News about Maruti working on a 7 seater variant of WagonR, has been around for many years now. It was even showcased as a concept a couple of years ago, at the Indonesian Auto Show. But the version never materialised as there was just not enough space in the older WagonR.
But things changed earlier this year, when Maruti launched the longer, wider and bigger WagonR – even calling it ‘The Big New WagonR’. Based on a new platform, the 2019 WagonR is no longer a small car. Maruti has even started calculating its sales in a the compact segment, instead of calculating it in the small car segment along with Alto, as it was done with the older WagonR.
On offer as a five seater currently, this new WagonR will go on sale as a 7 seater MPV with 3 rows from next month, reports Car and Bike. It will be sold as a more premium offering as compared to the current WagonR, and will be retailed via NEXA dealers, and not the MS Arena dealers, which retail the 5 seater WagonR.
In order to accommodate more space, Maruti could elongate the length, and make it just under 4 meter. They already have the Baleno hatch and Dzire sedan, which are 3995 mm in length, and are based on the same Heartect platform of Maruti Suzuki. The five seater WagonR on sale currently is 3655 mm long. If the new WagonR MPV is stretched to 3995mm, it means there will be a lot more space on offer, which will be enough to fit in 7 adults on board.
What about power? With Maruti announcing to discontinue diesel cars, expect the new WagonR MPV to only be offered with a petrol engine. The current WagonR is offered with 1 liter and 1.2 liter petrol engine. Expect the new WagonR with 3 rows and 7 seats to be powered exclusively via the 1.2 liter petrol BS6 engine. It delivers 83 PS power and 114 Nm torque via 5 speed MT. AMT could also be on offer.
It will come with similar set of features as seen on the 5 seater WagonR. Dual airbags, reverse park assist, ABS will be standard on all variants. Touchscreen system, alloys will be on offer with top variants, along with LED projector headlight and LED DRLs. Maruti WagonR 7 seater could be priced from Rs 5.5-6 lakh range, which makes it about Rs 1.5 lakh more expensive than the 5 seater WagonR. This is still about Rs 1.5-2 lakh less than the starting price of Ertiga MPV – another 7 seater on offer by Maruti.
Launch of New Maruti WagonR MPV with 7 seats will help the company boost sales at a time when it is registering decline in sales. It will also help the company to compensate somewhat to the lost sales, due to discontinuing Omni MPV as it was not meeting safety norms.
