Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest carmaker, has announced that its popular sub-4 metre sedan, the Dzire, has been in the industry for a decade. Over that time, Swift’s cousin has managed to rack up over 19 lakh sales for its maker. A simple mathematical calculation reveals that the Dzire’s average yearly sales were north of 1.9 lakh units.

The company sold more than 2.5 lakh units of Dzire during the last fiscal year. That’s an average monthly sale of nearly 21,000 Dzires. Over the years, the Maruti’s sub-4 metre sedan has faced heat from a number of competitors. However, it has battled them all and still rules the segment with a market share of 55 per cent.

Shashank Srivastava, who is the executive director of marketing and sales at Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., reveals that over 13 per cent of Dzire buyers chose one of the automatic variants. The AMT (automated manual transmission) is available across all trim levels and with both engine options, except in the entry-level L. Srivastava further added that the Dzire was the first car for over half of the customers.

The Dzire is currently available with petrol and diesel engines. While petrol is a 1.2-litre mill and produces 83PS/113Nm, the diesel has 1.3 litres of capacity and is good for 75PS/190Nm. As mentioned above, both engines can be had with a 5-speed AMT. The other transmission option is a 5-speed manual. Maruti Suzuki claims that both petrol-MT and petrol-AMT setups can deliver up to 22kmpl, whereas the diesel-MT and diesel-AMT can go as high as 28.40kmpl.

The Maruti Suzuki Dzire comes with a decent amount of kit. The list of features includes LED-powered headlamps and DRLs, 15-inch alloy wheels, a 7.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, automatic climate control, rear AC vents, push-button start-stop and electrically adjustable and foldable ORVMs. All trim levels of the Dzire come with dual airbags, ABS with EBD and BA, ISOFIX anchorages, front seatbelts with pretensioners and load limiters, dual-tone interiors and a MID.

In India, Maruti Suzuki’s blockbuster sedan, which is priced between Rs 5.70 lakh and Rs 9.55 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi), competes with the Ford Aspire, Hyundai Xcent, Tata Tigor, Honda Amaze and the Volkswagen Ameo.