Maruti Alto sales to cross 1-million mark
13 Feb 2008
New Delhi: Maruti Suzuki's best selling model Alto is expected to cross the landmark of one million cars sold this week. Company officials said the car is just short of the milestone figure by about 2,500 units.
Currently, sales of the top-end variant of the model the Alto LXi are higher than the Standard and Lx leading to the conclusion that customers nowadays prefer cars having more features to bare wheels and chassis models.
Alto became India's largest-selling car in 2006. It has many records to its credit since its launch in 2000. It was the first model in India to cross two lakh in unit sales in a single financial year and also became at one point India's fastest selling car having sold to sell one-lakh units in 150 days.
In 2006 Alto achieved the five lakh sales figure and since then it continues to be the best selling model in India, dethroning the company's M800 earlier called its bread and butter model.
In November 2007 Alto recorded its best monthly sales of 22,784 units and has continued to sell on an average 20,000 units a month.
Maruti Suzuki has exported over 152,300 units of the Alto. Netherlands has been the biggest purchaser of the car (over 22,000 units). It has also started selling the model in Algeria and Chile. This fiscal Maruti had exported 21,335 units (till January 2008) of the Alto.
Currently the Alto has features like clear-lens headlamps, sparkling tail lamps, dynamic front grill and bumper, stylish fabric, rotary control for AC, etc. Other features important for the comfort and safety of the passenger are electronic power steering, excellent services back up, convenient cup holders, high, rigid monocoque frame made of high
Currently, the standard Alto is priced around Rs248, 810 while LX is priced at Rs2,83 902 and LXi variants are priced at Rs302 476.
MUL's sales in the past few years have been driven largely on the back of the Alto, WagonR and Swift while the mid-size Esteem and the entry-level M800 have pulled down its overall sales growth.