After months of speculation and a never-ending wait, Indian market leader of small cars Maruti Suzuki India Ltd is ready to launch the diesel variant of its sedan SX4. The car is expected to hit the market in the second half of February. The car is expected to be quipped with the same 90bhp Fiat-sourced , multi-jet diesel engine. The same unit does service in Indigo Manza and the Fiat Linea. According to officials at Maruti, the new car is supposedly 70 kgs lighter than the previous version and is expected to offer better economy and performance Vis-à-vis the competition. The SX4 hatchback in the European market sports Fiat’s 1.9 diesel unit, for the Indian market, the multi-jet 1.3 is thought of to be more practical. This is with the view that this is the same engine which is deployed in Dezire and Swift but the only different lies in VGT (Variable Geometry Turbo).
The SX4 was under threat from competitors like the Volkswagen Vento, due to the absence of a diesel variant. Company officials were upbeat about the pricing factor of the cost and were optimistic to beat the German brand by an estimated Rs 1 lakh. This translates into a more economical price range for SX4, at Rs 6.99 lakhs or in other words just Rs 10,000 more than the current petrol version.