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-   -   Post Eon, will A-Star be the new Alto? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/109088-post-eon-will-star-new-alto-2.html)

High time MSIL starts giving India its Number Uno status which it richly deserves. Cheap stunts like lack passenger sun visor, no paint under the bonnet, limited rubber insulation under the hood should be made a thing of the past. They should have all their global models in India and should be willing to upgrade the cars to international standards. They should not introduce cars which are outdated like the Estilo etc and this arrogance could hurt their bottom line as Suzuki is focused on earning royalty only. Limited transfer of technology by Suzuki will eventually hurt them in India bad as they will lack the ability to change quickly.

This is a very good time for Maruti to realign their products. Maruti should kill the M800 & Omni (does not meet any safety standards) as a demonstration of their responsibility toward safety of the Indian public at large. Any case the Alto and Ecco fill these slots easily. Kill the dated Estilo as the Wagon R fills this requirement easily.

With the Alto upgrade the body to the K10 body specs as it is a bigger car. The K10 is better looking than the base Alto. Have only the base Alto, Lxi and K10 as the three Alto derivatives. This will ensure better focus.

Cheers

KPS

I don't think so. Since when is a Korean rated higher than a Japanese brand in India? As for the mileage, I will believe it when I see it. Neither Santro nor i10 have ever delivered on the promised mileage afaik.

Great post pgsagar. I had similar thoughts about the fate of A-Star after looking at EON and Hyundai’s ambitions to break MUL’s stranglehold on the A Segment! As such, the base A-Star (with lot more goodies) seems to be a lakh away from the EON’s much speculated starting price, but hey you never know about MUL. If they could do an EECO from Versa, the same trick might work with an A-Star too.

Just wish they do not rehash the Estilo or Alto again! A new offering from MUL to take on EON would really make the action more scintillating, but until then I feel the knives are getting ready for the A-Star.

Slightly off-topic, but I have observed this as well. If all the fuel efficiency figures are now certified/calculated by ARAI, shouldn't they be realistic or go off by same margin/percentage for all car manufacturers.

I have seen i10 claiming 20.36 and Ritz claiming 17.7 and still Ritz delivering more than i10 consistently. Any I fail to understand this unless ARAI uses different standards for each manufacturer or manufacturer sends them different cars than those delivered to customers :)

Competition is a good thing. For the customer ie. :-)
So, if the Eon spurs MSIL into action to do something to refurbish the Alto (too spartan in today's world) and maybe bring down AStar / Estilo prices, then it is a good thing.

No one that I know of bought a Hyundai for 'kitna deti hai' factor I mean 'FE'.
Everyone went for Hyundai cause of 'overall quality' it provides over Maruti.

If priced neck to neck, I believe EON will be a better option over aging Alto. Having said that, I don't think there will be much change in Alto's sales figures.

Looking at the details posted on various auto websites, if the Eon pricing starts at 2.5L for the basic version, this means, Hyundai would try to pull the Xing down to as low as 2.2 lakh too? or maybe Santro pricing would stay uneffected as its still selling well in cities like Mumbai where its slightly taking over as the black and yellow taxi.

Since 3-cylinder taxi's are not allowed in Mumbai, Hyundai would still enjoy good sales of the Xing here.

Secondly, if Eon is priced below 3 lakh for the base version which would happen for sure, Maruti must drop the price of A-star to that levels and pull the Alto even further down to compete with the Nano till the all-new 800 arrives.

I don't think that anything Immediate can happen from MSIL stable.
As firstly, upto first 5-6 months not everyone wants to Invest their money in 'EON' especially this Segment/first time buyers. Only 2nd car buyers opt for this baby Hyundai Initially.
Reason behind this is the faith the masses are having on Maruti Suzuki's products, their FE & their Services(=AfSS).
Till 'EON' builds its trust here or by the time MS entry level hatchback sales will start tapering, they'll be ready with their New 'Designed for & in India' hatchback.
A-Star will still remain a separate issue & will remain in the separate books of MSIL, till Hyundai directly pits 1.0 engined version of EON against it.
Expect A-star's Japanese face-lift to arrive here in 2012 end-2013.
So, especially for the near future, I see No worries at all for MSIL, except to cut-down the New Swift's Waiting periods.


