Maruti Suzuki Celerio AMT’s waiting period now extends to six months

Planning to buy the Maruti Suzuki Celerio? Be ready to wait for six months at least to get the car. The latest hatchback from the India’s biggest carmaker is enjoying a great demand in the Indian car market.

The demand for the AMT (automated manual transmission) variant of the Celerio in metropolitan cities like Mumbai and Bangalore has increased so much that there is a shortage in the supply of the variant. 

Recently we reported that the Celerio's overall bookings comprised 51 per cent of the AMT version of the vehicle. Now the manufacturer has received more than 25,000 bookings of the Celerio within a month of the launch of the new mid-sized family hatchback.The bookings of the AMT variant have exceeded the company's estimations.

What is special about this AMT variant of the Celerio is the new gearbox that it is equipped with. The automated manual transmission enables drivers to shift gears automatically or switch to manual shifting whenever they want. This feature has been firstly introduced in a mid-size segment car by any manufacturer ever in India. The gearbox is currently being imported from Magneto Marelli.

It seems that Maruti Suzuki might have underestimated the demand for the AMT and not sourced enough stock from the supplier- the probable reason for the scarcity of AMT equipped Celerios. Nevertheless, the company plans to localise it by next year which might mean that the company will be able to provide more AMT variants to their customers.

Maruti Suzuki has extensive plans to equip some more cars from their existing line-up with the AMT. They might come up with an Alto automatic followed by other cars. In fact, we think the upcoming SX4 replacement, the Ciaz, might also be equipped with this feature.

Other manufacturers like Tata will also follow suit by introducing the automated manual transmission in the Nano, the upcoming Zest and later onto other cars from their line-up. However, the companies should try to correctly analyse the demand for a product first so that it doesn’t amount to a waiting period that only upsets prospective buyers.