the above Indian version.

This Maruti Ritz TV Advertisement, I have not yet seen on any Indian TV channels.

I don’t know whether it is worth airing since it conveys no meaning or message. The guy walks to the car, gets into it and starts driving. He looks up at the end of it and the camera zooms out to show him driving again.

Maruti, you need to hire someone else to make your Ads. This isn’t very good.

Forgive us for the lack of any posts yesterday on the Suzuki Splash/Ritz. We actually forgot about it completely. But here it is. A nice sound track and lovely picturization. Enjoy the international Suzuki Splash TV Commercial.

Few days back, you might have read from the Updates in the sidebar that Maruti Ritz is to be launched on the 15th of May. What you might not have heard is the fact that Maruti officials are going around announcing that Maruti Ritz’ main rival is the Maruti Swift. How uncool is that? Let’s hear what Maruti Suzuki MD Shinzo Nakanishi had to say

Ritz will directly compete with Swift. In the past, when we have launched cars in the same segment, it has helped the market to grow. With the launch of Ritz, our customers would have two cars to choose from in the same category”

Just to remind you, WagonR and Zen Estilo are two Marutis competing in the same small car segment. Mind you though, the Wagon R was facelifted when the Esilo came out. Apparently, the idea was to create a spectre of two new cars being launched.

In Swift’s case however, no major facelifts have been done since 2004, and by seeing the number of Swifts on the road (75% in the compact car segment), i would’nt be surprised if someone says he/she has gotten ‘BORED’ of the Swift!

click through to continue reading + Image Gallery