Maruti Suzuki to soon discontinue A-Star?

We reported earlier that Maruti Suzuki, India's largest carmaker will unveil at least three products at the 2014 Indian Auto Expo. The three vehicles to debut at the show are likely to be a new compact hatchback (Codenamed YL7), a mid-size sedan (Codenamed YL1) and a compact SUV. Recently, it phased out Estilo hatchback, and is all set to phase out the A-Star from the Indian car market. Both hatchbacks were doing decent business, however the sales declined and rising competition forced the manufacture to remove these two from its lineup. Maruti will bring a new compact hatchback, which will be the replacement for the A-Star and Estilo in India.

According to ET, the country's largest carmaker is progressively phasing out the A-Star, which will open a new space for a new range of cars. The sales of A-Star declined heavily, and its numbers even stands below that of the oldest Maruti's hatch 800 this year. It is also said that the new compact hatch will be manufactured to address all the problems that the current A-Star model faces such as congested rear passenger seats, lack of spaciousness. The vehicle features an all-new design and has a taller stance than the A-Star. It will compete against the likes of Hyundai Santro Xing, Chevrolet Beat and Nissan Micra Active.

It is also stated that Maruti's manufacturing contract for the A-Star hatchback/ Nissan Pixo expires in October. Nissan has been selling the re-badged A-star hatchback as Pixo in the European markets, and is already been phased out from the market.

The current generation A-Star is powered by a 1-litre K-Series petrol engine, and is also available with two transmission options - a 5-speed manual and a 4-speed automatic transmission. It is also speculated that the YL7 hatch will feature the same configuration. The company is also developing a small diesel engine, which is also speculated to power the next generation compact hatch.

Source : ET