Jan 31, 2002 02:28 PM
22592 Views
(Updated Jan 31, 2002 02:28 PM)
I have been owning and driving Maruti Cars ever since they hit the market. Amrita's review and my recent experiences have made me seriously re-think and share my views.
Maruti has been raising prices periodically and regularly over all these years without bringing out any great improvements. My first Maruti was bought for Rs.53500/- and the price now!
Maruti Cars, the 800 and Zen, have been engineered, designed and built to operate in idealistic, utopian traffic and road conditions that exist only in one's imagination and dreams. The chaotic, bumper to bumper, everyone-trying to-overtake everyone, highly mixed kind of traffic conditions in India, and the bumpy, pot-hole filled, broken roads of India have never been considered by Maruti it seems.
The so called low prices and higher fuel efficiency of Maruti cars is only an illusion if one computes the life cycle costs. The cars are extremely delicate, prone to severe damages that cost a fortune to repair, spares are expensive, dealers and workshops fleece you, and safety factor of Maruti cars can well be analysed if the statistics of fatal/serious accidents of various vehicles is made available. Each one of us I am sure aware of how many serious accidents involving Maruti vehicles that we have come across.
A monkey jumps on the roof of car, there is a dent. You hit a dog, dog gets up and runs away, you end up spending few thousands trying to get the bumper and the dents fixed.
My Zen just kissed the rear bumper of the Vehicle infront which stopped suddenly, I was at a crawling speed of not more than 5 kmph, the impact was so light that there was not even a scratch,not even a crack in the glass of headlights, yet the whole headlight assembly unit popped out! At the garage I found out that the metal clamp had fully collapsed, the plastic clamps are sheared off, and the whole assembly even though in good working condition had to be replaced for want of clamps! My M-800 was hit from behind by an LCV at a crossing, the whole stepney unit was deeply dented, glass pane broke, back lights got damaged, the repair bill came to Rs.12000 ! Good old days, similar incident with my old Fiat didn't even cost me Rs.500 !
In my opinion, one can buy a Maruti only if;
a) you plan to keep it parked in your foyer for 97% (or more) of the time
b) You have friendly Insurer/surveyor/garage who takes care of all the bills
c) Your employer or the expense account takes care of the bills
d) You don’t care in what condition the car is as long as it moves.
Earlier days, we did not have much choice, now we have a wide choice. Hence my recommendation is that it's better to spend a little more and buy a sturdier, stronger and safer vehicle than to get duped and end up feeling miserably sorry.
