Taking a bold step towards safety, Maruti Suzuki has introduced all the newly added (O) trims of Eeco with dual airbags as a standard part of the equipment. The new Eeco with added safety boost is priced at Rs 4.38 lakh (STD variant) while top-line 5-seater AC with CNG now costs Rs 5.68 lakh. The new prices translate into a premium of Rs 8,000 though the hike is not something which cannot be afforded by the prospective buyers.
With this particular addition, Maruti Suzuki has now got all its fleet of vehicles equipped with dual standard airbags except for the Alto, Wagon R and S-Presso. However, given the tightening regulatory norms, these three vehicles are also expected to get the safety feature of dual-standard airbags very soon in future.
In terms of engine and transmission, Maruti Suzuki Eeco comes powered by a 1.2-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine which is capable of delivering power into two different states of tune – 73PS/98Nm in petrol version and 62PS/85Nm in CNG avatar. Eeco is based on the rear-wheel-drive architecture and the motive power is sent to the wheels via a 5-speed manual transmission.
There is no direct competition to Maruti Suzuki Eeco as it happens to be one of its kind available in the commercial market. That said in the same price range one can consider other options such as Datsun Go Plus which comes with a seven-seat arrangement. It’ll be interesting to witness how the prospective buyers will respond to this average price hike of Rs 8,000. Although the amount is not very high but still considering the price sensitive nature of the Indian market and that too in the affordable segment, there could be some implications related to sales of this utility vehicle in the Indian market.
