Maruti targets millennials with its premium urban compact ‘Ignis’ priced at INR 4.59 lacs

Posted on January 16, 2017

New Delhi, 13 January 2017: When you launch a compact hatch with a 3-hour EDM concert featuring major acts like Axwell (ex-Swedish House Mafia) and Dutch DJ Dannic, it is pretty obvious that you are targeting the last of the millennials. But the irony is that millennials around the world are increasingly giving up ownership of personal vehicles in favour of on-demand services like Uber, Lyft and Ola. But that’s another story for another day.

Last week, Maruti Suzuki’s much awaited Ignis was launched with a lot of noise. Literally. The buzz around the premium urban compact vehicle was a marketer’s dream and the launch event was coordinated to precision. Social media buzz was high, and Ignis even got its own Twitter emoji. One must give it to the team at Maruti for upping the game as far as brand launches are concerned. They are getting better by the day.

But did the product get a bit overshadowed by all the hype around the first Ignis Electronation EDM concert? Perhaps yes. But then, Ignis already had an impressive 6000+ bookings even before its official launch, and that should make the team happy. The vehicle will be available only through the Nexa retail channel, which means this is not going to be selling in massive numbers that Maruti’s small cars are used to. But we guess that’s by design.

Back to the Ignis. The car is a result of over INR 950 crore that has been invested towards its development. It is built on a new generation platform with 98.5% localization, which means pricing and after-sales would always tip the scales in its favour. The introductory launch price for the base model is INR 4.59 lacs.

The car exudes an urban smartness with its youthful design and is loaded with features. This would have made a great looking electric car, but for now we have to settle for a petrol and diesel option.

The front features a single frame grille design with chrome accentuation, LED projector headlamps with LED DRLs and fog lamps with chrome inserts. It has a distinct WagonR vibe to it, but the side profile is quite expressive with 15″ 3D trapezoidal 5-spoke all-black alloys placed at extreme corners and wheel arches accentuated with clads. Some smart design highlights give it a confident SUV-like stance that continues towards the rear. The angular rear window design and the signature Triad Mark, which is a set of three slats on the C-pillar add to the smartness, as does the dual tone exterior colour options.

Inside, the Ignis comes with a seamless smartphone experience with AndroidAuto, Apple CarPlay and Mirror Link, through an infotainment system that is perched on the dashboard like a tab plugged to the car. The floating layered dashboard in black & ivory, cockpit styled console panel, EDM inspired illumination in the speedometer, carbon fibre texture on louvers and speedometer, coupled with rich and complementary body colour interior accents are some of the highlights. Advanced safety features come as standard and several personalization options make the Ignis quite unique in its segment.

This is the first car in Maruti’s portfolio to offer AndroidAuto, which allows users to control multimedia functions via voice commands – get directions, make calls, send and receive messages, listen to music and audio books through a touch interface. Add to it the convenience of real time traffic update via Google Navigation and access to other supported apps which makes life much more easy breezy.

The cabin is roomy and offers comfortable ingress-egress. The overall dimensions of 3700mm (length) x 1690mm (cladded width) x 1595mm (height) give front and rear passengers adequate head room and leg room, with a lot of usable space. The 265 litre boot is wide enough to handle large luggage pieces and can be extended with 60:40 rear split. The Ignis has a 180mm ground clearance, commanding all-round visibility and easy manoeuvrability which makes it a breeze to navigate through city traffic.

Standard safety fitments include dual airbags, seat belts with pre-tensioner force limiter and ABS with EBD. It also gets ISOFIX Anchorage, a child seat restraint system as standard in all variants.

The VVT 1.2L petrol engine in the Ignis is tuned to offer better low-end torque and delivers 61kW @ 6000rpm with a torque of 113Nm @ 4200rpm. The diesel version gets the DDiS 190 1.3L diesel engine which delivers 55.2 kW @ 4000 rpm with 190Nm torque @ 2000 rpm.

Use of pendulum engine mount system, acoustic insulation and absorption materials around the cabin and engine compartment takes care of NVH levels. A well-tuned suspension delivers a stable and comfortable ride and technologies such as intelligent battery management, gear shift indicator, low rolling-resistance tyres make the Ignis quite efficient. Claimed efficiency is 20.89 km/l on the petrol and 26.80 km/l on the diesel. The Ignis also offers auto gear shift on both petrol and diesel trims.

Personalization options like roof wraps, colour options in ORVMs, spoilers, fog lamp garnish, interior styling, roof spoilers, wheel cladding, door-visor and cladding, front, rear and side skid plate are offered on the Ignis, for owners to stamp their individuality. There is a choice of nine colour options, including three of them in dual tone.

The introductory prices for all variants of the Ignis (ex-showroom Delhi) are as follows:
Petrol:
Sigma: INR 4.59 lacs
Delta: INR 5.19 lacs (manual)/ INR 5.74 lacs (automatic)
Zeta: INR 5.75 lacs (manual)/ INR 6.30 lacs (automatic)
Alpha: INR 6.69 lacs

Diesel:
Delta: INR 6.39 lacs (manual)/ INR 6.94 lacs (automatic)
Zeta: INR 6.91 lacs (manual)/ INR 7.46 lacs (automatic)
Alpha: INR 7.80 lacs