[amit V8]

MSIL does it again. a decade old car (which is copied & launched by some chinese co. as a truck) is now on sale as a new vehicle with the most awful interior.

i really thought the APV was coming to our shores. what a disaster.

[.anshuman]

This looks like a facelifted Versa, nothing more. A diesel is a must if they are want volumes. 190nm torque from the Swift spec DDiS would serve the purpose well.

[aaggoswami]

1) Nice joke.
2) This car wont sell. Its nothing but a worked upon Versa, which could not gather good sales despite Amitabh Bacchhan's efforts in ads.

They NEED APV if they really want to strike in the people mover segment. Nothing else is going to work. Else come up with diesel unit of this car. They will give a few sleepless nights to Tavera and Xylo if Versa comes with diesel. The taxi market will buy these Versa diesels as the space utilization and surely it will have higher FE than Tavera and Xylo.

But this car is not going to work out well for Suzuki.

3) Although its clearly stated that they have worked on ECO for 3 years, it looks they have worked on YR9 and YE3 for three years and not on ECO.

If really Maruti-Suzuki worked on Versa to build ECO, they should dissolve themselves in VW.

EDIT :
Length of Versa is 3675mm.
I think this car is well under 4.0 mtrs. and so its eligible for tax concession.
May be this is the reason why they are planning to come up with under Rs. 4 lakh tag for this car.

4) @GTO:
Omni has other factors too other than low price tag.
a) Easy on maintenance.
b) High FE.
c) Simplicity.

5) Except for those who are looking for a people mover under Rs. 5 lakh I dont think that this car will find buyers. What is good is that the Omni replacement is decent enough if price is low i.e. less than Rs. 4 lakh.

[backrub]

Pathetic effort from India's number 1 manufacturer and taking people for a ride.

[Mpower]

Versa bombed like nobody business. So Maruti wants to sweep the name under the carpet and start afresh. But what a stupid name. Even superOmni would have sounded better.

Looks like they have removed features wherever possible like black bumper, radio etc to bring the price down. But how much more can they go down.

I guess the 73 bhp shows that the engine is tuned for a strong bottom end torque while giving up power. (similar strategy on F8 for Omni).

To conclude the Omni is not an aspirational car and so its hard to convince people to upgrade to a bigger Omni. Lets see how the pricing turns out. the sub 1.2 liter + 4 m spec should help quite a bit.

Originally Posted by ravi@64bhp

Vicky.in updated the Eeco specifications. Seems the 1.2L engine makes only 73 bhp only as agains Ritz's 80+ bhp.

[foby.sebastian]

Originally Posted by rajeshsundaram

Okay. Found some images in the link mentioned in one reply above. Used photoshop to adjust the brightness levels and made it clearer than before. Hope it looks okay.

They could have called it a soap box (soooop-bx)

[urzdeepu]

OMG!!what an addition to the new stable!! taxi operators u better hear!! here is yet another product for you(if its a diesel one)..

[dhrishikesh]

Here are some pics of Eeco, along with its specifications:
Maruti Suzuki’s new MPV (multi purpose vehicle) called Eeco is a five door vehicle. Eeco will be available in five seater and seven seater options. Eeco powered by an 1.2L engine complies the upcoming bharat IV emission norm and returns 15.1Km to a litre of petrol (as per ARAI). The 1196ccc engine generates 73bhp of raw power at 6000rpm and a high torque of 101Nm@3000rpm. The Eeco uses the 5 speed manual transmission system with the Diagonal Shift Assistance (DSA) technology which allows for a gear change without any break in continuity of the action, thereby improving the gear shift feeling.
Interiors will not just be functional but also offer a luxurious feel. Eeco comes with dual tone interiors – shades of beige and grey. The digital meter cluster adds to the driver convenience as well as a sophisticated feel. The flexi design of Eeco enables the car to have 5-seater and 7 seating option. The sliding doors similar to omni will ensure easy ingress and egress of Eeco passengers. Air-conditioning could be only luxury feature of Eeco as the price would be very competitive. Eeco would run on 155/R13LT sized tubeless tyres.
Maruti Eeco will be launched on 7th January and will be available in six exciting colours – Metallic Glistening grey, metallic silky silver,Metallic Midnight Black,Metallic Blue Blaze,Bright Red and Superior White. Expect the price of Eeco to start from Rs4 lakhs. Maruti plans to sell 40,000 units per annum.
Eeco complies upcoming Bharat IV emission norm and the Eeco is ELV (End of Life for Vehicles) compliant which means it uses Lead, Cadmium, Mercury and Chromium within permissible limits.

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

This matchbox will be christiened "Versa", and sold as the versa, at about 15% premium to Versa's last price. (1.2 L engine @ prices comparable to 1.1 L offerings from MSIL? No way!!!).

THis will not be named eeeecko. I promise all you.

