Maruti Suzuki WagonR Gets Feature Downgrade After Brezza - Cost-Cutting?

For decades, Maruti Suzuki has won the hearts of millions with its reliable, affordable, and fuel-efficient vehicles. The brand has been committed to making dreams come true for people from all walks of life.

Maruti Suzuki's popularity as the people's favourite has been largely attributed to its user-friendly features, cost-effective maintenance, and exceptional after-sales service. However, recent reports suggest that the company has taken measures to cut costs by removal of certain features from their vehicles.

Recently, Maruti has removed the mild-hybrid tech from the manual variants of the Brezza. They've also removed features like ESP, and hill hold assist from the CNG variants of the car. Now they're doing the same with their top-selling model, WagonR.

The higher variants of the WagonR no longer come with a rear defogger, which used to be a standard feature in the past. Despite this change, the pricing for these variants remains unchanged.

Earlier, the rear defogger was present in the Wagon ZXi Plus variant, available in both manual and automatic transmission options. Though its removal may not appear significant, the feature was indeed useful as it helped during rains and foggy weather conditions.

A defogger is a feature that clears condensation and removes frost from the rear windshield of a vehicle. It works by heating the windshield, to effectively remove the moisture and improve visibility.

The absence of the defogger feature on the base trims of the car is understandable considering cost concerns. However, it is hard to digest the fact that the feature is missing on the top-spec variant, The ZXI Plus, which is priced at Rs. 7.30 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).

The ZXI variants of the car are only offered in 1.2-litre petrol mill, which produces around 88.5bhp of power and 113Nm of peak torque. The lower variants come in a 1.0-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine, which produces 66bhp and 89Nm of torque.

Thoughts On Removing Features From WagonR

The decision to remove features from the WagonR might be a strategy to manage production costs and keep the overall pricing competitive. While this move could help in maintaining affordability, it may disappoint some customers who were used to having these features as standard.