Thursday, August 20, 2015
Hyundai Santro Celebration Edition, Fiat Punto Sport unlikely to shake up market
The Santro has been in India for over a decade now and has fallen to cannibalisation by Hyundai’s new cars like the i10 along with the newly rolled out cheap car Eon, and in order to revive the sagging sales of its once-popular Santro, the Korean car major has rolled out the Celebration Edition of the hatchback to celebrate 15 years of the car’s existence while the new Fiat Punto Sport is unlikely to shake up the market.
This limited edition of the Santro Xing will come in petrol as well as LPG and CNG variants and the showroom price could be kept under Rs 4 lakh.
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| The Hyundai Santro Celebration edition. |
The Santro Xing Celebration Edition comes with features like rear parking sensors with LED display, Blaupunkt audio system and manual rear curtain. There are a slew of upgraded styles like body graphics and rear chrome garnish also.
The Santro was rolled out in 1998 and became one of the best selling hatchbacks in the country.
The new Celebration Edition will be offered in GL Plus model (only petrol), LPG and CNG variants.
The new Xing would come in three colour options such as Coral White, Sleek Silver and Mushroom.
The Korean car company is revving up in a big way and will be unveiling the Grand i10 next month. This family car has been positioned above the existing i10 and is targeted at the emerging high-end compact car buyer.
The Santro’s sales have been sagging, owing mainly to cannibalisation by its own vehicles and launch of a litany of compact cars, leading to intense competition in the segment. The Grand i10 is likely to eat into the car’s market further.
Fiat Punto Sport
Fiat, with its dismal show in India, has rolled out the 2013 Punto Sport, which comes with cosmetic changes but there are no mechanical upgrades though and this may not be too attractive for car buyers.
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| The Fiat Punto Sport. |
The price of the 2013 Punto Sport is Rs 7.6 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi), and it would compete with high-end hatchbacks like Volkswagen Polo GT, Hyundai i20 and Mahindra Verito Vibe.
The new Fiat Punto Sport offers a roof spoiler, branded door sills, high quality floor mats with red stitching, sport pedals with aluminum inserts along with a chrome exhaust tip.
The Punto also has decals on the exterior and is only available in two colours, white and red. But the roof is painted black and this somewhat gives it a sporty look.
The colours of outer mirrors are alternate, that is, the red car gets white mirrors and the white car comes with red mirrors.
The Punto Sport has features like dual front airbags, Fiat's Blue and Me technology, fire prevention system, climate control, ABS, immobiliser with rolling security code along with speed-sensitive volume control.
The Sport model is powered by the same 1.3-litre MultiJet diesel engine which offers a commendable 93 PS of power.
So, the Santro Xing Celebration Edition and the 2013 Punto Sport are unlikely to shake up the market much as Santro is an old car and has other Hyundai products eating into its market while the Punto may see hardly any surge in sales owing to the high pricing along with the lacklustre marketing strategy of Fiat.
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