Great Entry Level Car. Review on Maruti Suzuki 800

Hi friends this is my second review in mouthshut.com. First one was about my Kawasaki Caliber (2001 model) just a day ago. I was so excited reading other's reviews that I wanted to share the same with you all. We had purchased the M800 AC model (Caribbean Blue) on 19th Oct 2008 which was delivered within 3 days of making the payment.

The first time I had driven a car in my life was in the driving school (an Alto) 10 days before delivery of our car. Hence I had a hesitation in my mind about taking delivery of the new 800 from the showroom. I had called one of my friend who drives a car to take the vehicle from the showroom to my house. He faithfully came all the way down to the showroom which is about 15 kms from his house. He asked me to sit inside and just move the car a bit after the pooja in the showroom.

But once I sat inside and shifted to 1st gear it was a smooth takeoff and I never experienced any jerks or stops. My friend was surprised and started shouting why the hell I had called him. We use the car mostly and definitely during weekends and rarely during the week. Till date the 800 has not given any issues except small vehicles scratching our car in traffic. It is very easy to steer in small lanes and traffic and have covered more than 3000 kms. It delivers a good mileage of 15 kmpl with the AC on and off for 50% of the time in the Chennai city traffic.

The mileage in the highways is around 20 kmpl and we used to drive with 5 people on board most of the times. In the highway from Chennai to Pondicherry (140 kms) was done with just 6 liters of petrol. I used to drive around 65-70 km/hr in the highways and not more. But once I tried reaching 85 km/hr in the NH45 and car was stable. In the next trip when I crossed 90 km/hr in NH5 the steering was very vague and had no feel (remember all these trips were with 5 people on board and luggage). The steering gets so light and jittery that we don’t know where the car is heading to.

Also the brakes also not recommended for high speeds and it is safe to keep the car below 80 km/hr to bring the vehicle to a halt in case of an emergency. The AC is only for the front passengers and the rear passengers just have to put up with the scorching sun outside (although I never sat at the back in my car). Also when the AC is switched on the car behaves like a diesel with a turbo lag and it would take ages to overtake buses and trucks on the highway.

The suspension too is soft and the car could not be driven even at slow speeds over broken roads and have to crawl to avoid considerable body shaking. It would be sad to see Swifts and Fiestas just gliding over these roads while it would seem we are walking with the M800. The horn is just about squeaky and doesn’t move the people and small vehicles on the road. My Caliber’s stock company horn would just split the people walking on the road and also stop cars crossing the way. All said and done these are minor hiccups you would experience depending on your usage and the road conditions in your place. I would definitely remember the good times experienced with the M800 for short span we had till date. I would keep updating about the performance as the days go by. Kudos to Maruti for keeping the M800 running for so long which is a great entry level car.