India’s largest passenger car maker, Maruti Suzuki India has hiked prices by Rs 5,000- 10,000 on its higher end products with effect from January 28 attributing it to higher input prices and foreign currency movement which affects imported prices of components. The price of its most recent product ‘A Star’ hatchback, which was launched in November 2008, has been increased by Rs 10,000 while prices of all variants of SX4 sedan have been hiked by Rs 9,000.
The price of Swift Petrol LXi has now been revised upwards by Rs 5,000. For the higher variants of Swift — VXi and ZXi — and all variants of its diesel version the prices are now higher by Rs 6,000. The new prices for Swift DZire (all variants in Petrol and Diesel) are higher by Rs 7,000.
“The price increase has been necessitated due to the increase in input costs like steel and foreign currency changes. There has been regular fluctuations in currency which has forced us to go for this increase in prices,” the company spokesperson said.
However, Maruti has made no change in the prices of its economy-end vehicles — M800, Omni, Alto, WagonR, Zen Estilo, Gypsy, Versa besides its high priced sports utility vehicle Grand Vitara. Other companies like the South Korean Hyundai Motor India, Honda Siel Cars India and Ford Motor India are also likely to increase prices in near future.
