The Hindu Business Line : Zen and the art of redesigning

ASIDE of the seemingly half-hearted attempt at poetry, that sentence encapsulates Maruti's (MUL) past strategy for the Zen. The years when the company was a near-monopoly and the absence of a demanding, "globally aware" car buyer, only meant that MUL continued to manage selling the same old car for nearly a decade with minor improvements to the quality of fit and finish.

However, after the car industry was opened up, competition from the new car makers, changing customer preferences and driving habits, first forced Maruti to make minor changes to the Zen's exterior and add a bit more value to justify the car's price positioning.

Then, last year MUL woke up to the burgeoning trend of first time car buyers from the fairer sex. So, it started pitching the Zen as a car, which is also designed around the needs of women. Later, with the age profile of new car buyers dipping even lower, the company sent the Zen back to the designers for a much more comprehensive makeover of the looks and appeal.

So, it has taken about two years for MUL to come up with a completely re-designed Zen, the car, which was originally one of the first to be designed and manufactured exclusively for the Indian market by a multinational car maker or its joint venture. Despite the long gestation for the makeover, credit is due here to MUL for doing everything inhouse without any help from its parent or any other overseas design house.

The mandate for the new Zen's styling was to make it more appealing for the younger car buyer, to make it look larger without tinkering with its dimensions and to keep the cost of the refurbishment low. For the most part, MUL has managed to achieve these objectives.

So, what are the trappings of the new Zen, apart from the zippy new ads? The crystal, clear lens type headlamp and tail-lamp clusters, the fabric inserts in the door panel, dual tone, leather and metal finished gear shift knob, plusher upholstery and a new centre console with integrated cup holders have all clearly been added on keeping in mind the expectations and aspirations of the younger car buyer.

The new, wider bonnet grille with horizontal slats, instead of the earlier's honeycomb slats, the larger headlamp cluster, the thicker front and rear bumpers with integrated fog lamps and the more prominent shoulder line running from the headlamps to the rear successfully manage to make the new Zen look much wider than the previous version, without physically adding those inches to the car.

The makeover has meant that MUL had to completely alter and replace at least four body panels (bonnet, hatch and the two side panels in the front) and the front and rear bumpers. The new styling and design has been done entirely inhouse by Indian engineers at Maruti. Importantly, the dies for making the skin panels were also designed and manufactured in India, a first for the Indian car industry. While there have been efforts at indigenous production in the past, design and styling inputs have, usually, come from abroad, either from parent companies or independent design houses.

Further, in the past, the dies for manufacturing the car's body panels have been sourced from Japan, Taiwan or Korea. This is the first time dies have also been made in India, a big step for the Indian component industry.

MUL has decided to retain the old prices of the Zen for the new variant also. Consequently prices range from about Rs 3.43 lakh for the base variant LX (Euro II) to about Rs 3.98 lakhs for the VXi.

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