[romeomidhun]

I like the front 3 quarters. Rear is not that interesting. I was always dreaming of a car that is a bigger mightier Swift.
BTW, the concept that Sid scooped in a trailer was this XAAlpha!

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by romeomidhun

I like the front 3 quarters. Rear is not that interesting. I was always dreaming of a car that is a bigger mightier Swift.
BTW, the concept that Sid scooped in a trailer was this XAAlpha!

Take a look again at Sid's thread. The car on the trailer was white in colour with a different rear bumper and completely different alloys.

[codelust]

Originally Posted by Desmosedici

I found it to be ok, more of a concept which will never enter production. The grill looks borrowed for sure. I love the wheels though.

I still fail to understand why Maruti cannot revive the Gypsy. Tweak the suspension, add an AC and you are good to go. I am sure that will get people to notice the Gypsy again and maybe grab potential Thar buyers.

I would dearly love to see this, but I don't see it happening for the following reasons:

1. Gypsy sold an average of 500 units during the last 6 months of 2011, that too mostly thanks to probably a bulk order in August which bumped up the number to 1285 for that month.

If you ignore the GV and Kizashi, the next worst seller for MSIL is the SX4 that sells an average of 1100 units per month. Almost every other product for them sells at considerably higher volumes. MISL is in the business of making low margin cars that sell a lot. Even a tweaked Gypsy does not fall into that slot.

2. Presumably, even the bulk of the sales of the Gypsy are to the armed forces and the government. A Gypsy replacement may not cut any ground with them and may even cause MSIL to lose their Gypsy sales.

3. I can imagine that any Gypsy they sell is practically free money for them. It is an ancient platform with minor tweaks applied to fall in line with various norms. Why fix something that is not broken?

4. The age of the body on ladder frame is slowly coming to an end at the ~10L level. Same is the case with vehicles that are simple and robust. The Thar is probably an exception to the rule. This is awful, but it is the truth too.

[DicKy]

Originally Posted by codelust

4. The age of the body on ladder frame is slowly coming to an end at the ~10L level. Same is the case with vehicles that are simple and robust. The Thar is probably an exception to the rule. This is awful, but it is the truth too.

It's true all over the segments, but except for the new age MUVs(rather MPVs)like the Ertiga,Tata MPV on Manza platform and Toyota on the Etios platform,the rest of the MUVs are still traditional body on frame and frankly will continue to be in the foreseeable future.
Also on the lower end newer models like the Venture and CN100 arer still body on frame.
True simple and robust cars are a rarity but they are not all dead,atleast in the UV segment.

[normally_crazy]

That looks downright ugly! And I would be very surprised if the final product is even 50% of this one shown here.

[sahakar]

Originally Posted by nawalsingal

Hope this is true, but the way Maruti is doling out one ugly duckling after other, not much of hope is there.. BTW, is there a competition going on between mfrs for designing ugliest automobile. I am personally disappointed by the looks of launches so far. Hope to see something better in this Expo. Or is it too much to hope for?

Hoping for a good looking car from Maruti is like hoping for the Sun to rise from the West.

Maruti is in the business of making cheap functional cars that we Indians lap up no questions asked.

For an average buyer this expo may really not have much. Most of the new hatchbacks are already launched.

Its the D and D+ sections which will have the most action.

Cheers

[nawalsingal]

Originally Posted by sahakar

Hoping for a good looking car from Maruti is like hoping for the Sun to rise from the West.

Cheers

, possibility of sun rising from west is much higher. When was the last time we saw a good looking car from Maruti after Swift? Maybe the designers for Swift didn't get paid well & hence these results. . Wake up Maruti.

[octane_100]

Looks plain ugly to me. I've always wondered and still wondering why Maruti cannot produce Grand Vitara locally? To me, it is one of the most handsome, well proportioned clutter free designs in the market and has decent off-road prowess too. If not earlier, at least the recent success of XUV 500 should encourage Maruti to produce it locally and give it a spanking new 1.9 MJD (with the recent deal with Fiat, it should be all the more plausible now) and price it slightly above SX4 and may be on par with XUV.

If a car maker who sells more than a million cars annually cannot take this risk, I don't know who else can!! Come on MS!!

[indivic]

Originally Posted by GTO

- The XA is a monocoque, and NOT a body-on-frame.

- Wheelbase of 2500 mm

- Seating capacity of 5

- Production version will be offered in 4x2 and part-time AWD versions

- K-series petrol engine (upcoming 1.4 liter??) and Fiat diesel

- Time taken to prepare the concept was less than a year, and included Maruti's India engineers

This smells like a rehash of the SX4, may be a good thing since the SX4 is not really selling all that well and the platform is quite good.

[SDP]

1. Good attempt by Maruti to do something other than hatches. Having said that, when would they move to size L and XL from S and M?
2. Overall interesting design. Don't see any 'wrestler' inspiration though.
3. With the small sized windows, you will feel like travelling in a vault.
4. The ORVMs must have been borrowed from a moped. The size suggest so. Reminded me of a hippo's ears.
5. The alloys are nice, so are the front fogs.
6. From the rear, this vehicle could eaily be mistaken for a hatch.
7. Given Maruti's 'diluting' legacy, can't even imagine how plain-jane the production version would be.

Originally Posted by Vid6639

I can definitely see that it took less than a year to prepare the concept. It looks like they started ok from the front and by the time they reached they ran out of time. Too much bare sheet metal in the back and not much design elements. The C pillar and hatch area look really like a metal slab.

Remember the 'tombstone' from 'Death Race'?

[anurag.somani]

The design looks nice and fleshy but I really doubt Maruti's ability to translate the car from concept to production.
The Kizashi and A-star looked like a sports house venture at concept stage but designs were so damped when finally launched.

[Durango Dude]

XA: Width 1900 mm: don't you guys think this is a little too wide for Indian conditions? I think the comfortable width of a car for India with traffic as it is would be around 1700-1750 mm.

[ranc]

Originally Posted by anurag.somani

The design looks nice and fleshy but I really doubt Maruti's ability to translate the car from concept to production.
The Kizashi and A-star looked like a sports house venture at concept stage but designs were so damped when finally launched.

This it true for RIII also (now called Ertiga), when shown in concept it was really funky but the actual production version is very plane jane. I think this will happen with the XA also.

[vineethvazhayil]

Originally Posted by nitinbose

I feel this looks more like the Range Rover Evoque.

Cant agree more! Anyway maruti suzuki needs to think about acceptable designs, else the car may be doomed like the ritz!

[Karthik_S]

Looks good IMHO. Wonder what the production version will look like.

On the Gypsy conversion running in parallel, I'd but a Gypsy if it had a diesel motor. A revamped Gypsy with the Fiat sourced 1.3 would definitely fly!