Maruti has launched one of the most anticipated cars, the Celerio hatchback, at the Auto Expo 2014. With a starting price of Rs 4.29 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) for the automatic variant and the promise of great fuel efficiency, Maruti is clearly focussed on changing the typical Indian consumer’s reserved approach towards automatics.
In our price sensitive market, consumers have no qualms about trading comfort (or the lack of it) in favour of ownership and running costs. Just over a decade ago, our market had just a handful of automatic cars that were significantly more expensive than the manuals and the tales of their dismal fuel efficiency travelled far and wide. In recent times, manufacturers have introduced more automatic models with better gearbox technologies that are far more fuel efficient than before and smoother to drive too. Yet, the Indian consumer isn’t fully convinced and for good reason.
For example, the cheapest manual Honda Brio costs Rs 4.18 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) while the automatic 'box is available only on the top VX trim and starts at Rs 6.19 lakh. This means, the consumer has to essentially fork out an additional Rs 2 lakh just for the automatic box -- an uncomfortably high percentage of the car’s price.
Maruti has adopted a clever three-pronged approach to push people towards their new AMT technology. With the Maruti Celerio, the carmaker has offered the option of an automatic 'box even on the base LXi and at Rs 4.29 lakh, it costs just Rs 39,000 more than the equivalent manual. What Maruti has fundamentally done is present the automatic transmission as an option, rather than a luxury feature. Secondly, further strengthening the auto’s case is that, the Automated Manual Technology itself promises to diminish the gap in efficiency between the manuals and autos. In fact, the ARAI fuel economy figures for the Celerio manual and automatic are identical at 23.1kpl! And finally, Maruti plans to conduct extensive test drives of the Celerio EZ drive (AMT) to eliminate the hesitation caused by the alien nature of automatics, also responsible for steering some folk away.
With the Maruti Celerio, the company has addressed all three major concerns that have kept most Indian buyers from going the automatic way. This may just be the start of the country abandoning the clutch.
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