Cheap Cars 2026: After facing sluggishness in sales for several months, now the demand for Maruti Suzuki’s entry-level i.e. affordable cars seems to be gaining momentum once again. The company’s mini segment performed brilliantly in December 2025, the biggest reason for which is believed to be the huge relief in car prices after the reduction in GST. Low prices and additional discounts have drawn customers back to the showroom.
In December 2025, Maruti Suzuki recorded total wholesale sales of 14,225 cars in the mini category. This figure is about 92 percent more than the same period last year and is considered to be the highest ever sales of this segment in the financial year 2025-26. The biggest contributor to these figures was Alto K10, which sold around 10,800 units, while S-Presso sales were recorded at more than 3,000 units.
Speaking at Maruti Suzuki’s December sales briefing, Partho Banerjee, senior executive officer, marketing and sales, said, “Despite almost 100 per cent growth in this mini segment, we still have pending bookings of more than one and a half months.”
According to the company, this segment comprising Alto K10 and S-Presso contributed 6.2 percent to Maruti’s total sales. While the sales of this segment were 7,418 units in December 2024, it increased to 12,347 units in November 2025.
Along with the mini segment, sales of Maruti’s compact segment cars Baleno, Celerio, Dzire, Ignis, Swift and WagonR also registered good growth on an annual basis. Dzire was the best selling car of the year 2025, while Baleno became the company’s top selling car in the month of December. A total of 22,108 units of Baleno were sold in December, giving a strong base to the company’s overall sales.
After the GST reduction, Maruti also gave additional discounts on Alto and S-Presso, which reduced the prices of these cars by more than Rs 1 lakh. Now their starting ex-showroom price has come down to Rs 4 lakh. The starting price of Alto K10 has been kept at Rs 3.70 lakh, while the S-Presso starts at Rs 3.50 lakh.
According to the company, the demand for Alto remained strong in 100 cities of the country, while in smaller cities and towns there was a bigger jump in the sales of both Alto and S-Presso. However, it will be interesting to see whether this momentum continues in the year 2026 or not.
