BULLISH ASPIRATIONS

The best chance yet to break Maruti's perennial image of being a small car maker

- Sunny Soral

Tags, especially in our kind of societal existence are a tough thing to break out of. Trust me, I would know, tagged as a smart but lazy kid back in the early days of schooling, it took me years to finally break out of it and prove that I was, in fact, just plain lazy, nothing else. The Invicto, in comparison, is a much better story. It also brings to the forefront Maruti's newfound resilience to become bigger than what it has stood for decades now. Smart people would signal the fall of the entry-level car segment, Maruti's bread and butter, as the event that necessitates change but the country's largest carmaker is taking clear steps to address it, even though a decade late, is worth appreciation.

While the new Grand Vitara has managed to bring customers to the NEXA showrooms and happily pay ₹20 lakh for it (around 25% of sales being full-hybrid variants), Maruti still needs to add a premium flair to its NEXA business which was created for this same purpose. In essence, the Invicto is an exercise in establishing the fact that in this world and age, a Maruti can indeed command over ₹25 lakh and anyone choosing it would not be at fault.

For this, utilising the new Innova Hycross platform has to be the smartest and safest bet. You do not get this combination often and kudos to Maruti for going all in. Now, by the time you read this, you will already have been bombarded with the facts that compare it with its elder cousin from Toyota stable, so I will not go into those details. The Invicto, for the most part, will be the only big MPV in a family and all the comparisons with the Toyota serve just academic purposes.