BTW, hope this one will, like M800, be "safer than a merc (TM)".

[pacman2881]

Looking at the name 'Eeco' at first I thought Maruti was planning a eco-friendly electric vehicle or something. Looks to be a re-branded Versa to me. Versa with the 1.3 MJD would have sold instead of a 'all new' model.

[BMW-X5]

Hi All,

Soptted 3 "ECCOs? or YUCKOs" in HAL Helicopter division (Old Airport Road) half an hour back, 2 red and a blue HR registered vehicles.Looks like the same vehicles in the above snaps. Stoped for a moment to see it, nothing much has changed from versa except a cheap 'ECCO' logo, headlamps, tail lamps and front grill. Didnt even bothered to click a snaps as it is not really worth the the effort .

[nurni76]

Originally Posted by .anshuman

This looks like a facelifted Versa, nothing more. A diesel is a must if they are want volumes. 190nm torque from the Swift spec DDiS would serve the purpose well.

I am sorry to see this pathetic model from Maruti (if this is true). It is actually the current Omni with snouted front aka Versa. Even if they had facelifited the versa with better interiors and exteriors, it might have worked, but not this. Just to continue with Omni, they have done a plastic surgery that has resulted in a distorted species.

[BMW-X5]

nurni76

This is not OMNI, it is versa for sure. Not even the body graphics are changed :(. Keep your eyes open until you spot them as they are doing rounds in Bangalore i'm sure that you will look else where the moment you spot it. This is nothing but a EURO4 versa and the ECCO badging looks cheap as in OMNI Cargo.

[aaggoswami]

Maruti is planning to sell 40,000 units of this car. Not possible IMO. I hope they dont come up with commercial tyres as they did in Versa. This car is good for those who are looking at better Omni. CNG a possibility.
The engine has best features from K and J series. Wait, K series ? Isn't that the latest. I think earlier Suzuki did have K series motors available in Suzuki Kei. Not sure on this, but had read earlier that this K series available in A-star and Ritz is a different series from earlier K series that never made it to India and mostly never made it out of India.

Thats a different story. Just like the Esteem unit was detuned, K12M is also detuned for this car.

Source : Hopes to sell 40,000 Eecos in first year

Article :

Maruti Suzuki is targeting first year sales of about 40,000 units of Eeco, the new family van it plans to launch on January 7 at the 10 Auto Expo in New Delhi.

The C segment vehicle Eeco, specifically designed for the Indian market by the auto major, comes with a new, powerful and fuel efficient 1200 cc engine. This new engine being introduced for the first time delivers 73 bhp of raw power @ 6000 rpm, a high torque and meets the Bharat Stage IV emission norms. Maruti will announce the pricing of the new vehicle, which also comes with air-conditioning, at the forthcoming Auto Expo.

We aim to sell about 40,000 units in the first year, said Mr I.V.Rao, Managing Executive Officer, Engineering, at Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. The company has spent about Rs 60 crore on R&D in developing Eeco over the past two-and-a-half years, Mr Rao said. Maruti currently produces about 100-150 units of Eeco and has set up a different assembly line at its plant in Manesar. The company is targeting users of its other model Omni who plan to upgrade to a larger vehicle. Maruti currently sells about 80,000 units of OMNIs a year. About 25 per cent of the customers come back to buy Omni and we are targeting them, he said.

The new engine has incorporated various best features from its other series of petrol engines such as K and J series. At present, the company has launched the petrol version of Eeco and would look at CNG version going forward, Mr Rao said. Eeco delivers a mileage of 15.1 km per litre under standard conditions and has seating options of five and seven seaters.

Eeco is the fourth model from the Maruti stable to meet the BS IV emission norms ahead of the April 2010 deadline. The company plans to upgrade and make all other models such as Wagon R, Alto, SWIFT, Omni and Gypsy BSIV compliant by April 2010, Mr Rao said.

EDIT :
The best van Suzuki can make is by extending the Wagon R. Extent wheelbase, make the chassis a bit more stiff and put in that diesel. The best Van below Rs. 5 lakh by Suzuki. Otherwise bring in APV with a bigger diesel heart. Else forget van segment.

[nurni76]

Originally Posted by BMW-X5

Hi All,

Soptted 3 "ECCOs? or YUCKOs" in HAL Helicopter division (Old Airport Road) half an hour back, 2 red and a blue HR registered vehicles.Looks like the same vehicles in the above snaps. Stoped for a moment to see it, nothing much has changed from versa except a cheap 'ECCO' logo, headlamps, tail lamps and front grill. Didnt even bothered to click a snaps as it is not really worth the the effort .

Somehow the side profile of the red picture gives a me an OMNI feel to it. Also a 73BHP for a versa that used to have over 80BHP esteem engine doesn't seem right. Anyways, let us wait and see what this alien looks like