An official from Rana Motors in South Delhi informed sister publication Autocar Professional that consumers had booked the cars in the fortnight prior to the onset of the festive period and asked for deliveries to be made during Navratri.
The carmaker had made an extra booking offer of up to Rs 17,000 off for taking deliveries of cars during the Navratri season with cash discounts; an additional Rs 7,500 discount for government employees and an exchange bonus of up to Rs 50,000.
Topping the list of key models slated for deliveries are the Ciaz petrol AT, WagonR and the Swift. Interestingly, the Ciaz VXi+, ZXi, ZXi+ petrol automatic version has a longer waiting period of six-eight weeks compared to its diesel counterpart that ranges between three-six weeks with the top-end Ciaz ZDi+RS trim having a wait of eight weeks. The narrowing price differential between petrol and diesel fuels and the availability of the automatic transmission in the petrol Ciaz variant seems to be the sales driver.
In the case of the popular Vitara Brezza SUV, the waiting is a uniform six months across the variants. Earlier, the top-end ZDi and ZDi+ trims that were in great demand due to their dual tone and floating roof reaching a waiting of about eight-nine months are now down to six months. A salesman at the dealership said since the SUV was selling in limited numbers due to capacity constraints at Maruti’s end, Brezza deliveries during the festive season were lower compared to other models.
The carmaker has ramped up capacity to 9,000-10,000 units per month for the Vitara Brezza at the Gurgaon plant and to 11,000-12,000 units a month for the premium Baleno hatchback at Manesar. The Baleno, which is sold through the premium Nexa outlets, reached cumulative sales of 1,00,000 units on October 4, while the Vitara Brezza has sold 56,000 units till date.