Maruti Dzire MORE THAN 37 Times More Popular Than VW Ameo

Volkswagen may be one of the biggest carmakers in the world, but the company has always struggled to perform well in the Indian car market. The German car giant’s first proper attempt at creating an India-specific model was the Ameo, but sadly, it too failed to generate any significant sales volume, especially when compared to the segment leader, Maruti Dzire.

During the last financial year, i.e., FY2019-20, Volkswagen India managed to retail only 4,729 units of the Ameo. This is quite a disappointing figure, especially in comparison to Maruti Dzire, of which 1,79,159 units were sold. If you calculate, the Dzire outsold the Ameo by more than 37 times! This is the biggest disparity between two cars of the same segment last year. Due to its poor performance, VW decided not to upgrade the Ameo to meet the BSVI emission norms, but rather discontinued it.

Maruti Dzire is available with a single engine option- a 1.2-litre, naturally aspirated, inline-4, ‘K-series Dual-jet’ petrol engine. This motor is capable of generating 90 PS and 113 Nm of maximum power and torque figures, respectively. There are two transmission options available here- a 5-speed manual gearbox and a 5-speed AMT. Sadly, there is no mild-hybrid option available here, nor s there an S-CNG variant at the moment. Previously, there was also a Fiat-sourced, 1.3-litre, turbocharged, inline-4 diesel powerplant available, but it was only BSIV-compliant. Maruti decided to phase out its diesel engines instead of upgrading them to meet the BSVI norms, just like many other carmakers.

Volkswagen Ameo, on the other hand, was available with three engine options. The first one was a 1.0-litre, naturally aspirated, inline-3 petrol engine, capable of producing 75 PS of max power and 95 Nm of peak torque. The second option was a 1.2-litre, naturally aspirated, inline-3 petrol motor, which belted out 75 PS and 110 Nm. The third one was a 1.5-litre, turbocharged, inline-4 diesel unit, with 110 PS and 250 Nm on tap. A 5-speed manual gearbox was available as standard, with a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic available as an option on the diesel models.