Maruti Suzuki recalls 9,125 units to fix seat belt issue

Maruti Suzuki India, the country’s largest automobile manufacturer, has recalled as many as 9,125 units of Ciaz, Brezza, Ertiga, XL6, and Grand Vitara owing to a possible defect in the front row seat belts, the company said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday. The company has recalled the suspected vehicles for inspection and replacement of the faulty part, free of cost. 

In a statement, Maruti Suzuki said, “The Company has announced recall a total of 9,125 vehicles manufactured between 2nd and 28th November, 2022. The affected models are Ciaz, Brezza, Ertiga, XL6 and Grand Vitara.”

“It is suspected that there is a possible defect in one of the child parts of shoulder height adjuster assembly of front row seat belts, which in a rare case, may lead to seat belt disassembly. Considering the safety of our customers and out of abundant caution, the Company has decided to recall the suspected vehicles for inspection and replacement of the faulty part, free of cost. Affected vehicle owners will be receiving communication from Company's authorized workshops for immediate attention,” the automobile manufacturer added. 

The development comes a day after reports emerged that the country’s largest automobile manufacturer is unlikely to meet its 20 lakh units production target, which the company announced in August this year, owing to semiconductor shortage. The report said that the company has a pending order of around 3.75 units. 

For November, the company witnessed a 20.6% growth in the domestic passenger vehicle sales at a record 1,32,395 units, as compared to 1,09,726 passenger vehicle sales in the same month last year. The total domestic sales, including light commercial vehicles, stood at 1,35,055 in November 2022. This is a 19.4% growth over 1,13,017 units sold a year ago. Sales to original equipment manufacturers (OEM) stood at 4,251 in November 2022 compared to 4,774 in the year-ago period. With this, the cumulative domestic sales stood at 1,39,306 in the said month, compared to 1,17,791 in November 2021. Maruti exported 19,738 vehicles in November 2022 as compared to 21,393 in the same period last year.

Last month, in the mini segment, the company collectively sold 21,904 units of Alto and S-Presso. In the compact segment, the company collectively sold 89,655 units of Baleno, Celerio, Dzire, Ignis, Swift, WagonR, and OEM Model, respectively. In the midsize segment, the company sold 3,263 units of 3,263 units of Ciaz, whereas in the light commercial vehicles segment the automobile manufacturer sold 1,460 units of Super Carry. In the passenger utility vehicles segment, the automobile manufacturer collectively sold 29,294 units of Brezza, Ertiga, Jimmy, S-Cross, XL6, and OEM models, respectively. The company sold as many as 7,210 units of Eeco vans in November this year. 

Last week, the company announced that it will be hiking prices across its entire range of vehicles from January 2023 owing to increased cost pressure driven by overall inflation and recent changes in rules by the government. The automobile manufacturer has not revealed the percentage of the price hike. 

“The company continues to witness increased cost pressure driven by overall inflation and recent regulatory requirements. While the company makes the maximum effort to reduce costs and partially offset the increase, it has become imperative to pass on some of the impacts through a price increase. The Company has planned this price increase in January 2023 which shall vary across models,” the automobile manufacturer said.

Earlier, Maruti had hiked the prices of its popular hatchback models like Swift and all CNG variants as input costs continue to put pressure. The company increased PV prices by around 8% from January 2021 to March 2022 as commodities became costlier.