Maruti Ertiga on brink of launching
The launch of the new fangled Maruti Ertiga is just three days away and the country is waiting excitedly for that moment. The Japanese auto giant Suzuki has designed this MPV in the home-land but has developed it keeping in mind the prospering Indian car market. Maruti Suzuki India has been ruling the domestic market for over 2 decades now and a new car specifically based on the Indian design demands, Indian sensibilities and Indian body-type was exactly what this big player needed to maintain its throne in the face of this arduous competition.
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According to the chief engineer of the Ertiga programme, T Hibi, with the upcoming Ertiga, Suzuki has followed a different strategy; instead of modifying its cars according to the Indian car market like it did with its global top-selling models - 800, Alto, Wagon R and Ritz, the company has intended India as the major market for this MPV. On April 12, 2012 the company is launching Ertiga in India along with a couple of ASEAN markets, especially Indonesia (with some modifications of course). This new car will not be sold in the home market of Japan. The bookings for Ertiga have apparenlty been opened in India. The Managing Executive Officer of Maruti Suzuki India, Mr. Mayank Pareek mentioned that the Ertiga being a global product has been designed and developed principally for the Indian customers.
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Based on the Swift platform, this car is designed with main focus on Indian families and Indian lifestyle and this consideration is going to play the biggest role in the success story of this upcoming car, he added. Maruti Ertiga will be launched in six variants, three each with 1.4–liter K series petrol and 1.3-liter diesel engines. The major factor behind the anticipated success of this car is the superb price positioning which will follow the middle ground between a sedan and a Multi-utility vehicle (MUV). The sedans start with Rs. 5 lakh and an MUV starts at Rs. 10 lakh and this car will be placed exactly in between these two, resulting in the birth of a whole new segment with highly competitive prices. Ertiga is more compact than the average MUV and is expected to deliver better fuel efficiency, better handling and driving experience. MSI has been marketing this car as a LUV (Life Utility Vehicle).
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During the design phase while finalizing the leg space and seat specifications of the car, the design team of Suzuki minded the physical structure of the Indians. According to Mr. Hibi, the physical proportions of humans in Japan and India are very different which turned out to be one of the major concerns. The Japanese engineers and 30 Indian engineers at the firm’s headquarters in Japan worked together for the purpose of evaluating the comfort level in all seats using the packaging model which is known as interior buck in auto parlance. As a result, a major change was rendered to the design of the seats and the car was bestowed with more leg space keeping in the mind the body-type of the Indians.
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