Maruti Suzuki has decided to stop the manufacturing of base variants of entry-level cars, S-Presso and Alto. The reason for the discontinuation has to do with the mandatory airbags policy which is to be implemented in October by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. The base variants of the S-Presso and Alto – STD and LXI – have been discontinued since they offered single airbags. The company has now decided to offer dual airbags as a standard feature across its entire range of vehicles. The optional variants – STD (O) and LXI (O) – still remain up for sale. The entry-level vehicle, S-Presso, and Alto, were the only two cars manufactured by Maruti Suzuki with single airbags.
The discontinuation also means that now the next-in-line variants of the two cars will be deemed as the base variants. However, this means that the new base models of the two cars are now costlier. The price of the optional S-Presso base variant is Rs 14,000 more than what customers were earlier giving for the discontinued version. Similarly, the price of the optional base variant of the Maruti Suzuki Alto is Rs 80,000 more than the earlier model.
The discontinuation of the single airbag models comes after the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways announced that it is mandatory for all cars to have dual airbags. In addition to this, for vehicles carrying up to 8 passengers, six airbags will be mandatory. As a result, Maruti Suzuki announced that all its vehicles will have dual airbags. The company, with this, also hiked the prices of all its cars sold under the Arena and Nexa range, except Ertiga and XL6.
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