Maruti Suzuki's premium hatchback, Swift, is taking fire from its own sibling, Baleno, as the recently-launched model has eaten into Swift’s sales for the second month in a row.

Sales of Swift slumped 34% in November and 16% last month, even as its sales during April-December period closed with a growth of nearly 4%.

Maruti Suzuki is changing the way its car salesmen used to lure prospective customers. With changing needs of buyers, the company is replacing printed brochures with tablets, in its showrooms, which can showcase various combinations of accessories in its cars and all its products at one go. The move is part of initiatives it is taking to sell two million cars a year by 2020.

Recently, Maruti joined hands with US giant HP for the supply of tablets and turn-key solution including servicing and maintenance of products.

Car market leader Maruti Suzuki India today said it will offer driver airbag as an option in all variants of its entry level models Alto 800 and Alto K10.

Alto 800 variants with driver airbag are priced between Rs 2.62 lakh and 3.78 lakh while Alto K10 is priced between Rs 3.45 lakh and Rs 4.08 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).

Country’s largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) on Friday reported a 8.5 per cent increase in total sales in December at 1,19,149 units as against 1,09,791 units in the same month in 2014.

The company said its domestic sales increased 13.5 per cent during the month to 1,11,333 units as against 98,109 units in December 2014.

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd is planning to advance the introduction of its new-generation Swift Dzire sedan by almost a year as it seeks to protect its turf in the face of competition, said two people familiar with the company’s plans.

The company is also planning to launch a Dzire Tour model, aimed at taxi operators, with a petrol engine. Maruti currently has only the diesel version of the Dzire Tour running in the cab market. The petrol model can be retrofitted with a CNG kit to meet the new norms in Delhi.

After dismal results in 2013 and 2014, the year 2015 gave the much needed push to the Indian automobile industry as it’s expected to close this year at around 6 per cent year-on-year growth. From the year 2011 to 2014, the overall industry saw a decline of 1 per cent. Of all the segments, passenger vehicle sales inspected a reasonable growth thanks to several new car launches over the year.

Nisaar Malik is a happy man. His income has trebled in about a year's time. Malik works as a guard at the labour colony right off the road from the main gate of Suzuki Motor Gujarat Private Ltd's (SMGPL's) upcoming Rs 8,000 -crore plant here, 110 km from Ahmedabad. He is drawing a monthly salary of Rs 9,000, much higher than the Rs 3,000 he was earning at a mobile phone shop at Bahucharaji town, around two km from here.

Malik is hopeful that one day he will get work at the plant after it becomes operational by 2017. "My job (as guard) here is till 2017, by when the plant should be up and running. Let's see what the future holds for me perhaps, I could work at the plant," he says in an optimistic tone. Around 1,800 workers employed by Shapoorji Pallonji, which is building the plant, are working round the clock.

Maruti Suzuki has won shareholder approval to source cars from a Gujarat plant to be built by parent Suzuki Motor Corp. Maruti received 89.8 per cent of minority shareholders’ votes in its favour, Chairman R C Bhargava said.

Nearly two years ago, minority shareholders had opposed the original Gujarat plant plan saying Maruti would not benefit. Ever since, this issue has become an example of minority shareholders’ empowerment.

The month-long voting on Maruti Suzuki’s proposal regarding its new plant in Gujarat, the ownership of which would vest with parent Suzuki Motor Corp, came to an end on Tuesday. The result will be announced on Thursday. In order to go ahead with its plan, the company needs at least 50% of the minority shareholders to approve the resolution.

NEW DELHI: The S&P BSE is trading comfortably above its crucial psychological level of 25,000 ahead of the all-important rate review announcement by the US Federal Reserve due later on Wednesday.

But experts said volatility is something Dalal Street will have to deal with at least for some more time. In the meantime, individual counters will continue to see strong activity as there is no dearth of buying opportunities for alert investors.

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