Alto becomes the world�s largest selling car!

Maruti Suzuki�s little Alto has managed a Herculean feat. It has become the world�s No.1 selling car in the calendar year 2010 by defeating strong opponents such as the VW Gol and Golf in Germnay and the Fiat Uno in Brazil. During calendar year 2010, Alto sold 3,00, 956 units. Whereas VWGol sold 2,93,738 units and Gold sold only 2,51,078 units. This is the first time when any Indian car model has outsold global best sellers.

Alto, which was launched in September 2000, has been a big success story from day one. It has sold cumulative 16.68 lakh units till now. Since financial year 2005-06, Alto has been the Number One selling car model in India.

Alto crossed its first 1 million sales mark in just eight years, November 2008, making it the fastest 1 million units selling car of India. �Today, Alto along with another sibling called Alto K10 launched in August 2010 sells average 32,000 units a month. In March this year, it sold over 38,000 units. During just concluded fiscal 2010-11, Alto alone has sold around 3.47 units. This is over 1/4th of Maruti Suzuki�s total sales of 12.71 lakh units from all models during the fiscal. It also reflects a growth of 47 per cent in Alto�s sales compared to 2.35 lakh units sold during fiscal 2009-10� informs Shashank Srivastava, Chief General Manager (Marketing), Maruti Suzuki India Limited.

Some other records of Alto in India:

• First car to cross the 5 lakh domestic sales figure (in 6 years)
• The achievement of the next 5 lakh unit sales � in 2 years and 2 months
• Crossed the 1 miilion production mark in Feb 2008.
• First car brand to cross the 2 lakh sales figure (domestic sales) in a single financial year � achievement twice in FY 2006-07 & FY 2007-08
• India�s largest selling car (domestic since FY 2005 -06)
• Fastest to sell 1 lakh cars � in 150 dys

Alto might get a K-series

Take a small car and fit a bigger engine to it and see what difference it makes. All of a sudden your everyday car gets a much needed soul and it becomes a lot more desirable. But then bigger engines mean lesser fuel efficiency, which in turns makes small cars with big engines impractical. Seriously?

Well, not exactly. The engines made these days are actually more efficient than the ones made some ten years back. So when NDTV's sources suggest that Maruti plans to give its bread and butter car, Alto a heart transplant, we should be happy. And by now some of us might have thought of buying the car. Alto has proved itself in the market. It is a proper successor to the legend, the 800. Though Alto had a 1.1L engine in the past, but it was thirsty. So they discontinued it and the car was available with just one engine option. But as emission norms get stricter with each passing day, Maruti had to upgrade the 800cc engine to BS-IV. But replacing the engine to an already BS-IV engine makes more sense. The only engine they have in their line-up suitable for this small car is the 1L K-series (K10B)engine doing the duty in Alto's European namesake, the A-star. So fitting a 1L K-series engine solves a lot of problems. Maruti-Suzuki can produce a total of 2.5 lakh K-series engines annually, which will have to be upgraded once they start producing the new Alto.

Maruti Suzuki India Chairman R C Bhargava said, "Alto needs a face-lift. It has been there for quite a while." No comment was made on how the car be like, an upgrade or an entirely new one. Sources suggest that if this plan of Maruti's materialises, then Alto's price will go up by a small margin.

Alto has been doing good in the market with around 20,000 units selling per month. The new car is worth a wait. Lets see how Maruti plans to upgrade the Alto.

Source: Motoroids