Maruti Suzuki launches Swift Dzire

New Delhi, Mar 26: Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) today launched the 'Swift Dzire' sedan in petrol and diesel engines, priced at Rs 4.49 lakh and Rs 5.39 lakh (ex showroom Delhi) respectively.

The upper-end petrol version will cost Rs 5.9 lakh and diesel Rs 6.7 lakh. ''The Dzire is seventh model which Maruti Suzuki has launched in last three years. It has a special place in our product startegy. Million of Indian own compact cars. With growing income and better lifestyle, many of them want to operate to a sedan. The Dzire offers all this at an attractive price,'' MSIL Managing Director and CEO Shinzo Nakanishi said at the launch. The Dzire project, which started in 2005, is a brand progression of the Swift hatchback.

The Dzire will have the diesel engine being the same as current engine in the Swift hatchback, the 1.3 litre multi-jet engine of Fiat.

Eleven engineers from Suzuki worked on the programme of the car that boasts of 60 mm more width in the backseat as compared to the Swift hatch along with the 30 kg increase in weight.

The design of the car was done for as low as Rs 30 crore since the platform for the vehicle was about same as the existing Swift hatch.

The diesel engine of Fiat on the hatch has been carried forward for the sedan and the petrol engine is the same as the one in Esteem with minor modification.

UNI