Maruti Suzuki Alto is India’s best-selling car for 16 years: Nearly 4 million sold

Maruti Suzuki Alto is the manufacturer’s entry level offering and is a popular choice among many Indian families. The Alto has been on sale for quite some time and was launched back in 2000, and has now been crowned as India’s best-selling car for sixteen years in a row. It is one of the vehicle that has consistently maintained its position and remained a preferred choice for many first time car buyers. The Alto hatchback competes with cars like Datsun RediGO, Renault Kwid and Hyundai Santro in the segment.

The Alto, as mentioned above, was launched back in 2000 and started becoming popular among buyers. It was only in 2004 that it became India’s best selling car. From that date till 2020, because of mass acceptance, it became the largest selling hatchback in this highly competitive segment.

Also read: Maruti Alto K10 removed from official website: S-Presso is its replacement

Talking about this achievement, Mr Shashank Srivastava, Executive Director (Marketing & Sales), Maruti Suzuki India Limited said,

Consistently setting new benchmarks in the Indian auto Industry, Alto is the undisputed leader in India for 16 years in a row establishing its dominance in the competitive entry segment. owing to its unparalleled performance, compact design, easy manoeuvrability, high fuel efficiency, affordability and timely convenience and safety related upgrades. Backed by a strong legacy, Alto continues to appeal to customers across the length and breadth of the country, with 76% customers choosing it as their 1st car.

Maruti has been consistently working on Alto and tried making it more relevant in the market year after year. Over the year, design of Alto has changed a lot, it has become more modern and has also started offering much more features than it used to. Alto has also been a very fuel efficient hatchback which made it even more popular among Indian buyers. Maruti updated, the car last year and made it compliant with the new Indian crash and pedestrian safety norms and now comes with features like airbags, ABS, rear parking etc sensors as standard.

It is powered by a BS6 compliant 799-cc, three cylinder petrol engine option with a 5-speed manual gearbox. The motor makes 47 Bhp of peak power and 62 Nm of peak torque. It is available in both petrol and CNG fuel options. The petrol version returns a 22.05 kmpl and the CNG version returns 31.56 km/kg. Price for Alto 800 now starts at Rs 2.94 lakh, ex-showroom and goes up to Rs 4.36 lakh, ex-showroom.

Also read: This is the sportiest Maruti 800 you will ever see (Video)