 "Battle of the Sedans: How Maruti's 'Dzire' is facing up to the Honda 'Amaze'")
Amid intensifying competition from Honda’s Amaze, India’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India has responded by conducting a “mileage drive rally” for its entry level sedan Dzire across 31 cities.
“Competition is in all segments of the cars we sell. We welcome all competition. Our cars speak for themselves by their performance. We are celebrating the fifth year of the Dzire and so we thought of conducting a mileage rally to connect with our customers,” Maruti Suzuki India Vice President (Marketing) Manohar Bhat told PTI.
[caption id=“attachment_736017” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Managing Director of Maruti Suzuki, Shinzo Nakanishi, poses with the Dzire: Reuters[/caption]
Bhat said since its launch five years ago, Dzire has been the largest selling sedan in India and the company intends to maintain its leadership position. He added that they had sold 5.5 lakh units of the car so far.
Dzire’s dominance, however, is witnessing intense competition from Honda Cars India’s newly launched ‘Amaze’ which is being introduced at a price range of Rs 4.99 lakh to Rs 7.60 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).
The model is Honda’s first diesel offering in India.
Dzire, on the other hand, is priced between Rs 4.92 lakh and Rs 6.74 lakh for the petrol option and between Rs 5.99 lakh and Rs 7.5 lakh for the diesel variant.
Honda has been promoting the ‘Amaze’ as the most fuel efficient sedan in India, with the diesel variant delivering mileage of 25.8 kilometre per litre (kmpl), and the petrol variant delivering at 18 kmpl.
By contrast, Dzire has a certified fuel efficiency of 19.1 kmpl for the petrol option and 23.4 kmpl for the diesel engine.
Earlier this month, immediately after the launch of Amaze, Maruti Suzuki India introduced the Swift Dzire Regal, a limited edition variant.
The mileage rally is the second in the series of what MSI described as “celebrations to mark the 5th anniversary of the launch of Swift Dzire”.
“Dzire remains the most economical model in its class in terms of overall cost of ownership. What we offer is luxury, mileage and value for money,” Bhat said.
Maruti Suzuki India said over 2,100 participants took part in the Dzire mileage rally held across 31 cities to contest how economically they could drive their cars. In Delhi, 105 people took part and the average mileage in diesel option was 30.9 kmpl, while in petrol it was 26.63 kmpl. In Mumbai the average mileage of 62 participants in diesel was 32.4 kmpl and in petrol it was 30.6 kmpl.
PTI
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