The AMT unit will be offered only on the top-end variant of the Maruti Wagon R on the Stingray version, paired to the same 1.0-litre K-Series engine found on the Celerio and Alto K10.
Maruti hit the jackpot this year with the launch of the Celerio with an Automated Manual Transmission (AMT) unit. Bringing affordability and automatics together in the same sentence, the company plans to offer the AMT unit in a slew of its other offerings and recently updated the Alto K10 with the automatic gearbox. Now, reports suggest that the Indian auto giant is working on an AMT version of the Wagon R, its third product in the budget hatchback segment to get the feature.
Much like the Alto K10, Maruti Suzuki plans to position the Wagon R AMT as a premium offering and is planning to launch the auto gearbox on the top-end Stingray edition. The Stingray edition is essentially a visually different Wagon R that takes design cues from the Stingray kei car in Japan. Being the top-variant in the Wagon R lineup, the model comes with projector lamps and alloy wheels, while there are no changes to the interiors or the mechanicals. The AMT unit will be paired to the same 1.0-litre K-Series petrol motor found on the Celerio and the Alto K10 models, therefore compatibility is not an issue.
Maruti Suzuki sources around 3500 AMT units every month from Magneti Marelli for the Celerio and Alto K10 models. While the Celerio commanded a waiting period of 6-7 months earlier, the period has now reduced to around 4 months. The recently launched Alto K10 on the other hand comes with a waiting period of 45 days, which is expected to go even further. At present, the company will continue to rely on importing the AMT kits and will cater to a wider audience with the Wagon R Stingray AMT, even though it would have been wise to offer the same on the regular Wagon R instead. Expect the Stingray AMT to be priced at a premium of Rs. 30,000-35,000/- over the standard version.
Source – Autocar
