Maruti hikes car prices up to Rs 18,000
NI Wire
New Delhi
Tue, 20 May 2008:
India’s biggest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki has announced to hike the prices on its all models except Grand Vitara from ranging Rs.1000 to Rs.18,000 depending upon the car models. The increased price has been affected immediately. Company has informed to all its dealers and distributors to be ready for this immedie price hike.
Describing the reason behind this hike, the auto major has blamed the spiralling prices of steel; however, the steel makers have already reduced the steel prices by Rs.4000/- per tonne. But, on the other hand, Maruti argued, “There has been a continuous increase in the steel and commodity prices in the past few months. As a result, our input costs have increased substantially. We have been trying to absorb this increase in the input costs, but now we are forced to pass on a part of this increase to the customers.”
Speaking on the same topic Maruti Suzuki India Executive Officer (Marketing and Sales) Mayank Pareek said, “Pressure is coming from steel companies which are asking for a 40 per cent increase in steel prices. Input costs have been rising and Hyundai also plans to increase prices by the end of this month.”
The new effective prices of Maruti on its several models are: Maruti 800 (Rs 1500), Alto (Rs 1500), Zen Estilo (Rs 1000), Omni and WagonR (Rs 2000), WagonR Duo (Rs 1000), Swift petrol (Rs 9000), Swift diesel (Rs 15000), SX4 (Rs 9000), Versa (Rs 8000).
Maruti Swift Dzire, the newly introduced model has been got the largest price of Rs 18000 on both the petrol and diesel models. About hiking prices on this model, Maruti official without giving much information said, “It was due to end of introductory prices.”
This hikes might affect other company’s car prices as from the received sources, the other companies are still analysing the situation. However, Honda has already raised the price on its Civic by Rs.10,000, while Mahindra & Mahindra had also increased prices on its vehicles by up to 2.5% during the last week.