Dzire, the compact sedan from Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL), India's largest passenger vehicle manufacturer, has just crossed the first lakh sales milestone. For Maruti Suzuki, it is one of the drivers for what looks like a record annual sales this year. 

The third generation Dzire was launched in May 2017, and took five and a half months to sell more than 100,000 units on the Indian road. The new Dzire sedan notching its best-ever monthly sales – 26,140 units (comprising 14,083 diesel and 12,057 petrol). The previous best was 24,502 units in October 2015 and was the top selling passenger vehicle in the country. 

The Dzire, for long, has played second fiddle to the Maruti Alto, the longstanding No. 1 machine, and sometimes to the Swift. Last month though, the sedan has trumped the Alto by a fair margin.

Commenting on achieving the fastest milestone for its offering, R S Kalsi, senior executive director, Marketing and Sales, Maruti Suzuki India said: “Brand Dzire has not only expanded our share in the entry sedan segment but also expanded the industry size." 

Maruti Suzuki says that nearly half of the new Dzire customers are first time car buyers. This also reflects a shift of the Indian customers who are now opting for a sedan as their first car. Additionally, nearly 17 percent of the Dzire's sales have come from the variant with automated manual transmission (AMT), during April-September 2017.