End of the road for Maruti's popular hatchback Ritz

Country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) has stopped selling one of its popular hatchbacks Ritz in both domestic and international markets. Launched in 2009 in both petrol and diesel versions, the Ritz sold a total of around 4 lakh units.

Confirming the development, MSI spokesperson told PTI: "As part of refreshing our product portfolio, we continuously review our portfolio and introduce new models."

Stating that Ritz has been one of MSI's successful models in its portfolio, the spokesperson said it played a role in strengthening the company's presence amongst the modern compact cars.

"Maruti Suzuki is committed to ensure availability of spare parts and service for next 10 years," the spokesperson added.

The company now sells the newly-launched Ignis, Swift, Celerio, Dzire and Baleno in the compact segment, which witnessed 25.2 per cent growth in sales to 55,817 units last month as against 44,575 in the year-ago month.

The car market leader had also recently discontinued sales of lower variants of premier crossover S-Cross featuring 1.6 litre diesel engine, due to low demand.

The company is now selling only the top-end Alpha variant of the vehicle featuring 1.6 litre diesel engine, priced at Rs 12.03 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi), from its premium retail channel Nexa.

MSI, however, continues to sell all the three variants of the crossover powered by a smaller 1.3 litre diesel engine.