Market leader Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) is recalling 52,686 new Swift and Baleno units to inspect and fix a possible fault in the brake vacuum hose. The batch of Swift and Baleno cars being called back were manufactured between December 1, 2017 and March 16, 2018.
A total of 44,982 units of new Swift, which was launched in February this year, and 7,704 units of Baleno are being covered under the service campaign.
From May 14, the respective dealers will call the car owners to fix a date for carrying out the inspection and replacement of the faulty part which will be done free of cost for the customer, the company said.
The brake vacuum hose is a rubber pipe that creates and releases vacuum when the brake is applied. Car owners can confirm if their unit is among the ones being recalled by entering the chassis number of their vehicle on the company’s web page.
Maruti Suzuki officially put out a notice saying, “Customers of new Swift and Baleno are requested to fill in the chassis number (MBH followed by the 14 digit alphanumeric number) on the computer screen.”
The chassis number can be found on the vehicle ID plate and is also in the vehicle invoice/registration documents.
Service campaigns are undertaken globally by automobile companies to rectify faults that may potentially cause inconvenience to customers. The inspection and replacement will be done free of cost for the customer,” the company said.
Maruti Suzuki India posted their best-ever monthly sales performance during the month of April by selling almost 5,499 cars on an average each day.
Maruti Suzuki India posted their best-ever monthly sales performance during the month of April by selling almost 5,499 cars on an average each day.
According to market analysts, the launch of the new Swift was also responsible for pushing sales. The recall could hurt the company’s performance in the hatchback segment as they have the new Elite i20 and Ford Freestyle to compete with, the added.
The development comes at a time when Maruti Suzuki’s mid-sized sedan segment offering, Ciaz, which had managed to pip rivals like Honda City and Hyundai Verna in 2016, is fast losing traction.
According to MSI numbers, Ciaz sales plunged 27.2 per cent, to 5,116 units during April making it the eighth consecutive month of dipping sales. Maruti is expected to launch a spruced up version of Ciaz this year in a bid to boost sales.
Automobile manufacturers in India follow a voluntary recall policy adopted by industry body SIAM in July 2012 under which if a company is of the opinion that there is a manufacturing defect that compromises safety of vehicles, it will voluntarily rectify the problem free of cost to the customer.
Earlier in January this year auto giant Honda had recalled 22,834 units of its Accord, City and Jazz models in India as part of a global exercise to rectify faulty airbags. The recall was related to cars manufactured in 2013.
