What else can you buy for the price of a Maruti Ignis?

The Maruti Ignis is hailed to be the car that would shake up the Indian car market, opening up new avenues to be explored by car makers. Based on a new platform derived from the Baleno, the five-seater Ignis gets a host of features along with the tried and tested petrol and diesel mills from the Swift and an option of AMT gearboxes as well. Now, its comparison to the Hyundai Grand i10 or the Honda Brio has been beaten to death (you can still find it here though). So we bring to you a list of cars that compare against all the variants of the Maruti Suzuki Ignis to give you an idea about what else can you get for the same amount of money.

So here is the thing, we take you up trim-wise – Sigma, Delta, Zeta and Alpha. As we go up the ladder, we will have a couple of Ignis’ variants coming in at similar price tags. So we start with the base trim, Sigma, which is offered with a petrol engine only. At Rs 4.59 lakh, ex-showroom, Delhi (all prices hereon will be ex-Delhi), you could lay your hands on a top-spec Renault Kwid with a 1.0litre engine and an AMT. It gets Bluetooth telephony and a touchscreen music system. So does the Tata Tiago and we all know the Tiago is certainly a segment above the Kwid. You can also get a second to base trim of Hyundai i10. If you need more space, a lot more, you can get yourself a Datsun GO Plus as well.

Next comes in the Delta trim. It is offered in both petrol and diesel engines and gets both manual as well as automatic transmission options. The Delta petrol manual comes in at Rs 5.19 lakh. At that price tag you could land yourself a similar spec Hyundai Grand i10 Magna but in that case, you would rather get the Ignis because it is newer. Also, you can have a look at the Chevrolet Beat Diesel LS, the mid-variant. Sure it would give you much better running costs but service is much tougher to find. 

For the price of the Delta petrol automatic, you could opt for the entry level Hyundai Elite i20 – a much bigger car or a sedan in the form of the Ford Aspire petrol. You could also get the top-spec Tata Tiago diesel, a very nice package indeed, or the fully loaded Maruti Celerio with AMT, if an automatic is what you are looking out for.

In case of the Delta diesels, for the price tag of the manual, Rs 6.39 lakh, you could land yourself a real SUV, the petrol version of the Ford EcoSport but in entry-level. In case you were looking for a sedan, you can opt for the Volkswagen Ameo Comfortline variant. If your monthly running is round about 1000km, a petrol would certainly be a better bet over five years at least. And in that case, you could opt for the manual version of the 1.2-litre Maruti Ignis Zeta – the second to top trim that comes with a host of features. 

The Delta diesel AT, as expected is expensive, almost a half a lakh more than the Swift VDi ABS. Again, if your drive is going to be a short intra-city commute, you could have the top-spec Honda Brio AT. The new Toyota Etios Platinum also comes in at that price range and is a much bigger car – but again a base version of a dated design. And unless you are sure to be stuck in traffic, there is the higher-spec Ignis Zeta diesel or the fully-loaded Ignis Alpha petrol.

Coming to the Zeta trim, the options stand true vice versa for the Ignis Zeta petrol and diesel mentioned above as well as the Alpha petrol. The cost of the petrol manual will fetch you a Maruti Celerio ZDI option or a Honda Amaze. The price of a diesel Zeta AT is almost at par with the entry-level Maruti Vitara Brezza or the Hyundai i20 Active if you have a thing for crossovers. 

Which leaves the most expensive Ignis, the top-spec Alpha diesel. It doesn’t get an AMT option because if it did, the price tag would go through roof. At Rs 7.8 lakh, you can land yourself a Maruti Ciaz VDi Option or the rugged, quirky Mahindra Nuvosport in N4 Plus trim.

So, you do have quite a few options for the Ignis across its range with a few of them from Maruti itself. The wide price range has had us comparing it to the top-spec entry-level hatchbacks to the decently loaded C-segment sedans as well as compact SUVs. It tends to be a bit pricey as it goes up with the higher variants losing the value-for-money tag Maruti’s are known for.