Maruti Suzuki’s ambitious entry in the D-segment hasn’t gone too well. The Kizashi is a major flop and managed to sell only 2 units in July and 0 units in August. Clearly people paying upwards of Rs. 15 lakh for a car don’t want to be seen in a Maruti Suzuki. The approach from India’s largest car maker has been poor to say the least. While all other cars in the D-segment are locally assembled, Maruti Suzuki chose to put the price burden on the buyer by opting for the CBU route.
The poor demand for the Kizashi has resulted in Maruti Suzuki stopping imports for the vehicle. The company will still import the Kizashi but only after it has got confirmed booking for the vehicle. In order to clear remaining stock, the Kizashi is now available at a massive discount of Rs. 5 lakhs (that is almost 30%). Existing Kizashi owners might be biting their fingers as the resale of their vehicles have already come down tumbling.
The Maruti Suzuki Kizashi was launched in India at a price of Rs. 16.5 lakhs for the manual variant and Rs. 17.5 lakhs for the automatic variant (all prices ex-showroom, Delhi). This translates to an on-road Mumbai price of around Rs. 20 lakhs, a price which no one wants to pay for a Maruti badged vehicle. The Kizashi competes with the likes of the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla in international markets but Maruti Suzuki decided to position it against vehicles like the Volkswagen Jetta, Skoda Laura, etc.
So why did the Maruti Suzuki Kizashi become such a massive flop? There are quite a few reasons we can think of –
* Overpriced for a Maruti Suzuki car (thanks to it being a CBU)
* No test drive available (you can take a test drive of all other similarly priced competitors)
* No diesel engine on offer (most competitors are available with a diesel engine)
* No demo vehicle (one can’t even sit or see the Kizashi in person before booking one)
* After sales service a question (while you might find a Maruti Suzuki service center where ever you go, the same can’t be said about spare parts availability of the Kizashi).
* Maruti Suzuki badge not heavy enough for a D-segment car (people prefer to buy a Toyota, Honda, Skoda or Volkswagen badged vehicle instead)
What do you think made the Maruti Suzuki Kizashi such a flop? It sells 0-10 units a month, while the Corolla, Cruze, Elantra manage 500 plus units each!
