Maruti Suzuki Ignis: Will It Affect Celerio And Swift's Sales?

Maruti Suzuki has always played hardball with other manufacturers in India and while it has been at the forefront of innovation in the country, it's also been a leader in bringing out new products at the opportune time. The Ignis is one such product and with its launch the company has ushered in a new product and a new target audience as well, which it calls 'millennials'.

With prices for the Maruti Suzuki Ignis starting from Rs. 4.59 lakh, the Ignis is already a car in demand. While the folks at Maruti Suzuki said that it had already received 6,000 bookings for the car in just over a week, one can see where this trend is heading.

It's not just because it's a new product, but it's because of the way it looks. The appeal to the audience is the quirkiness of its design and we've already told you a lot about it. In fact the different design on the inside too will attract a new age of customers. Add that to the customisation options on offer and the deal is sweetened. We've already told you all there is to know about the car and post its launch, there's still a lot to talk about considering we are yet to drive it.

While there is a lot for competitors like the Mahindra KUV100 and the Hyundai Grand i10, to worry about, Maruti Suzuki might just have dented the sales of its own cars. Considering the pricing of the Ignis, the two cars that will be the most affected are the Celerio and the Swift. Though the folks at Maruti Suzuki say that the Ignis will attract a different crowd altogether, we can't help but notice that the pricing of the car, makes us want to accept that answer with a pinch of salt.

Maruti Suzuki Celerio

Both the Celerio and the Swift have been bread winners for Maruti Suzuki and though it's been a while since both cars have received a proper update (the Swift more so), they've been consistent in their performance when it comes to sales. While the Celerio has sold an average of 5000 units a month, the Swift has been among the popular cars with its average sales crossing the 12,000 units a month mark. With the launch of the Baleno, one would have thought that the sales of the Swift might see a downslide, but that isn't the case.

We have already shared our first impressions, which variant should you buy and everything that you need to know about the car.

Maruti Suzuki Swift

The Ignis though is a whole new ball game. While it's built on the same new-age platform as the Baleno, the Ignis shares its engines with the Swift among others. So, there's the tried and tested 1.2-litre petrol and 1.3-litre diesel on offer and it develops the same number of torque as in the Swift. The Swift gets the advantage when it comes to power because it gets 1 bhp more - 83 bhp when compared to 82 bhp in the Ignis. What the Ignis gets, however, is an Automated Manual Transmission, which we don't get to see on the Swift and that's one of the biggest USP of the lot.

Engine Options:

The Ignis might be shorter in length when compared to the Swift, but clearly has more legroom. Thanks to the short overhangs at the front and rear, the Ignis manages to be roomy on the inside and the tall boy stance, which more or less reminds you of the Wagon R, gives you enough head and knee room. So, it's taller than the Swift and has more ground clearance too; 180 mm as compared to 170 mm. The Ignis gets a bigger boot too and it's a whole 56 litres bigger than the Swift which gets 260 litres.

Dimensions

So all-in-all the Ignis is quite great on paper and the price of the car too is an attractive one. The Ignis petrol undercuts the Swift by about Rs. 16,000 and is the most affordable car retailed out of the Nexa dealerships. The petrol AMT is priced Rs. 33,000 more than the top-end petrol variant of the Swift. In fact the Celerio AMT is priced at Rs. 5.53 lakh (ex-Delhi), while the Delta variant in the Ignis which also gets an AMT costs Rs. 5.74 lakh (ex-Delhi) and that's an extremely small margin, which is why we think that the Celerio sales will come under pressure.

There's a sharp difference in the prices of the diesel variant of the Celerio and the Ignis but yet again the Ignis and Swift are closely matched. The Ignis diesel costs more than the Swift as it starts at Rs. 6.39 lakh compared to Rs. 5.96 lakh for the Swift. But the Swift will face strong competition from the AMT variants as the Delta variant undercuts the top-end Swift ZDI variant by close to Rs. 50,000 while the Zeta variant is just Rs. 3000 dearer.

Prices:

The Ignis then is positioned much like the Ritz, when it was launched and yes, it had its fair share of success. Given the aggressive pricing of the Ignis, the quirky design and the Nexa experience, there will certainly be a bunch of customers who will be swayed away from buying the Celerio and the Swift. Maruti Suzuki is also gearing up for another launch in 2017 and that one is the big one - the new-generation Swift and now thanks to the Ignis, the company might just be able to give the Swift a premium positioning. It'll be interesting to see how Maruti Suzuki's strategy pans out with regards to the Ignis and we'll save the rest of our comments for when the company declares its sales figures.