Maruti Suzuki is now offering a comprehensive 5 year/1,00,000km warranty on select diesel models at no extra cost. Those select models are Swift, Dzire, Vitara Brezza and the S-Cross. Between them, the company has clocked 29 lakh sales till date. And, as per Maruti Suzuki, the extended coverage is being offered as part of the celebrations surrounding those sales numbers. But, in our books, that’s not the true reason.

What is? Well, to answer that we need to revisit a significant announcement that came from India’s largest carmaker in April this year. Maruti Suzuki said that it will not be selling any diesel-fed models once the mandatory BSVI (Bharat Stage VI) emission norms come into effect from April 1, 2020. If we keep that in perspective and the fact that the diesel models listed above bring home the largest number of sales for the carmaker, we can deduce that this stint of offering significantly more standard cover for them is to drain out stock of a particular diesel engine.

Which one? The Fiat-sourced 1.3-litre DDiS. Diesel variants of all four models cited in this announcement are powered by the same engine. In the Swift and the Dzire, it is tuned to produce 74hp/190Nm, whereas in the S-Cross and the Vitara Brezza the engine generates 89hp/200Nm. With the exception of the S-Cross, which is available only with a 5-speed manual transmission, the said engine is on offer with the option of a 5-speed AMT in the other three models.

Maruti Suzuki has said that if demand for diesel arises in the BSVI era, it will keep the 1.5-litre diesel engine on standby. The said engine currently does duty in the Ciaz and the Ertiga. Till then, the carmaker will focus on upgrading all petrol-powered models to BSVI standards. The ones which have been upgraded already include the Swift, WagonR, Dzire, Ertiga, Alto and Baleno.