Honda City has so far been the best-selling car in the mid-size sedan segment. Guess that’s about to change? Whatever Maruti Suzuki touches with its Midas touch, turns into gold, okay okay..most of it does (!) but their wonder has not really worked in the premium sedan segment.
SX4, after its initial hype, went on to receive lacklustre sales. But with Ciaz, things look a little more promising. As per a report on Economic Times, in its first three days since bookings for the new car opened (on 3rd Sep), Ciaz has already clocked 3,000 bookings. The number of enquires has also been very interesting with the number ranging between 10,000 to 12,000.
Maruti has never spent so much money on a car’s development and every penny of those 620 crores seems to be completely worth its salt. The car also wins the tag of being the country’s most fuel efficient car, with the diesel powered 1.3L multijet, sourced from Fiat, churning out an ARAI certified mileage of 26.21kmpl, better than City. The 1.4L K-series petrol from the Ertiga also is fairly economical, with a rated mleage of 20.7kmpl.
While the engines are very fuel efficient, Maruti seems to have sacrificed on the performance front. But whatever firepower it loses out because of the lacklustre power figures, it makes it up with its strong features list. As has been the case with erstwhile SX4 as well, Ciaz appears to be at least half a segment bigger than the competition, including City and hence, there is half a segment higher interior space as well. The company claims that Ciaz has 10-12 per cent more interior space when compared to other mid-size sedans in the country.
Ciaz has been built keeping the emerging markets in mind with focus on India and China (where it is called as Alivio). But can this spurt in bookings be sustained in the long term? Even the Maruti SX4 did well in its initial days. Let us wait and see how things go but first up, we await its official prices and launch which is scheduled for the first half of October, most probably on 10th!
Related: Speculation: Swift May Get an AMT Box & NOT The Conventional 4-Speed Auto
