With dealers having to give massive discounts to push S-Cross sales, Maruti Suzuki has officially dropped prices of the crossover to lure more buyers without having to play the discount game.
The Maruti S-Cross was launched in India last year as the company’s first proper premium product. The S-Cross crossover is being marketed and sold through the company’s NEXA dealerships which also offer the Baleno premium hatchback. Now, the S-Cross was priced very optimistically and buyers found it hard to digest the fact that a Maruti would cost so much. Also, the fact that the Hyundai Creta was launched in a similar timeframe in the same price range meant that the S-Cross turned out to be a sales dud.
With rising inventory and low demand, dealers started offering huge discounts on the vehicle. Certain variants had benefits of almost Rs. 5.5 lakhs which is quite baffling. Even then, demand for the car refused to go up. Now, Maruti has finally reduced prices of the vehicle by a very significant margin. While the DDiS 200 variants are seeing a minor reduction, the DDiS 320 trims have a massive reduction to the tune of Rs. 2 lakhs.
The Maruti S-Cross is offered with a choice of two engines. The 1.3-litre Multijet unit is called the DDiS 200 engine and it pumps out 90 PS of power and 200 Nm of torque, paired to a 5-speed manual gearbox. It generates a fuel efficiency of 23.65 km/l. The other engine is a 1.6-litre Multijet DDiS 320 oil-burner belting out 120 PS of power and 320 Nm of torque and it comes with a 6-speed manual gearbox. The vehicle doesn’t get an automatic transmission or an AWD drivetrain.
The reason why the Maruti S-Cross turned out to be a dud was the fact that even though it was highly priced, it never looked like an SUV while other rivals like the Ford EcoSport, Renault Duster, etc. have an SUVish stance to them which attracts more buyers. With the reduction of these prices, it remains to be seen whether demand for the vehicle is really going to increase or not. It will also be interesting to note whether dealers will still offer some discounts or not.
