Maruti Ciaz BEATS Honda City in November sales: Toyota Yaris at 5th place!

The Maruti Suzuki Ciaz is firmly back in the driver’s seat. In November 2018, amid festive buying fervour, the flagship sedan from Maruti sold 3,838 units. The next best selling C-Segment sedan was the Honda City, which did  3,531 units. The Hyundai Verna finished third with a surprising dip in numbers, at 2,558 units. By Skoda standards,  the Rapid did rather well with 809 units while the Toyota Yaris continued its slump, and managed only 600 units.

The Yaris is now one of Toyota’s least selling mass market car, just ahead of the much more pricier Corolla Altis,  which is due for a generation change soon. The continued sales slump of the Yaris has prompted Toyota dealers to  offer discounts of up to Rs. 1 lakh on the car. At the lower price point, the Yaris is an attractive car considering  the equipment on offer.

Even the base variant of the Toyota Yaris comes equipped with 7 airbags, ABS+EBD, front proximity sensors and many other safety features. Even the base variant of the car gets an automatic option, making the Yaris quite attractive for buyers looking for convenience in a relatively affordable package. The car does not offer a diesel engine even as an option, and this strategy from Toyota could have backfired.

The car is offered with a 1.5 liter petrol engine that is a competent performer but not firecracker. The motor pushes  out 108 PS of peak power and 140 Nm of peak torque. A 6 speed manual, and a torque converter automatic gearbox with 7 stepped shifts, are available. Ex-showroom prices of the Toyota Yaris start from Rs. 9.26 lakhs on an average. If you bargain hard, great deals are on offer.

Coming back to the best seller of this month – the Ciaz – the car was recently introduced with a facelift. This has  made the Ciaz the freshest C-Segment sedan in the country. The Ciaz has two engine options on offer – a 1.5 liter K-  Series petrol with 104 PS-138 Nm and a 1.3 liter turbocharged diesel with 89 Bhp-200 Nm. Both engines get mild  hybrids, making them more efficient than competition.

As for gearboxes, the petrol engine gets 5 speed manual and 4 speed torque converter automatic options while the  diesel gets a 5 speed manual as standard. The Maruti Ciaz has traditionally been big on value, and the facelifted  version continues in the same mould. The car’s prices start from Rs. 8.19 lakhs, and this makes the Ciaz one of the  least priced C-Segment sedans in the market.

The second best seller – the Honda City – is turning out a remarkable performance despite reaching its the last  couple of years of its life cycle. The car has big badge value, and this is a reason why buyers continue to flock to  it despite a premium price tag. The City is offered with petrol and diesel engine options. Like the Ciaz, the petrol  engined variants of the City get manual and automatic gearboxes while the diesel is a manual-only affair. Prices of  the City start from Rs. 8.97 lakhs.