The small city car Maruti Celerio finally manages to post a good growth number which propels it ahead of the more premium Baleno supermini.
The Maruti Celerio is the quintessential desi vehicle with conservative looks, okay-ish interiors and a package which somehow makes a whole lot more sense than it should, as the car is credited with ushering-in the AMT revolution in India. The Maruti Baleno on the other hand, is a stylish vehicle which is loaded with gadgets in an uncharacteristic Maruti fashion and also gets great fuel efficiency, thanks to its bantamweight specifications.
Both the cars have been the best-sellers for Maruti in their respective segments. But somehow (could it be the diesel stock clearance as the diesel Celerio has been discontinued) in the month of January 2017, after nine months, Celerio, with 10,879 units, outsold Baleno by 403 set of wheels more than the latter. Yay for small guys! Maruti sold 7189 units of the Celerio in December 2016.
Somewhere in the late early 2010s, Maruti was shilling three generations of the Suzuki Alto Kei car in India (800 – Alto – A-Star) which spanned technically from the 1980s to 2010. In 2014, with growing competition, Maruti smartened up and cut down the number of its entry-level cars to just two with the Alto 800 and Celerio making up the numbers. But the Celerio, with its quirky name, relatively spacious interiors and the USP of the automatic gearbox, was never able to become the traditional Maruti chart-topping blockbuster.
But in 2017, when the market has matured a bit and people are actively looking for cheap two-pedal vehicles, the Celerio is now a much more value-for-money small city-car. The matter is also helped by the Renault Kwid AMT which loses out on some essential kit such as the hill-hold and creep-function, as well as the Tata Tiago, which even though earned praise from all corners of the automotive media, cannot still get out of the dark past of Indica-era Tata’s build quality and service network. Keep an eye on this dinky little hatch guys, this is going to get better.
Maruti Celerio Sales
– The Maruti Celerio sold a total of 10,879 copies
– The strong surge in numbers can be attributed to its value for money prospects
– The Celerio achieved this feat after a period of 9 months
– Maruti discontinued the diesel version of the Celerio earlier this month
