Indian Autos blog

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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Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, India’s largest car maker, unveiled an all-new BS-IV compliant K12M engine at its Gurgaon plant. The 1.2L all-aluminium engine is second in the K-series and is said to have technological superiority and higher fuel efficiency over the K10B engine that powers Maruti Suzuki’s A-Star.

The K12M engine has been specifically designed for Indian applications. Maruti Suzuki’s engineers worked as part of Suzuki’s Engine Design team for the design, calibration and testing of the engine in Japan and in India. It will be put to use in the new Ritz hatchback (a.k.a Splash) which is slated for launch in May ’09.

A very swift spy photographer has had a shot of heavily camouflaged Chevrolet Beat prototype lounging around at New York’s Rochester Institute of Technology. The camouflaged runabout was spotted in a parking lot on the university’s grounds.

As you may recall, the Chevy Beat was the most popular of a trio of concepts (Beat,Groove & Trax) that Chevy showed to the world at last years New York Auto Show. Based on General Motors’ new global mini-car platform, the Beat was originally designed to be the sportiest of the triplets with only two doors and a 1.2L 16-valve DOHC inline-four cylinder,turbocharged petrol engine mated to either a manual or automatic gearbox.

Speculation has it, that the Chevrolet Beat will be launched in the Korean markets first, as a four door version and without a turbocharger. The production is set to take place there in mid-2009, but with GM struggling to make its ends meet even after receiving the bail-out package, delays should be inevitable.

The latest edition of AutoBild magazine has a rendering of the Chevrolet Beat, along with 24 other cars. Grab a copy- it’s an exciting read full of eye candy.

Maruti Suzuki has plans of launching Splash in India by April next year. As we reviewed earlier, the Splash is quite a looker. For those who think the Splash does’nt look sporty enough, Suzuki has got an answer. The Japanese car-maker now offers a GT sports pack to its customers in Netherlands which consists of two front-bumper pieces, side skirts, door mouldings, roof spoiler, a faux air diffuser for the  [ Read More ]

Maruti is striving to push its cars to the next level, a height to which Indian cars can have pleasant experiences on foreign soil as well. The policy of World class cars for India is taking shape as reports claim Maruti Suzuki has decided to set up a Research and Development (R&D) centre at Manesar, near Gurgaon which will be in all angles, similar to Suzuki Motor Corporation’s (SMC) research  [ Read More ]

A month or two back, Topspeed and Team bhp blew their trumpets claiming they had the exclusive snaps of the Suzuki A-Star (production version). What they in fact possessed were the production version’s snapshots of the next-gen Alto prepared exclusively for small car markets like India, which is to be unveiled Officially in the Paris Motorshow in October, this year. Maruti officials at the Delhi AutoExpo, where the A-Star was  [ Read More ]

Known for making cheeky small cars, Suzuki is on a roll. Its Swift was a trendsetter and won many accolades all round the world.This brilliant car was followed up with the all new SX4 crossover/SX4 sedan (depending on the market) which has also been received well (call it an instant hit in India). Next in line was the exciting Splash which just made a splash in the international market and  [ Read More ]