Maruti Suzuki's new Swift is set to hit theroad next month as the company braces up for stiffer competition after Toyota launchedits Liva small car and Honda gears upto roll out its Brio hatchback.
The new Swift, which comes to India nearly oneyear after its international debut, will cost around or over Rs 10,000 morethan the model's existing price of Rs 4.09 lakh (Delhi, ex-showroom petrol variant).
The model has been ablockbuster for the company since its launch in 2005 and has been the mainstayin the premium category of the compact car segment, which accounts for nearly60% of car sales in India.
Shashank Srivastav,chief GM (sales & marketing) at Maruti Suzuki, said competition was gettingstiffer in the segment and Maruti wanted to hold on to its over 50% share."This is the biggest segment of the market and everyone wants a larger sharehere-."While Maruti has a dominance in the compact segment with its fleetof cars (including Swift, Ritz, Alto, WagonR), others are catching up fast.Volkswagen Polo, Ford Figo, Hyundai i10 andi20, GM's Beat and now Liva have been fighting hard to get big numbers here.
The new Swift willsport some changes both in the interior as well as on the exterior and Marutiis trying to give a somewhat "different feel" to the model,considering that the overall impression of the car would be maintained.
The effort will beto make the car appear more sporty. Srivastav said dealers have startedaccepting bookings for the new model and customers will have a choice to go forthe upgraded model that will make its debut around August 17. The new modelwill be slightly longer and wider than the existing model and will have a 40 mmlonger wheelbase, which will add a little more to the legroom. While the enginecapacities of the existing Swift have been retained (1200cc petrol and 1300ccdiesel), the company has made changes to technology on the petrol engine whichwill give the car more power and also make it more fuel efficient.
