Nissan isn’t leaving any stone unturned with the Magnite. It has priced the SUV super competitively and, to bolster the aftersales, opened 50 new touchpoints last month and introduced ‘Nissan Express Service’. To make buying the Magnite a notch sweeter, the Indian arm of the Japanese carmaker has announced that the vehicle in question has the lowest-in-class maintenance cost. What is it? Just 29 paise/km for 50,000km. Nissan says that peace of mind comes with a warranty of 2 years/50,000km, but can be extended up to 5 years/1,00,000km at a reasonable price.

That’s not all. The company claims that on the Magnite, it is offering “four labour-free services” at all authorized outlets in India. And there’s more! Nissan has introduced a prepaid maintenance plan known as “Nissan Magnite Care”. Under it, there are two types of packages – Gold and Silver. The former covers comprehensive periodic maintenance service, whereas the latter covers basic maintenance service. As per the company, one could save up to 22 per cent on costs. Apart from the type of package, the amount of saving will also depend on the duration chosen (available for two to five years).

As for the car itself, the Magnite is presently available with an introductory price list. That starts at an incredible Rs 4.99 lakh and goes up to Rs 9.45 lakh (excluding dual-tone and Tech Pack prices). From January 1, 2021, the launch prices will receive an upward revision. Expect the least-expensive variant to start at Rs 5.54 lakh. Nissan says that it has received over 15,000 bookings for the Magnite in 15 days. And, as for the enquiry counter, that has risen past 1.5 lakh.

In India, the Nissan Magnite not only competes with subcompact SUVs but also with premium hatchbacks (price-wise). So, the list of rivals includes everything from the Hyundai Venue, Tata Nexon and Toyota Urban Cruiser, to the Hyundai i20, Tata Altroz, Volkswagen Polo and the Maruti Suzuki Baleno.