The Maruti Suzuki Alto 800 gets a much-needed and awaited makeover, and grabs every single eye-ball on road
INDIA IS ONE OF THE FEWplaces where the sun, if it shines bright, shines for many, many days to come. Examples, Amitabh Bachchan has been and will be our superstar for many decades, paani-puri (aka golgappe, aka puchka, etc), our national snack, Khaitan fans still adorn our ceilings, that rickety Atlas bicycle still occupies a corner of the backyard and many of us have a Maruti car in the family.
Indians, after the Premier Padminis, found a companion to live and die with in the benchmark of what a family car means and looks like, the Zen added panache to what a what a sedan is and the Esteem was the neighbour’s envy and owner’s pride. And then came the Alto, another chapter in the history of family cars in the Indian four-wheeler market and the first car for maney families. The success recorded by the Alto in terms of sales has been an indication that the makers hit upon the formula of what an entry-level car buyer wanted and gave him just that. However, with intense competition and increasing options in every segment, it treatment and so it did!
LOOKS
This was probably the first time I caught as much attention from passers-by while driving a new car on city roads. Everyone turned around to look at what this new small car was (many even called it the new A-star, considering the close resemblance between these two models) and when they saw the badge at the rear, their curiosity took another leap.
New doe-eyed or, as Maruti calls them, creases on the bonnet and along the length of the car lend the new Alto freshness and attractiveness. Body-coloured bumpers with a chrome strip in the middle, donning the Maruti Suzuki logo, and black front grille make for a subtle, but good looking front. edgy as you reach the C-pillar and eventually the rear. The ‘petal shape’ is retained in the tail-lamps too. As you open the door, a fresh cabin greets you, which is nothing like your that the overall seating position has been lowered (what Maruti call their ‘scooped out’ seats), which is a good news for tall people (15 mm more head-room), but not so pleasing to the short ones. A new dash puts style and convenience hand-in-hand. Along with seat height, the padding on the seats also feels to have been reduced, giving a feeling of more knee-room on the rear seats. No more adjustable head-rests, a small compartment just above the glove-box, a wide tray to store a can and a bottle near the gear shifter, power window switches on the floor consoles, etc, are some of the many little changes that you may observe in the cabin of the new Alto. All in all, a sweet-sour set of changes.
DRIVE
The Maruti Suzuki Alto has always been a no-nonsense family car for the budget-consciousIndian family and it maintains its DNA in this new avatar too. The engine is the same 796-cc, three-cylinder unit (F8D), producing the same power as its predecessor (47 PS), but about seven Nm more torque (69 Nm). The drive is just what you’d expect of a puny city car. Good initial acceleration, decent mid-range for those quick overtakes and fairly good top end too, making it far from being a disappointment on the highway. The engine is noisy for sure, but, as they say, never mind the wife’s cribbing until she cooks well.
The company takes pride in telling that the new Alto now comes with cable-type gear transmission, thus offering improved gear shifts. Changes, if for the better, are always welcome, but, then, we never really had a problem with the gear shifts in the old Alto either.
The car is a pleasure both to drive and to be in. Even more so when it happens to be shell and structure as the old Alto, the new one promises a punchier drive with more torque available in hand and succeeds in the endeavour too.
EFFICIENCY AND PRICE
Owing to changes in the compression ratio and intake system, the company promises a Alto 800.
The car comes with LPG and CNG variants too and, as a good step towards passenger safety, the company has also introduced optional air-bags. Priced at Rs 2.49 – 3.49 lakh (ex-showroom, Pune), the new Alto 800 definitely spoils the party for the competition.
VERDICT
We drive a variety of cars every day. We know which one caters to which segment of customers and why a particular one may not appeal to another. But still, there are some cars that have been, are and will be a little away from the scales of competition, improvement, disappointments, etc. Why, because one of us might have learnt to drive with one, it must have but one which bears a slight soft corner in each of our hearts. And Maruti Suzuki Alto, for being one of the forebears of the hatch evolution in the country, is one of them.
Story: Gasha Aeri-Alawani
Photography: Sanjay Raikar
