Maruti slashes M800 prices

Our Corporate Bureau
14 June 2005

Market leader Maruti Udyog has slashed prices of the Maruti 800 by Rs16,286 making it the only sub-Rs 2-lakh pasenger car in a bid to stem falling sales.

With the price cut, the base level (BS III-complaint) M800 model costs Rs1,99,350 against the earlier Rs2,15,636 without an air conditioner. The air conditioned version is down to Rs2,22,254 from Rs2,38,540.

According to the company, the price cut is aimed at the entry-level market and will also expand the market.

However, M800's sales have been falling continuously in the past few years and in the recently concluded fiscal its sales registered a 31 per cent decline to 1,16 lakh units. In the first two months of the current year, the sales further declined to 38 per cent, at 13,026 units.

M800's sales began falling when the company cut the prices of its Alto model by Rs50,000. Though MUL has tried nearly every trick in the book to boost its sales in the past two years, nothing seems to have worked.

For instance MUL's 'two ka four scheme', (two-wheeler for a four-wheeler) targeting the model at two- wheeler owners and its low EMI (Rs2,499) scheme launched only in small towns. MUL also launched a new look Euro III M-800 in January this year, which was spared the price hike in May, when the company raised prices across the board.