Thursday 2 January 2014

Suzuki Inazuma To Cost Well Over Rs. 3 lakh

Honda brought the mini VFR and christened it as the CBR 250R. The speedster is far from cheap at Rs 2.2 lakh on-road, but it has seen a large following. Rumours are now afloat that fellow Japanese two-wheeler giant Suzuki is planning to launch the baby B King i.e. the Suzuki GW 250 Inazuma at around Rs 3.20 lakh give or take a few thousand Rupees. The Inazuma has already been seen at multiple dealerships and it is believed that pre-bookings are underway. Suzuki will officially launch the quarter litre streetster towards the end of January.

The Inazuma GW 250 is powered by a 250cc fuel injected parallel twin than pumps out a peak power of 26 bhp and 24.4 Nm of torque, all this being mated to a 6-speed gearbox. If Suzuki does go ahead and price the Inazuma at Rs 3.20 lakh (nearly Rs 3.5 lakh on-road) it will be interesting to see if they can rake in the numbers. The Inazuma is a parallel twin as opposed to the single that powers the CBR 250R & it invites more duties as it is coming in through the CKD route making it more expensive. But it is evident that the performance figures, at least on paper aren’t exactly worlds apart (The Honda CBR 250R stands at 22.9 NM of torque & 25 BHP). Being a twin cylinder will translate to better torque delivery at lower speeds, but it is rather difficult to imagine that factor driving enough customers to Suzuki dealerships. For reference, Kawasaki’s Ninja 300 is also a parallel twin & manages 27nm of torque and 38.5 BHP! Not to mention the fact that the GW 250 has not received any medals for its looks. When early rumours floated on social media, the most common reaction was that the Inazuma looked too dated for it to work in India.












-Image via bikescatalog.com





The Ninja 300 is an entry level sport bikers dream and chances are that if a person had to spend the additional 50k, he’d probably save up for a bit longer and buy the Kawasaki (Apart from the performance figures, Indians do generally prefer fully faired motorcycles). What’s more is that the KTM Duke 390 has Indian roads slippery with bikers drooling over its performance to price ratio. Even Honda revealed the CBR 300R China International Motorcycle Trade Exhibition and this time it literally is a baby blade with enthusiasts lauding its reveal. Performance stats are at 27 NM of torque and a peak power of around 30 BHP. There hasn't been any confirmation on when the successor CBR will arrive here, but since it still will be a single cylinder it is likely to fall below the Rs 3 lakh price bracket. The GW 250 will have to either market itself better or Suzuki will have to come out with a better package if the Inazuma has any hope of being successful.