Alto 800 gets over 17,000 bookings in five days

The Maruti Suzuki Alto 800 which was launched amid much fanfare on October 16 has already got over 17,000 bookings in less than a week. The new small car had already got over 6500 pre-launch orders and this number went up to 10,000 on the first day itself. 

The Alto 800 is expected to help Maruti Suzuki revive sales of its smaller petrol models, which had taken a hit over the last one year due to rapid dieselisation of the Indian car market. Commenting on the change of fortune, Mayank Pareek, chief operating officer marketing and sales, said that over October last year, showroom enquiries for the Alto were already up 32 per cent and this has taken the overall demand for their range up by 15 per cent in the same period.

A Maruti Suzuki dealer, K Rajendran, from Malappuram district of Kerala held an event to deliver 200 cars to their respective owners at the hands of P K Kunhalikutty, state minister for industries and information technology. 

Echoing the message of many of the dealers we had spoken to before the launch of the car, Rajendran said “We had 200 bookings in the span of ten days, even before the customers had seen any images or had any information on the price of the car.”

The Alto 800 has been launched for an introductory price of Rs 2.44 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). It is powered by a BS IV compliant 796cc three-cylinder engine displacing 48bhp and 69Nm of torque. The hatchback has three variants and is also available in a CNG guise.   

Source: Financial Express and Hindu