City-based dealers told The Financial Express that sales of the car have been as sluggish at barely 8 to 10 per outlet and estimate the nationwide number to be barely 250 a month.

"There has been practically no improvement in offtake and the fact that there is a cheaper fuel option does not make any difference to the customer," they added.

Maruti had, barely a month ago, reduced prices of the Zen D hoping that this would be the right impetus to improve sales figures. The ex-showroom price of a car sold in Mumbai was down from Rs 4.5 lakh to Rs 4.09 lakh. The difference of Rs 40,000 was quickly made up when dealers promptly withdrew their original hefty discount offer. The Zen D's ex-showroom price is, incidentally,at par with that of its sibling, the petrol-driven Zen Classic.

Sources say that the Zen D is unlikely to make further headway as customers are increasingly resorting to the Uno diesel as a more viable alternative. When it was first introduced in the market in mid-1997, the Maruti offering had an on-road price of around Rs 5.3 lakh in Mumbai. Despite the company's strong brand name and its success with earlier models, there were just no takers for the Zen D.

Maruti announced a price cut for the car in late 1998 and a further reduction last month. There have also been prominent advertisements in newspapers which refer to its positive features and competitive pricing. So far, none of these moves has helped boost sales of the Zen D.

The TUD5 engine fitted in the car has been sourced from Peugeot Citroen Motors which has arranged to supply 10,000 fully built up units annually. Sources say there have been huge surpluses in stock following the poor offtake of the car in the market. The company is now likelyto start the next phase of its dieselisation programme with the Esteem which will be fitted with the TUD5 engine.

Despite the poor showing of the Zen D, the petrol version of the car has been doing very well with average monthly sales hovering around the 6,000 mark. In fact, Maruti's initial apprehensions were that the diesel model could eat into the market share of its petrol counterpart. The high price tag was apparently a deliberate move to prevent this from happening though it only resulted in sales of the car taking a nosedive.