Maruti to pay interest on SX4, Swift delay

Maruti Suzuki India today said it will pay 24 per cent interest on waiting period beyond 16 days for its popular SX4 and Swift car models.

"For the period starting from the sixteenth day after booking till the date of the delivery, we will pay you interest at 24 per cent per annum on your booking amount," the company said in a statement.

While the waiting period on Swift diesel cars goes up to eight weeks, the same on the SX4 sedan is up to six weeks.

The Swift petrol version also has a waiting period of up to six weeks.

"The wait period is despite the fact that the Manesar plant is running at over 100 per cent capacity. We are trying our best to reduce the waiting period," a spokesperson of the company said.

The booking amount for both the models is up to Rs 50,000.

The new Manesar plant has an installed capacity to manufacture 100,000 cars a year. The new plant started production in February, and is estimated to produce almost 300,000 cars by the end of 2008-09 (April-March).

Maruti had announced an investment of Rs 2500 crore in the plant by 2010 in a phased manner.

Maruti Suzuki also plans to use the plant to make a new small car export model, likely to be launched in the next financial year.

Maruti Suzuki, country's biggest carmaker, saw sales rise 27 per cent in August as demand grew for its Swift and Zen Estilo hatchbacks and the SX4 sedan.

The company has already sold about 150,000 Swift models since launch in 2005.

The company has a total investment plan of Rs 9,000 crore till 2010 in the new facilities, including the new car plant and diesel facility at Manesar, new series engines for its cars and upgrade of the Gurgaon plant.