Maruti to Recall 13,157 diesel cars

Maruti Suzuki India will recall 13,157 diesel variants of sedan Swift Dzire , Swift hatchback and small car Ritz , manufactured between November 13 and December 4, to replace a faulty engine part. The company will replace free of cost a connecting rod bolt that has been responsible for abnormal noise in the engine. 

This is Maruti's third major recall in the past one year. Its A-Star model had a problem in the fuel tank forcing the company to carry out necessary rectifications in 100,000 units across domestic and overseas markets in February 2010. In July 2010, the company had recalled 6,000 units of its largest selling Alto hatchback, produced in April 2010, to fix an ignition problem . 

However, the company said that the rise in technical problems is not connected to the increase in production. Maruti produced over 1.27 million cars in FY11, higher than its installed capacity of 1 million cars to meet soaring domestic demand. The company's domestic sales jumped 32% year-on-year to 1.13 million cars in FY11. 

"We have robust production processes conforming to global standards and there is no possibility of any deviation in quality in our cars," Managing Executive Officer, Marketing and Sales, Mayank Pareek said. 

Analysts said that the latest recall is not likely to dent customer confidence or impact the brand equity of the company, which sells every second car in the Indian market. "Recalling cars is a global phenomenon and most big auto conglomerates, such as Toyota, GM and Honda, follow it. Any voluntary recall due to technical fault raises customer confidence and prevents mishap," said Ajai Setia, auto analyst with Centrum Broking.