Suzuki - Spring News Update

MILTON KEYNES, UNITED KINGDOM – May 5, 2010: Maruti Suzuki in India is pleased to announce the celebration of over one million units production from its two plants at Manesar and Gurgaon, near Delhi. Suzuki car production began in India in December 1983 and quickly reached an annual capacity of 50,000 units just two years later. By 1988 this had grown to 100,000 units per annum and 500,000 units by 2004. A new Suzuki rolls off one of the production lines in India every 16 seconds; helped by a workforce of 7,500.

The one million units annual milestone places India on a similar output to that of the Japanese plants, underlining the importance and major contribution from Maruti Suzuki to the corporations global production of 2.35 million units in FY2009. Maruti Suzuki has produced a total of 8.8 million units since 1983.

Suzuki has a 54 per cent market share of passenger car sales in India and operates via an 847 strong sales network with over 1,800 service and repair facilities in 1,215 cities and towns across the continent; ensuring customers are never far away from their local dealer. Some of the larger dealers service up to 250 cars per day in their 50 bay workshops.

On sale now and with just 500 being available is the SX4 Aerio which offers an alternative Urban look and more sporting appearance to the recently introduced SZ cross-over range. The Aerio has front, side and rear under spoilers in lieu of black body trim and front and rear skid plates and completes its sporting stance with a roof spoiler, rear privacy glass and deletion of roof rails. One additional feature for the interior is a luggage area board cover which allows for extra secure storage underneath as well as offering a totally flat luggage compartment floor when the seats are folded.

SX4 Aerio is priced at £12,495 and is based on the SZ4 1.6-litre petrol model with manual transmission only. Emissions are 143g/km with combined fuel consumption of 45.6mpg.

Across some other models in the Suzuki range, adjustments in production have resulted in lower emissions for several engines; the SX4 1.6 DDiS drops 10g/km to 129g/km as well as offering a 10 per cent improvement on the combined fuel consumption cycle; now a very frugal 57.6mpg.

The popular Swift Sport model drops to 165g/km from 171g/km, falling within the lower cost VED band G and Splash 1.2 with manual transmission emits 129g/km from 131gkm, now within VED band D.