The India made Maruti Suzuki Ertiga MPV is now on sale in the Indonesian market and has been rebadged as the Mazda VX1 and is available at the price tag of 178,800,000 Indonesian Rupiah (which is almost equal to Rs. 10.14 lakhs). The Ertiga was revealed for the Indonesian MPV market last year and is assembled by the Suzuki Indonesia from the CKD (Completely Knocked Down unit) that are being manufactured in India.
The VX1 hires the same 1.4 litre K Series petrol engine that produces about 94 PS of power and peak torque of 130 Nm. The power is transmitted to the front wheels through manual five speed transmission. The MPV is currently available in two variants from Mazda, V and R grade. Both of these seems equivalent to the Indian counterpart Ertiga’s VXi and ZXi versions. The vehicle also displays slightly more muscular exterior design as compared to the Indian brother. The changes are mainly in form of larger bumpers, larger front grille and rear spoiler. Over all it looks more aggressive.
The rebadging is not something that is common for the Japanese automakers but one thing that this rebadging indicates is that Maruti is using all its plants capacity for petrol engine manufacture. The automaker’s petrol car sales have declined significantly over the years mainly due to the rise in the petrol prices and slower economic condition. With the current condition most of the Indian buyers have shifted towards the diesel trims. As most of the Maruti line up consists of the petrol cars so, it was a better idea to use the plant’s capacity to produce engine for Indonesian market.
