Maruti revolutionized the Indian small car market with the introduction of Automated Manual Transmission on their Celerio. Since then, the AMT box has found a place on the new Alto K10 and will go to other cars as well but so far it was plonked only on petrol engines. And now, for the first time, Maruti is testing an AMT gearbox on their diesel cars.
Featured on this page (courtesy Gaadiwaadi.com) are very interesting spy pictures of one of their largest selling cars – Maruti Dzire diesel running around with an AMT box. Currently, Tata’s Zest is the cheapest automatic (AMT) diesel car in the country and now Maruti intends to join the race with this new Dzire AMT.
Maruti can not change the engine overnight and hence it will definitely be the same 1.3 Liter Fiat sourced DDIS motor and we expect it to continue with the FGT (Fixed Geometry Turbocharger) with similar power figures of around 75PS and 190Nm of power and torque respectively. Fuel efficiency figures are also expected to remain almost similar and this is the top ZDI version under tests.
Since the Dzire got a new facelift very recently, the AMT, when launched (expected this year), will just be a mechanical update without any changes to the design. There may be a few additional features thrown in to make it a more luring prospect.
Also Read: BUSTED: EcoSport-Rival Maruti’s YBA Compact SUV Spied Undisguised First Time!
This also hints at the possibility of the Maruti Swift AMT coming on the diesel engine, also sometime later this year…
