Maruti cars to cost Rs 600-10,000 more

Starting Saturday, buying a new Maruti Suzuki car will become more expensive with the country's largest carmaker announcing a hike in prices across almost all models. The company has, however, spared the newly launched Eeco, the Swift (petrol) and the Gypsy models.

The highest increase has been on the Swift Dzire model, which will now cost about Rs 10,000 more, followed by the Swift Diesel, the Wagon R and the SX4 models, which are costlier by around Rs 6,500, Rs 3,700 and Rs 2,000, respectively. The Maruti 800, the Alto, the Omni, the A-star and the Ritz, however, have just seen a Rs 600 price hike.

"The price increase is to recover partly the increase in the input costs arising out of raw material costs over the past one year. For some models the increase in the cost are being absorbed by the company, in the light of market situation," it said in a statement.

According to the company, the increase in prices is in the range of 0.12 per cent for the Ritz VDi to 1.90 per cent for the Swift Dzire LXi. On average, prices have been raised by around 0.6 per cent, the statement added. It has also withdrawn the introductory prices for the Zen Estilo, which was launched in August last year.

The Estilo variants are now dearer by Rs 1,243 to Rs 2,486. To meet the new emission norms, Maruti has upgraded the Swift (Petrol) and Swift Dzire (Petrol) models with the more fuel-efficient 1.2- litre K-series engine.

Source: India car.com-Source : Business Line (Online Edition)