[SPARKled]

I am one happy owner of the Ritz VDi and the car has been brilliant over the last 5 years of my ownership. It has a brilliant ride quality, is probably much better fitted and finished than most other Maruti cars of its time and has one of the best front seats in any hatch. The only negative that I can state is not the car itself, but the steep Maruti servicing costs. After 5 years, there isn't a squeak or a rattle anywhere and after changing to lower profile tires even the handling has improved immensely. The only thing that has gone wrong so far was in the first 15 days of my ownership, when the wiper spray motor died but was promptly replaced under warranty. Touch wood everything else has been perfect so far and hope it remains so for some more time.
I don't see myself getting rid of this car any time soon. My others cars probably will be sold earlier even though they are later models.

[scorpion_blore]

Sad to see Maruti take this step. I'm a proud owner of Maruti Ritz VXI. This workhorse has served me really well for 6 years. Never did this car disappoint me in all these 6 years. I have taken it on highways and driven extensively in city traffic as well. I'm consistently getting a mileage of 12 KMPL in city and 15.5 KMPL in highway.

Like many others, Swift was my primary choice while purchasing a new car. But due to the long waiting period of Swift at that time (~9 months), and also an additional 75k premium on the on-road price for a similar VXI variant tilted the decision in favor of Ritz.

I'm thinking of upgrading my ride. Wondering whether the user-car valuation of Ritz will go down now since Maruti officially stopped the production.

[GTO]

I support the move of putting her to rest. The Ritz was simply too old @ 7.5 years and there are far better cars in the market. Unlike the Swift which got an all-new generation, the Ritz continued to soldier on with the older platform. It was more practical than the Swift, yes, but that's a classic example of the importance the market places on styling.

Will always remember the car fondly as it was our first 'official review'. Maruti didn't even have my cell number back then; they called on the landline at my office (probably got that number from Googling). I didn't have Team-BHP business cards then - the Japanese were curious when I was handing out business cards from my education firm at the event.

Here's that review - link. No format, no structure, pics from the family Sony .

Originally Posted by romeomidhun

Earlier news suggests that it will come back with a "Tour" version, just like the old DZire. Maruti may not let it go the 3K sales Ritz is attracting now.

Well, Hyundai did let go of the Santro which had a stronger following. Could be to free up production (for newer / more profitable cars), maybe logistics or to free up management bandwidth so they can focus on newer cars.

[Ohh!Oxygen]

It did not come as a surprise. They have already ramped down on production and only two models were available for quite sometime(LDI Diesel and AT Petrol).
With production constraints and newer (read more profitable ) models going for 10 month waiting, it makes a lot of sense to pull the plug. It sells 3000+ every month and apparently thats not a good enough number for Maruti to keep the model alive.

I hope service and spare parts availability is not going to be an issue since it shares a lot of components with Swift including the platform. However current owners (including me) expect a dip in resale value.

[romeomidhun]

Now this news:

Source: http://indianautosblog.com/2016/10/m...duction-243840

"...Maruti spokeswoman denied such reports, and stated that production of the Ritz continues as per demand".

Originally Posted by GTO

Well, Hyundai did let go of the Santro which had a stronger following. Could be to free up production (for newer / more profitable cars), maybe logistics or to free up management bandwidth so they can focus on newer cars.

Hyundai was never suffering from production capacity issues, I guess. So, it will be purely based on profitability or in an urge to phase out older models to give the line up a fresh feel.

In Maruti's case, they are suffering from capacity issues, so phasing out less-profitable models will be the first thing they will do.

[Mohan Mathew A]

6.5 years back when we had to replace the Palio that my father was driving, i was 100% sure which car to replace it with-the Ritz. My father who was 67 then, loved the car (and still does) and has done almost 60k k.m in it. The car has never given us any problems. Both my parents absolutely love the fact that they don't have to 'pull themselves up' to get out of the car or 'climb up' to get in (it was the primary reason for going for the car along with the hassle free ownership expected). My father had a crash in it (when he dozzed-off) and hit a pretty big boulder (size of a small bean-bag). Thankfully he was belted and came out without a scratch. The car took the impact well and was repaired fully and we have been using it for more than 3 years since then-without any problems.

