Maruti Suzuki Celerio Bookings Cross 14,000 In 2 Weeks; Likely to Get Extended Waiting Period

Maruti Suzuki's newly launched Celerio has reportedly received more than 14,000 bookings in two weeks.

The country's largest car maker Maruti is registering 1,000 bookings per day for its recently launched Celerio, out of which a greater part of the booking is for the automatic transmission (AT) model, reported the Financial Express. The increasing demand for the AT model of Celerio is likely to extend the waiting period of Celerio in the domestic market.

"This is the first time we have launched AT in this segment. Who would have thought that we would straightaway get 51 per cent bookings for AT models. Now, there will be a waiting period as the automatic transmission parts are being imported. We will import it for the first year and localise it after a year," Maruti Suzuki Chairman RC Bhargava told FE.

Unveiled at the Auto Expo 2014 in Noida, Celerio is the first car in India to come with Automated Manual Transmission (AMT). Maruti, the celebrated name in the sub-continent market for small car offering seems to have won over the market with Celerio, through aggressive pricing. Unlike other automatic offerings in the country, the price variation between the Manual and Automatic variant of the Celerio is just around ₹1-1.2 lakh.

The Celerio, which was originally launched at a starting price of ₹3.90 lakh, is now available at ₹3.76 lakh. The company has revised the pricing of its recently launched hatchback Celerio in India, after the announcement of a reduction in excise duty by finance minister P Chidambaram.

The Automated Manual Transmission (AMT) equipped LXi and VXi variants will now on sale for ₹4.14 lakh and ₹4.43 lakh respectively, as against the ₹4.29 lakh and ₹4.59 lakh prices revealed earlier.

The Lxi variant of the car will house features like power steering, air conditioning and heater, while the Vxi offers power windows and manually adjustable ORVMs, in addition to the features offered in Lxi. Meanwhile, the top variant Zxi comes loaded with a slew of features like fog lamps, height-adjustable driver seat, anti-lock braking system, electrically adjustable ORVMs and ABS. The Celerio will be available in the market in seven paint jobs.

Under the hood, Celerio packs a 998cc, 3-cylinder, K10B engine, which can churn out a power of 67 bhp at 6,000 rpm and a torque of 9.1 kgm at 3,500 rpm. It is offered in six variants in the country - two with automatic transmission and four with manual transmission - and claims a fuel efficiency of 23.1 kilometers for both versions.