Why it's so ??
Any specific reason/logic behind this. As I see many of the Black Altos' across the Internet (with their pics) serving the Taxi-purpose.

Yes there are many black Alto's, 800s and even the new Wagon R taxi's in mumbai. but 3-cylinder taxis are now banned.
This is why we're seeing more Eeco's and Xings now.

Any specific reason for this?

I dont know; I asked 3-4 taxi drivers about sudden rise in Xing taxi's and that's when I came to know about it.

Anyway. I feel Maruti got a set-back from the Mumbai taxi market due to its 1-litre K-series motor being 3-cylinder. (Correct me if I am wrong)

Interesting but let´s not ignore the fact that A-Star has a K10 (~1000CC) under the hood and Eon will have ~800CC. May be we can compare in terms of length but not in terms of engines (coincidentally both look similar).

It doesn´t make sense to revamp A-Star to a 800CC engine (remember, the original A-Star concept is the father of the K10 engine). Rather I guess MSIL will bring down the price of Alto 800/K10 and add some goodies etc.,

The entire project costed Hyundai around $ 400 Mn I heard. It would have spent good amount on design and comparatively less on tweaking a Santro engine to 800CC.

On the other bank, MSIL had spent good amount on K10 engine and designed/built cars around it (Alto K10, Wagon R, Estilo, A-Star). In other words, Suzuki is selling 4 models with an engine designed for one concept. Comparatively it would have spent less on re-designing Alto K10 (Wagon R, Estilo) around the new platform. Not ignoring the fact that they are based on new platforms (elongated platforms to accommodate the large K10 engine).

Eon will for sure eat up Alto´s (both 800 and 1000CC) market. Now, anyway, MSIL is getting geared with a brand new 800CC design which would eventually replace Alto 800. Watch out for that.

Ultimately it boils down to RoI. MSIL is milking money from every model it can sell (see M800 is still being sold. If not for the govt. policy to ban BS2 car sales in metros, MSIL would have very well continued selling M800 everywhere).

Somehow, I have this feeling that Suzuki´s cars have always been ´for power´ while Hyundai´s have been serving to utilitarian with class.

This is what my common sense says.

Well - First of all, Suzuki is nowhere near the top 3 Japanese brands in terms of branding. Hyundai is the #1 Korean car maker. Hyundai brand perception has substantially changed in most markets. Sonata is in top#5 in US, and in some odd months, even beats Accord.

Even in India, Hyundai has certainly established as selling premium quality cars - i10, i20 and Verna are definitely considered premium in their range.

Top 20 Best-Selling Cars In America - September 2011 - GOOD CAR BAD CAR

Cant agree more. Lets hope they do away with "both feet into the grave" Alto, and re-position A* to where it belongs. Its good for the customers.

Care to illustrate further? Whether its i10/i20/Verna - those cars are nearly at the top of the food chain when it comes to power.

I love the A-star. Sure the space is at a premium but it is really well built compared to the other Maruti budget hatchbacks and is great to drive. The steering has good feedback and the chassis is tight. Its fun to throw around curves and the K10B has plenty of grunt in the mid and top.

So, I would love to see the A-star repositioned to take up the place of Alto. But I guess, if at all this happens, the A-star will lose the excellent K10B motor and instead will come with the F8D. And that will lower the car' appeal to a large extent.

But engine is also the chink in Eon' armor. The initial reports suggest the 3 pot Epsilon motor is not so good with NVH.

Maybe the Eon will send the new Maruti 800 back to the drawing board. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...uti-800-a.html.

Overall, competition rocks! :)

'A star' sold in India is (safety and strength wise) Suzuki's best car in India in small car segment. Renaming A star will be like downgrading it miles down.

A star falls in same category as i10,Beat. It is an excellent product with some drawbacks like less space for rear passenger and very little luggage room.
Further it will be difficult for Maruti to put it into alto segment due to the high costs involved.

Wish some day Indian customers will like it!( if they become concerned about safety and don't carry so much luggage).