Maruti Suzuki sold 50,759 units of Ciaz between January and December 2018 to become the best selling C-segment sedan in India
Maruti Suzuki Ciaz becomes the best selling C-Segment sedan in India as the company sold 50,759 units between January and December 2018. The Verna took the second position from the City as Hyundai sold 42,605 units and 42,045 units by Honda. The newcomer Yaris couldn’t make an impact in the segment due to the premium pricing and lack of diesel engine.
The breakthrough for Ciaz came with the introduction of the facelift model in August as it has helped the sedan to edge ahead of the competitors with a healthy lead as new model has attracted more volume. The Ciaz facelift model comes with minor changes for the front fascia with a new grille, updated headlamps and a new bumper.
The side continues the same design theme with new alloy wheels and the rear get LED tail lamps along with new chrome trim. The interior continues the same design theme from the earlier model and the changes include a new faux wood insert in the dashboard. The instrument cluster has been completely revised and the company has given a new MID screen.
The Ciaz comes loaded with lots of features like touch screen infotainment screen, climate control, leather upholstery and more. The sales of Verna and City are consistent throughout the year as both of them swapped positions often, as there was no clear winner for most part of the year.
But the Verna comes with a diesel automatic model and it is priced lower than City, which helped the Korean sedan to move ahead and beat the City as the sales difference between both models is less than 2,000 units.
We can expect Honda to introduce a minor update next year to keep the sales momentum going forward until the launch of the new generation model. The Vento and Rapid sales are not up to the same level of the top three models in the segment as they sold below 1,000 units consistently and these models desperately need a major update to improve sales.
But the next generation model of both Vento and Rapid are expected to arrive after 2020. They will be priced at a more accessible range due to the MQB A0 IN platform currently under development for India.