Maruti Suzuki India’s hottest selling car at one point of time branded as Zen which is also India’s first luxury compact car is going to be a history soon as the company deciding to drop the name from a new refurbished version of the model.  

The Zen was launched in 1993 and soon took away hearts of the people with those looking to add a touch of class to their compact car. Maruti Suzuki managed to sell 8.8 lakh units of Zen till date, more than 10% of the total 81 lakh units that Maruti has sold since it started selling cars in the country in the early 1980s. 

After Maruti 800 (27 lakh), Alto (13.5 lakh) and the Omni van (12 lakh), Zen was the fourth-largest selling model for the company. 

On questioning the reason for parting this model, Company officials answered that the brand Zen did not fit into present times and thus, it was time to sign it off.  

Mayank Pareek, Maruti’s managing executive officer in-charge of marketing and sales said that, “The DNA of brand Zen and the DNA of the current products are not in sync. Therefore, we felt it was time for a change”. 

The brand had good sales, but since December 2006, the sales has been deteriorated, when Maruti went in for major changes to the original low-slung Zen design and opted for a tallboy sharper christening the model as Zen Estilo. 

Although, the new version was not so powerful and just managed to sell around 1.2 lakh units till date, averaging only around 3,000 units monthly, of late, after heavy discounts. 

Due to the low performance of the car, it has made company to go in for an all-new design with a new petrol engine as well as changes to the exterior and the interiors, leaving the ‘Zen’ brand aside. 

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Posted by Naresh Koshti on 22 August, 2009 11:55:41 AM IST #