Maruti WagonR: 18 years young and still going strong

While very few car models survive beyond the five-year mark, Maruti has been able to keep alive WagonR, as one of its strongest selling models for the last 18 years, with sales still on the rise.

Given the strong brand presence, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) is now working on a full model change for WagonR to mark the evolution of the brand.

“Work is going on for major changes in the vehicle, which will happen over a period of time,” RS Kalsi, Senior Executive Director - Marketing and Sales, MSIL, told BusinessLine . He, however, refused to give a timeframe for the launch.

“WagonR is an 18-year-old brand but as a product it has been going through various changes,” he said. Sometimes the changes had been minor, and sometimes the company went for a full model change.

It became the third model in the country to cross the 20-lakh cumulative sales mark, after Maruti 800 and Alto.

Launched in 1999, WagonR continues to feature among the top five best selling cars in the country for the last five years. This is despite there being 200 car models selling in the country from different carmakers.

In 2016-17, Maruti sold 172,346 units of WagonR, while 72,695 units were sold between April and August 2017 — again in the top five for the fiscal.

While many would argue that Maruti should come up with new models in the segment, the company believes discontinuing WagonR is unthinkable, given the brand’s strong sales.

“We are glad that we have been able to keep it as a fresh product. It is unthinkable to discontinue the brand. As many as 20 per cent of WagonR buyers are repeat buyers of the same model, which is very rare to see,” Kalsi said.

Despite increasing sales, WagonR’s share of Maruti’s overall sales has been on a decline over the years.

According to Kalsi, that is because, with increasing disposable incomes and easily available finance schemes, buyers are opting for more feature-rich cars.

“Customers earlier wanted the lowest possible price point. Now they are focussed on technology and features. So much so that even in Alto K10, people are buying the most feature-rich variant. That’s why we launched the automatic variants in both Alto and WagoonR,” he said.

While the brand enjoys national appeal, cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad have contributed handsomely towards it total sales.

Among the new features added, auto gear shift trims account for over 16 per cent sales, while CNG accounts for over 20 per cent.

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