With Nexa as its home, Maruti Suzuki Ciaz shines bright

Maruti Suzuki Ciaz, the premium sedan of ace automaker, Maruti has been a consistent performer in India's sedan segment. The latest numbers prove that the Ciaz towers above its contenders in the segment even after it was moved to Nexa, the premium-only car destination of Maruti Suzuki.

Maruti Suzuki began selling the Ciaz through Nexa in India from April 1. The company sold 7,024 units of the Ciaz in the first month after moving to Nexa with the sedan clocking 4,700 units in May. Although the numbers witnessed a fall in May, the performance of the Ciaz was on par with its competitors.

The Ciaz rivals

It closest rival Honda City sold 5,948 units in April and 4,046 units in May. It must be noted that selling Ciaz through Nexa means the sales channel for the sedan is restricted to just 200 outlets. In comparison to the other models, Maruti Suzuki has more than 1500 regular dealerships in the country.

When Maruti shifted Ciaz to Nexa, it did not make any changes to the model apart from minor tweaks at the rear badging which puts it in sync with other Nexa models. However, Maruti has been testing a facelifted model of the Ciaz and grapevine has it that it could hit the Nexa showrooms by the end of 2017.

Currently, Ciaz comes powered by a 1,373cc petrol unit and a 1,248cc diesel mill under the hood. While the petrol unit develops 91bhp at 6,000rpm and 130Nm of torque at 4,000rpm mated to five-speed manual transmission, the diesel unit comes equipped with a small hybrid system which produces 89bhp at 4,000rpm and 200Nm of torque at 1,750rpm. The petrol variant is also available with four-speed automatic transmission.