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Our Bureau

New Delhi , Nov. 24

TEN years after its launch, the Maruti Zen, is in for a facelift. The new-look Zen will be unveiled on Thursday and is expected to carry a higher price tag.

The advertising campaign for the compact car, which sells about 5,000 units every month, will start in a couple of days with a teaser campaign showing a blonde model being chased by a tiger in Prague. The full advertisement will hit television screens after the formal launch of the car.

Maruti unveiled the advertising campaign on Monday but company officials refused to comment on the changes made to the car.

"Zen has witnessed a drop in market share from 20 per cent to about 18 per cent in the last two years. We have been working for the last 18 months on the new car and it has been changed keeping in mind the latest European styling," Maruti's General Manager (Marketing), Mr Ravi Bhatia told reporters here.

Mr Bhatia said that the price of the new Zen was being worked out and would be finalised over the next couple of days. Market sources said that the car, that has been designed and developed in-house, will be priced slightly higher than the existing 1,000 cc vehicle.

Asked if the Zen will be pushed in the overseas markets, Mr Bhatia said that the company would continue to push its other compact car, the Alto, for exports.

Maruti has sold over five lakh units of Zen in the domestic markets and about one lakh in the overseas markets since it was launched in 1993.

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New-look Zen to roll out on Thursday

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