Maruti Suzuki is working really hard to get back in the green in the greater than 10 lakh segment. The company, though has a huge 44 percent market share, has never been able to make a mark in anything over Dzire/Ertiga.
To buck the trend, Maruti Suzuki has a couple of very interesting products in the 9-15 lakh segment – First one is the gorgeous Ciaz, SX4 replacement sedan and the other is the S-CROSS Crossover which will rival the likes of Duster here.
While the Ciaz will make its way sometime this year, in an update at Autocar, the S-CROSS will be launched in the Indian market by early 2015. The crossover was showcased for the first time in India during the Auto Expo in February along with the Ciaz concept. The SX4 S-CROSS has already been on sale in some international markets and is all set to woo the car buyers in India.Clearly, Maruti is planning to cash in on the ‘crossover/Compact-SUV’ trend that is the rage these days.
While we do not know which petrol engine (if et all) will S-CROSS get but it is the more-interesting diesel engine everyone is hooked onto. Various online reports are claiming that it will be the 1.6L Multijet diesel, however, a recent report has also claimed a 1.6L Peugeot sourced motor to be doing the duties (details here).
In our opinion, it is more likely to get the 1.6L Multijet diesel from Fiat (which surprisingly Fiat itself is yet to launch on its products in India). This 1.6L MJD produces a peak power output of 119.6PS and an impressive 314Nm of max torque.
But here comes a little dampener! According to Autocar, Maruti is expected to price S-CROSS at around 13-14 Lakhs which is a bit higher than what we expect.
It appears that Maruti will position the S-Cross as a premium offering with the top-end variants also expected to get LED Day Time Running Lamps. The company will also do some modifications to the international model to suit the Indian market scenario and harsh driving conditions.
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