Maruti's select diesel cars' waiting period up by 1 month

As the strike at Maruti Suzuki India's (MSI) Manesar plant continued for the 12th day today, waiting periods for diesel options of three models, Swift, DZiRE and SX4, have gone up by up to one month.

Even before the strike, these models have been having waiting periods ranging between one to four months.

In the meantime, MSI said its sales this month will be impacted due to the production loss that stood at about 10,200 units till yesterday, valued at around Rs 510 crore.

The Manesar plant manufactures compact cars Swift and A-Star and sedans DZiRE and SX4.

"We have extended the delivery period of diesel variants of Swift and DZiRE models from four months to five months now. Similarly, the delivery period of SX4 (diesel) has also been increased from two months at present to three months," Ludhiana-based Stan Autos owner Naresh Malhotra told PTI.

Expressing similar views on the strike's impact on delivery period, Libra Auto's Pritpal Singh also said the waiting time of diesel options of Swift and DZiRE have been extended to five months now.

A senior executive from a dealer in the National Capital said the delivery period for Swift Diesel has gone up to about five months due to the impact of the strike.

A Mumbai-based dealer also confirmed that there has been an increase in the waiting period for diesel variants of models such as Swift and DZiRe of about two weeks.

When contacted, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Managing Executive Officer (Marketing and Sales) Mayank Pareek said: "Of course, strike has increased the waiting period of the diesel versions of the three cars."

He, however, said the waiting period has gone up by only one to one-and-a-half week.

When asked about sales, Pareek said: "We usually do not produce more cars than the market demand. So, whatever loss in production we are witnessing, that will be the impact on sales in this month."

The company sells about 10,000-12,000 units of Swift, 8,000-10,000 units of DZiRE, 2,000-3,000 units of SX4 and 3,000-4,000 units of A-Star every month, he added.

Dealers are also facing threat of cancellation of booking by "disgruntled" customers.

"As of now we have not seen much cancellation of orders by customers but those who have already booked are insisting on delivery of their models on promised schedule," Malhotra of Stan Autos said.

Meanwhile, the company has also started informing its customers to bear with the inconvenience due to the strike.