Suzuki Motor Corp. released a new model of its Alto minicar Dec. 16, 2009.

The company reduced the weight of the vehicle by using the same platform as the WagonR. As a result, the two-wheel-drive manual-transmission (MT) car of the new model is 10 kilograms lighter than that of the previous model.

Only an MT car and a three-speed automatic-transmission (AT) car are available for the previous model, but the new model is offered as an MT car, a CVT (continuously variable transmission) car with an auxiliary transmission and a four-speed AT car, all of which are eligible for the tax cuts for environmentally friendly cars in Japan.

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