India’s most Dzire’able car!

Dzire has been the most successful car in the past 2 months and its volumes have just baffled the analysts. It is not easy to beat the current bestseller (Alto) and Dzire has just been able to do it with considerable ease. So what making the Dzire such a heartthrob?

Recent Phenomenal Growth in Dzire’s Sale

1. 3rd generation of Maruti Suzuki Dzire was launched in India on 16th May 2017

2. Has recently touched the phenomenal mark of 30,000+ for two successive month, quite surprising for a car which cost ₹ 6+ Lakhs  in India

1. Since 2012 it came in close vicinity to Alto’s sales number, Alto still holds the crown of bestseller in India

2. In some of the months Dzire has snatched the title of bestseller as well

3. Just note, later is an entry level hatchback and former is a sedan version of premium hatchback

Undisputed Leader

No doubt Swift Dzire has its core strength but often makes me wonder, is it by design from Maruti Suzuki or is it really a miracle- for both Maruti and Indian customer alike. Competitors came, tried and failed!

Dzire

It is a product which has outlived its own name “Dzire” to become “Addiction”. To me previous avatars do look good in parts but not as a whole, due to awkward proportion. Recent iteration looks more akin to compact sedan.

Generation-1 (2008)

1. Side profile looks like two disparate cars stitched together

2. A near full size sedan having heart and body parts from hatchback model and ultimately cannibalized grown-up stable mate SX4

Generation-2 (2012)

1. Set the charts on fire, though looks like a truncated boot latched to a hatchback

2. Second offering in the unique to India  4m sedan segment, first being Tata Indigo CS – the real innovative answer to Government’s tax laws

Generation-3 (2017)

1. More sublime design and looks good in whole

2. Packaged well with all modern features and gadgets on select variants and safety features on all variants with option of economical automatic transmission system on all variants, except the base one

Hypothesis : Is this mere a Spike or Sustainable-New-Normal for Dzire

May be “Yes”

1. Despite cut throat competition in the segment, demand is strong, right now there is 2-4 months of waiting period for the car

2. For reference, consider this – Maruti Suzuki has to dish out cash discount of ₹ 25000 on Wagon R to get it out of the showrooms in this festive season

3. New plant in Gujarat has gone on-stream so Maruti Suzuki does not have production constraint

May be “No”

1. Numbers for Dzire started tapering downward since the introduction of Baleno in 2015, as both jostled for same sub – 4m length footprint, in different body forms

2. Essentially Baleno has started cannibalizing both the stable mate – Swift & Dzire, but it was deliberate and well thought out strategy from Maruti Suzuki, as it added more numbers to its overall kitty and catered to overlapping needs of different buyer-segment

1. Recent spike could largely be attributed to initial dispatches, which were too low in May and June, may be due to steering column issues, as reported by few insiders and published on the internet, thus Maruti Suzuki is making up for the lost time – as it is yet to reach it monthly average peak of 2015, for whole year

“For now it seems to be more of a spike, but in future, as this miraculous car’s story unfolds, 30k+ could be new normal!”. Or can the New Swift change the trend?

Note : Only Maruti Suzuki stable is considered for this analysis, as all of the products are respective segment leader.