Early September 2014 it was when we informed you about the Maruti Suzuki Ciaz’s hitting three thousand bookings in three days, and that was even before the car was launched! And now, since its launch in October, it has gone on to record more than 17,000 bookings by the end of last month!
The month-end sales reports show that Maruti has finally sold 6,345 Ciaz cars in October 2014 as compared to its arch rival, the City, which managed to sell 5,120 units last month. Maruti had earlier announced that it hopes to sell 6,000 Ciaz cars per month and they have not only achieved that target but exceeded it as well in the first month. Of course, that does not translate into an all-out victory for the newest challenger from Maruti, yet.
We had informed our readers earlier in August that Honda has shifted the production of the City at its Tapukara plant in Alwar, Rajasthan, which meant that the car was not produced in that month. As such, the waiting period increased and Honda, along with restarting production of the City in September, had announced to start a second shift of operations at the Tapukara plant which would minimize the waiting period of the City drastically. Let’s wait for it, as things would really get a lot more interesting when deliveries of both the cars are readily available!
That being said, there is no denying the fact that the brilliant Honda City has finally met a car that might prove to be more than match in the long run. Maruti has priced the car fantastically – the entry-level petrol Ciaz (and also the Nisaan Sunny) happens to be the cheapest car in this segment!
And yes, from the City to the VW Vento – we have included them all here. Plus, the Ciaz’s top-end diesel is cheaper than the City’s top-end diesel by more than a lakh. Heck, the Ciaz is more fuel-efficient than all of them too – the most important factor in our country, irrespective of the segment!
Okay, so at present, everything seems to be going in Maruti’s favour, but only over the next few months will we get to know where things stand with these two. Until then, the Ciaz would have also received new top-end ‘Z+’ trims in both petrol and diesel variants…
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