Maruti Suzuki recalls 11,177 Grand Vitara cars for rear seat belt defect

India's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) on Tuesday announced a recall of 11,177 Grand Vitara vehicles manufactured between August 8, 2022 and November 15, 2022.

In a stock exchange filing, Maruti Suzuki says it is suspected that there is a possible defect in rear seat belt mounting brackets, which in a rare case, may loosen in the long run and impact its functionality.

"Vehicle owners will be receiving communication from Maruti Suzuki authorized dealer workshops for inspection and replacement of the affected parts, free of cost," the company says.

This comes five days after Maruti Suzuki recalled a total of 17,362 vehicles due to a possible defect in the airbag controller. Cars manufactured between December 8, 2022 and January 12, 2023 have been recalled, the company said in a regulatory filing last week. The affected models are Alto K10, S-Presso, Eeco, Brezza, Baleno and Grand Vitara. The recall is being undertaken to inspect and replace airbags in these vehicles. "It is suspected that there is a possible defect in affected part, which in rare case might result in non-deployment of the airbags and seat belt pretensioners, in the event of a vehicle crash," Maruti Suzuki had said.

The government had last year extended the deadline for mandatory implementation of six airbags in passenger cars to October 1, 2023.

Meanwhile, Maruti Suzuki sold a total of 465,911 vehicles during the third quarter. Sales in the domestic market were 403,929 units and exports were 61,982 units. Shortage of electronic components impacted production by about 46,000 vehicles in this quarter. This was against total sales of 430,668 units comprising 365,673 units in domestic and 64,995 units in export markets in the same period, previous year. Pending customer orders stood at about 363,000 vehicles at the end of this quarter out of which about 119,000 orders were for newly launched models.

India's biggest passenger vehicle maker sold a total of 1,39,347 units in December 2022, a 9% decline from 1,53,149 vehicles sold in December 2021.

The carmaker had last year fared poorly at the Global New Car Assessment Programme (Global NCAP) crash tests. Its three models – Swift, Ignis and S-Presso – bagged one star each in the adult occupant protection category at the Global NCAP crash tests. While Maruti’s popular hatchback model Swift secured one star for child occupant protection, Maruti Suzuki S-Presso and Ignis scored zero stars for child occupant protection.

Earlier in January, Maruti Suzuki raised vehicle prices across its models by around 1.1% to offset rising input costs.