Renault Duster is the first successful product launched by the French brand in the Indian market. The compact SUV gained a lot of popularity until the competition took away the limelight from it. Maruti Suzuki S-Cross is one such competition that was launched in a new avatar and has gained the momentum in the segment.
Even though the pre-facelift version of the S-Cross did not gain much traction, the facelifted model is selling as much as 4 times the Duster on an average! In the month of September, Maruti Suzuki sold 3,929 units of the S-Cross while Renault managed to sell around 1,299 units of the Duster. Here are the reasons that make the S-Cross so popular in the market.
Looks fresh and radical
The new S-Cross gets minor changes like the updated grille, bumpers and the headlamps but it has changed the overall looks of the vehicle by a lot. The new vertically stacked grille of the S-Cross gives it a new identity. Even the overall body shape remains similar to the pre-facelift model, the new S-Cross now looks much more premium. The Duster, on the other hand, looks quite outdated.
Reliability
Maruti’s market share proves that has got the attention of the customers and rightly so, the brand value of the company helps. Maruti Suzuki has the widest sales and service network country, which makes the customer worry-free. It is one of the major reasons behind the success of Maruti Suzuki brand in India and is also a major factor behind the success of S-Cross.
Price tag
Indian car market is extremely price-sensitive and Maruti takes the advantage by pricing their products extremely competitively. In the case of S-Cross, the price starts at Rs. 8.62 lakhs, ex-showroom, making it much cheaper than even the petrol variants of the Hyundai Creta, which starts at Rs. 9.5 lakhs, ex-showroom. Maruti only offers the diesel engine with the S-Cross and in comparison, the price of the Duster’s diesel variants starts at Rs. 8.95 lakhs.
Premium features
Being a Nexa car, the Maruti Suzuki S-Cross offers an extremely plush cabin. It comes with features like SmartPlay infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, projector headlamps with LED DRLs, chrome inserts all and an all-black fascia. The interiors of the S-Cross are quite classy. Also, the build quality of the premium crossover is said to be one the best in the line-up, which attracts the customers who rely on ruggedly built vehicles.
Hybrid system
Maruti Suzuki now offers the SHVS (Smart Hybrid Vehicle by Suzuki) mild hybrid system on many of the cars including the S-Cross. With the 1.3-litre Multijet diesel engine and the hybrid system, the S-Cross offers excellent fuel efficiency. As per ARAI, the S-Cross returns a maximum of 25.1 km/l, which is much higher than the rivals like Duster that returns a maximum of 19.72 km/l and Creta diesel 1.4 that returns a maximum of 22.1 km/l.
