We have seen change in overall product strategy at Maruti Suzuki in the last few years, and that has surely worked in favour of the Indo-Japanese carmaker. The company stepped-in the premium segments with the Baleno, followed by Vitara Brezza and Ignis. While all these products are deriving huge volumes for the carmaker, Maruti is all prepared with the new-generation Swift hatchback and Dzire subcompact sedan.
Interestingly, the Indo-Japanese auto manufacturer might bring in the Kizashi’s replacement in the country. The hint of this came from a recently held press conference. Maruti Suzuki- Managing Director and CEO, Kenichi Ayukawa said, “Can’t deny the possibility of a sedan to replace the space vacant by the discontinued Kizashi.”
Currently, the Kizashi replacement doesn’t even exist in the global Suzuki lineup. Therefore, the new product will be developed from the scratch on an all-new platform. The new architecture will be significantly bigger than the Ciaz and S-Cross’ platform, thus making it proportionally larger than its siblings. Since the Kizashi’s replacement will be placed in the premium segment, Maruti will retail it through its NEXA dealership network. Photo Gallery – Upcoming Maruti Suzuki Cars in India
Owing to the poor sales, the Suzuki Kizashi was phased out in 2014 from the global market. The company had developed the premium sedan during its boom phase, but rolled out just before the USA’s economic crisis in 2009. The carmaker had made a huge investment in development of the Kizashi and expected to make profit on the same. However, the plan didn’t go in the favour of the Japanese carmaker and it was discontinued from the US market in 2012.
In India, this premium sedan was phased out in 2014. The two major reasons behind the failure of the Kizashi were – high prices and lack of petrol engine. Priced over Rs 15 lakh, the Maruti Suzuki Kizashi was positioned against the Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, Skoda Octavia and Chevrolet Cruze.
In current scenario, when buyers are ready to invest on feature-loaded premium vehicles, Maruti Suzuki is considering to fulfill the space vacated by the Kizashi. The Maruti Kizashi’s replacement might come with the 1.6-litre DDiS engine, which is already used for the higher trims of S-Cross. What’s impressive with this unit are power and torque figures that stand at 118bhp and 320Nm respectively. This powertrain is considerably more powerful than most of the premium sedans including Toyota Corolla, Hyundai Elantra and Skoda Octavia.
Particularly, the premium sedan segment buyers prefer automatic gearbox over the manual. Therefore, the new Maruti sedan will surely be available with both manual and automatic transmission options.
