[jetsetgo08]

IMHO, the reasons for the higher sales figures of Baleno Petrol-

1. The on-road price difference between Petrol & Diesel is a significant ~1.4 lakhs. Whereas the same for Swift/Dzire is around 90k-100k after all the discounts applied.
2. Nexa outlets are still restricted to Tier-1/Tier-2 cities where the primary usage of a buyer is daily office commute(mostly IT folks). Lesser usage does not warrant a diesel car.
3. The latest maruti entrant and "the prince of the mass-market", Brezza. If not for the waiting period it would have easily trumped Dzire/Swift in terms of sales.
4. Longer projected waiting period for the diesel. Buyers are repelled towards the diesel I20 siblings.
5. Lastly, the feather light kerb-weight guarantees better fuel efficiency. This in conjunction with OTR price difference(point-1) lead to higher sales of petrol cars.

Despite all the above, most Baleno's that I see on the road (in Hyderabad) sport 'DDiS' stickers on the fenders.

Another notable point, the erstwhile petrol Sx4's being used in many Sarkari offices, are gradually being replaced by petrol Dzire's/Ciaz's and Ertiga's.

[SoumenD]

Originally Posted by Midas

If you look at this in a different perspective, for someone who is interested in a diesel car in this segment, i20 seems to be a better option. It's loaded with features, great looks (subjective) and a decent performer. So, diesel car buyers might ditch Maruti and go with Hyundai. What do you guys think?

Isnt that exactly what I said about diesels? Quoted below:

Originally Posted by SoumenD

However if you come to diesel counterparts the story is different. Almost all the hatches come with FTD diesel engines and hence, Baleno diesel doesn't get too many brownie points here.

GTO's point was about petrols & the initial response was for that. Diesel has been the segment manufacturers concentrated on more. Hence better competition(read options) there. But petrol has been given the step-brotherly treatment for quite sometime. Hopefully now with customer preference 'somewhat' shifting back to petrols we would get better engines.