India Car Blog

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. first made its new KB engine series debut with the Maruti Suzuki A-Star in India. The A-Star as it is known in India, is really what the rest of the world knows as the Suzuki Alto and it has been designed to replace the older Alto in the European markets and go up against the Hyundai i10. The A-Star has only seen moderate success in the Indian market, however Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. are all set to roll out an automatic transmission version of the A-Star.

The A-Star Automatic variant will most likely sport a four-speed transmission and although the price of the Maruti A-Star automatic is still unannounced, the company will most probably price it as aggressively as they can to give the Hyundai i10 Automatic some stiff competition. The i10 Automatic is currently the only automatic transmission equipped car in the small car segment. Although exact pricing of the car is still unknown, expect to pay at least Rs.30,000 more than the manual variant. We believe that the car would come only in the ZXi top-end trim level with all the bells and whistles. However, to keep the pricing competitive Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. may just launch it in the VXi trim.

Maruti Suzuki would certainly want the A-Star Automatic to be priced under the 4.5lakh (ex-showroom) bracket to make a better case for itself in the eyes of an automatic car consumer. The fact also remains that the A-Star with a different front grille and a different set of headlamps is exported to the European markets as the Nissan Pixo where it is available in a five-speed manual and a four-speed automatic guise. So let’s hope that the A-Star automatic is being launched because Maruti Suzuki see this segment growing rather than as a twist of fate (cancelled orders / stock pile up) that we’re able to buy the car at our neighbourhood Maruti Suzuki showroom.