Old Horse. Review on Maruti Suzuki 800

I hope you liked my thoughts on MS in my last review. I will put aside those 2-Wheelers for a moment and review few cars I had driven so far. The very first was an Indian car Maruti. It was a thrilling moment for all of us. Dad was promoted due to some remarkable marketing achievement for HLL and they gave him a new apartment and a new car, our first car – the Maruti 800. I was in school back (9th Std.) then and had to enroll to a new school due to the transfer. All our faces were flushed. I remember being the most excited of the lot. Like the new slogan goes “Mera sapna, meri Maruti”. It was like a sapna (dream) to us that was fulfilled. We were the first amongst our relatives that now had a car.

Style and Design

The Maruti we had was dark green in colour, though my dad wanted a white one. But a car is a car, so why worry over colours? The model we had was reasonably old by the new standards. Of course, Maruti at that time had made some changes to its previous ugly model and the new one was launched – the one you see on the roads even today, with a smiley face. The lamps on the front side were not as stylish as our Ikon. It is more squarish, rather trapezoidal and extends a bit on the sides. The front portion is tiny but comfortably houses the 800 cc 3-cylinder engine. The model we had did not have the multi-point fuel ignition system that the new version has.

Ours had a Carburetor System but there were no Euro standards to be followed back then. The bumper on front side has two yellow lights, probably the left and right indicators (why on the front?). Then again it has these small yellow lights on the sides too. On the sides it has a black strip on the lower portion, possibly to absorb shocks or side impacts.

Structure

The doors do not open as wide and the car is basically very short in height. This poses some difficulty in getting in and out of the car. The rear is kind of chopped off. There is no extra protrusion at the back like most other cars. On the other hand it has a door on the rear that swivels open upwards. It can be kept open and few people may sit and enjoy at the back, but I guess it is prohibited in Mumbai. The brake lights, reverse lights and left/right indicators are on extreme sides on the rear and slightly extend to the sides. The lights are not part of the rear door.

Interior

The inside is not comfortable as it is pretty compact car. You either call it a advantage or a drawback. From parking point of view its good. It can accommodate 5 people, 2 in the front and 3 at the back. I will be honest enough to agree that 3 at the back would imply some compromise and adjustments from the passengers. The leg space at the back is less. Probably the driver is the most comfortable with a clear view of the road ahead and even during reversing. The steering is easy to handle and all the buttons/controls are reachable. The dashboard is plastic but OK. I don’t quite remember the original seats coverings and fabrics, but you can get it customized almost anywhere in India.

Service

There are several hundred dealers/service centers and local auto spare parts shops that cater to Maruti 800, primarily because it’s here for quite some time now – decades together. You can add a car audio system, change horns, reversing tones, add some jazzy lights, fog lights, change seats and what not – anything you can think of. That’s the main advantage of having an Indian car. I remember my friend working in Infosys had a new Honda City and he bumped it in to a tree while taking reverse near Karjat. Taillights and back bonnet of the brand new car was completely dashed. This had happened away from Mumbai. To add to the misery he even got a scrach on the lest side by Rickshaw at the signal in Mumbai.He could repair it after coming to Mumbai. The repair coasted around mammoth 53K Rs. Thanks to the Insurance policy he is still working. The repair work of Maruti costs very less compared to Foreign cars.

Performance

Performance wise, this car is just the ideal car that had broken the monotony of Premier Padmini’s and Ambassadors. Its small size also implies less weight. This makes the car most fuel-efficient. It gives 13-14 kpl in city driving. Wow! On highways it gives a whopping 20-21 kpl. Amazing by any means. To add some more awe this one has 4 valves per cylinder that means more power at good efficiency and a 5-speed gearbox. But the car is not a racecar; it takes some 19 sec to reach 0-100 Km/hr. Also its highest speed is around 140 kph. It literally starts shaking at such high speeds, an indicator for the driver to slow down.

Compact

But for city driving, it’s very very good. Firstly it has small wheels like scooters, which enables it to make great turns and with an expert behind the wheel, you can zig zag across the traffic [make sure that traffic police does not see you do that]. Secondly it’s a boon in Mumbai considering the huge car population and lack of parking spaces. This small thingy can be parked anywhere.

Security

The car does have a major flip side besides the minor ones I have mentioned above. The car does not offer any significant safety feature. You can even bang on the hood with your fist and cause a dent. Our car had a big dent on the right side when a biker slammed his beauty (my sheer weakness for it – the Yamaha RX 100 original straight from Japan) into it. Drat! How could he do that with an original Yamaha….but our Maruti??). It cost us heavy bucks to get the dent straightened, and dad would not get re-imbursement for that.

To sum it up, Maruti 800 is a boon for city driving, especially the all-new model that confirms to Bharat-II norms. Also if you have to get one ask for the deluxe model. You wont regret your buying decision.