Reference Auto

Maruti, despite being the country’s top car seller, hasn’t really been doing too well with its A-Star car and in an effort to rev up sales of this sagging car and counter negative effects of the slowdown in Europe, it has rolled out the 2012 A-Star.

The new A-Star will come in five variants - LXI, VXI, VXI AT and ZXI (with or without ABS and airbags). Prices of the five models range from Rs 3.66 lakh to Rs 4.40 lakh. The costs are just about Rs 1,000 more than the old variants of the car.

However, there is no improvement on the engine front with the 2012 A-Star coming with the same 998 cc K10B petrol engine with 67 PS power as well as 90 NM torque.

The gear options are as usual: a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic transmission.

Airbags and ABS are now optional and the new A-Star comes in two new colours, Glistening Grey and Pearl Caffeine Brown.

On the interior front, the 2012 A-Star offers dual tone beige and black upholstery. The car will now come with 50:50 rear split seats and more “cubby” holes in the cabin.

The new A-Star also has new alloy wheels along with an integrated rear spoiler.

An upbeat Shashank Srivastava, chief general manager (marketing), Maruti Suzuki, said, “The A-star is one of the most vibrant brands in our portfolio. Some of its key features such as contemporary styling, dynamic handling and high ride quality along with best-in-class turning radius, power, flat torque and superior performance has made the A-star popular among the youth.”

Domestic sales haven’t been too good for Maruti with regard to the A-Star.

For instance, Maruti-Suzuki’s overall sales grew 5 per cent in January (which is quite good considering the auto slowdown that is lingering in the country) but sales of its mini cars (800, Alto, A-Star and WagonR) plunged by 2.4%,

However, the export market for the A-Star has been looking up ever since its inception.

The auto giant exported over 2.8 lakh cars of the A-Star so far to over 130 countries, mainly to markets in Europe like the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Germany and the UK. The car has also made an entry into markets like Australia and South Africa.

The 2012 A-Star has seen a meager Rs 1,000 hike in prices, which clearly indicates that the auto major is targeting the domestic market in a big way, and these new features like the refurbished interior, could also give a further fillip to the already high export volume of this car.

With the 2012 A-Star launch, Maruti Suzuki is targeting the Indian market in the wake of the slowdown in Europe and also because the Indian market usually remains impervious to a global slowdown.