As the days pass by, India is maturing as an automotive market. Products are getting more creative, new technologies are revealed, cars are getting more feature-packed and buyers are demanding more.
Once upon a time, an automatic gearbox was really something that you could do without, but now it is becoming a necessity. Many manufacturers are making sure that they launch automatic variants of their models along with the manual ones.
Maruti Suzuki has announced the prices of the Ritz AT variant through their official website. The Ritz AT is priced at Rs. 6.15 lakhs (Ex-Showroom Delhi).
It seems that the Ritz AT will only be available in a petrol avatar. This means that the 1.2L K-Series engine will be mated to a 4 speeder from the A-star/Dzire. The engine has a healthy power output of 83bhp and 114Nm and the 4 speed torque converter gearbox is quite snappy in city traffic. This should make the Ritz and ideal city car for overcrowded/traffic stricken metros.
Despite the automatic gearbox, the car only weighs 20 kgs heavier than the manual avatar. Maruti Suzuki is claiming an ARAI certified mileage of 17.6 kmpl for the AT variant which is just 0.9 kmpl less than the manual one. The AT variant is only available in the VXi model.
The Ritz AT will compete against Hyundai i10 AT and Honda Brio AT and should be an ideal choice for a city buyer who requires a no nonsense car to get from Point A to Point B. There is a very good chance that the Ritz AT will be launched in January 2013 to make sure that the model year does not factor 1 year depreciation.
[Source: Carwale.com & Oncars.in]
