NEW DELHI, SEPT 14: Despite sagging market share, Maruti Udyog has decided to increase prices ranging from Rs 4,000 to Rs 10,000 for five variants of its popular Maruti-800 and Zen car models. The price comes a barely eight months after the company announced a hefty price cut to take on competition, from Korean chaebols and Tata Indica.The highest price hike of Rs 10,000 was in the poor man's entry level model M-800 Standard. The car would now cost Rs 1,91,584 (ex-showroom, Delhi) as against Rs 1,81,584 earlier. In Mumbai, it will cost 2,13,000 ex-showroom. Company sources attribute the price increase to the appointment of new managing director who has taken over two months back.Zen LX will now cost Rs 8,000 more at Rs 2,97,575 as compared to Rs 2,89,575 in Delhi, company sources said. On the other hand, the price of Zen VX has increased by Rs 4,000 to Rs 3,43,800.When contacted, a Maruti spokesman confirmed that the price hike had already been effected but did not give reasons for the sudden move. Interestingly, the company has hiked prices ahead of making its vehicles Euro-II compliant to keep down pollution as per the order of Supreme Court, which said that all cars should meet the stringent norms before April 1, 2000. Till date, Maruti was the only company which was selling outdated non-Euro I compliant vehicles in India.The new pollution norms will make Maruti poorer by around Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000 on each car as they have to be fitted with a crucial engine part called multi-point-fuel-injection system, sources said.The delux version of 800 cc model with AC, would cost Rs 7,062 more than the previous price of Rs 2,30,720, sources said. Another variant of M-800 Series, Ex, would fetch a price of Rs 2,12,290 as compared to Rs 2,05,759, which is Rs 6,531 higher than the earlier price.However, the company lowered the price of its flopped Zen diesel model by Rs 3,920 to Rs 4,14,265 from Rs 4,18,185. The prices of other Maruti models remained unchanged at their previous levels, sources said. Maruti did not touch the pricing structure of its cheapest and unsafe car `Omni', priced below M-800 Standard model.The company had announced a major price cut ranging between Rs. 7,000 to Rs. 36,000 on December 30, 1998 on six car models, a day ahead of TELCO's Indica launch.Meanwhile, Maruti created a record by selling 35,907 passenger cars in August, the highest ever sales registered by the company since its inception 15 years ago. The previous best was recorded in the month of July when MUL sold 35,407 cars.The company's sales also zoomed up by 20 per cent to 1,57,419 units in the first five months of the current fiscal against 1,32,046 units sold in April-August of 1998-99.
