It could continue flogging its old war horse, the Swift, which was launched in 2005, for a few more years and sell similar volumes, even though it was aware that the product cycle of cars are increasingly shrinking.

Or it could make a conscious decision to be ahead of its product cycle curve and replace it by a completely revamped car much before consumers got bored with the old one and stopped buying it entirely.

The new model would in fact be a completely new car. It would have a new, larger platform, swanky interiors and better fuel efficiency.

"We chose to make the change two years earlier, rather than wait till when its sales start to decline," says the soft-spoken Mayank Pareek, managing executive officer sales and marketing. "Our reading is that consumers look at changing their cars every six years and by doing it earlier we also save on marketing costs."

Image: Did you know that the Swift story began with this bike Suzuki Hayabusa 1300 R?

Text: Surajeet Das Gupta and Sharmistha Mukherjee, Business Standard

Images Courtesy: Maruti