When the time comes i am looking to replace it with the Ignis Automatic. Although i am a little disappointed in knowing that the automatic is going to be an AMT and not a conventional torque converter

[PrashantPahwa]

My father-in-law at chikmaglur bought a Ritz vxi petrol in 2011. He uses it on broken remote village roads which are rebuild once in a few years. Being a coffee farmer, he even uses it for carrying a lot of agricultural supplies and drives inside the coffee estate on mud paths almost every day. The car has consistently yielded mileage of 18+kmpl. Every time I take out that car , the lack of door rattles and suspension related noise surprises me. Considering almost all the 3+ years old swifts I have sat inside had a fair amount of door rattles and noise.
It was a seriously underrated car and the only reason I did not buy a new Ritz this year for myself was that maruti might pull the plug on it any day. I am seriously looking forward to Ignis.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by romeomidhun

Now this news:

Source: http://indianautosblog.com/2016/10/m...duction-243840

"...Maruti spokeswoman denied such reports, and stated that production of the Ritz continues as per demand".

Reconfirmed.

Production of all variants of the Ritz has been stopped. The final few remaining vehicles will be dispatched (most of which have already gone in the month end dispatches).

There is no plan of resuming production as of now.

[SmartCat]

Even if we assume that Ignis is sold via Nexa, a typical Maruti showroom is awfully crowded with 8 models - each of which sell 10,000+ units per month. While most manufacturers would gladly accept 2000 to 3000 per month sales, for Maruti & its dealers, Ritz is a waste of space!

Hyundai should stop i10 production too.

[srinath.s]

Noticed a "Ritz Tour" test drive vehicle in LDi trim this evening at Adyar, Chennai. No pics as I was driving.

Might just as well be that the Ritz is headed the Dzire Tour way. And it's a good thing, in my opinion. Ritz is an accomplished vehicle, and as someone stated, extremely underrated.

[vikramk]

As per a report on IndianAutosBlog, the Ritz is still in production and this is as per company sources.

http://indianautosblog.com/2016/10/m...duction-243840

[Sheel]

Made terrific VFM with ZXI pegged at 5.6/5.7L ex-showroom with nice space, tall seating and that gem of an engine. Sadly, rest of the package is dated. Hope Ignis will replace it successfully.

[procrastinator]

I got to ride in two different Ritz and was simply blown by the space and comfort it offered over the Swift.

Probably, they stopped the production to clear the stocks timely before the Ignis launch.

About the looks, This is what tsk1979 has to say when he was looking for hatchbacks at Maruti Suzuki Showroom

Originally Posted by tsk1979

But our shock climb new heights when I see a car with badly dented rear parked!
Wait... its a Ritz. And there are no dents. Its tailgate is like this. Maybe while protyping the engineers had a fight and kicked the rear of the prototype?

[haria]

It is always a tough call for a manufacturer to bring down curtains on a car - especially one that is doing decent numbers. Ritz is having numbers which many other manufacturers may also envy, though for Maruti, it is dismal compared to their other stars like (Swift, etc).

This, then is logically more easy for Maruti. Other tough calls which I can remember - Stopping production of Qualis - I know of many cabbies who were scrambling to pick up the last units, that too paying a good premium!

We cannot expect that for Ritz. In fact bargain hunters might find the drop in price attractive, though it may be a risk going with a end-of-life product.

[Skyline_GT]

MSIL could still have put some more years into the Ritz. They should have rather discontinued the Celerio which is anyways a market dud and probably the only hatchback from the Maruti stable to see such failures.
Ritz was a much affordable/practical option for those who couldn't afford a Swift.