[landcruiser123]

I don't remember the day (I was 3) we got our 800 in 1998, but clearly it was a car that built India. Most people in their 50s today started with an 800 or an Omni back in the day. I love the car to bits. If I can find KA - 05 - P - 0253, I'll buy it back anytime. (Please reach out if you own the car ) My first experience closest to driving was changing gears with my dad's assistance (all while sitting on the passenger seat) on our M800 while driving in the local roads.

If there's a vintage car I'll buy, it has to be the 800. I'm sure the M800 can run perfectly fine even after 2050.

[bigron]

What a great car this was. The simplicity and ease of ownership that this car gave cemented the notion of Japanese realibility in this country. It was a stark departure from the lofty Padmini and the handful Ambassador.

We had one from the first batch of 800. I wish I had kept some pictures. Still have the number we had on it currently on another car.

[Lowflyer23]

Oh this immortal beauty. We have a '97 model DX and this car never fails to bring a smile to my face. The classic thrum of the 3 cylinder is so sweet, before the lockdown I used to take it to my college frequently and believe me no Elantras aur Cretas ( No offence meant to anyone ) turn the heads of the fairer sex as much as a well maintained shining white Maruti 800. Many of my friends preferred to have a ride in my car just because it has a certain charm and emotion to it. You barely get that feel in mass market cars of today.

[Simhi]

How many of you learnt car driving in a Maruti 800? I learnt car driving in my brother's Maruti 800, if I remember right, in 1998-99. Before purchasing my own first car in 2002, I went to driving school and learnt again in a Maruti 800.

Maruti 800, power to weight ratio is such that it can put to shame any two-wheeler in the pick-up department.

[Vinod_nair]

M800 was the first Indian car with a proper ergonomically placed (between the two bucket seats) useful handbrake, which when applied didn't move the car.

Amby's handbrake was there as an ornament, placed between the bench seat and driver door, (I suppose the ones found on the present day E-Rickshaw is usable) I remember dad asking us to place bricks on the front and back wheels to be secure on an incline.

-do- for the Fiat, only the location was on the middle tunnel.

[Stribog]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

For its time the Maruti 800 was a hot car in terms of power to weight ratio, speed, acceleration and sheer reliability. For those of us who grew up on the old trio of Ambassador, Premier & Standard Herald the reliability of the Maruti 800 and the mind blowing service methods at their ASS were a revelation of the world outside the walls of our license raj economy. It was common in the first couple of years for Ambassadors and Premier Padmini's to rear end the Maruti 800 at traffic lights because its brakes, in comparison, were so effective. Also its accelerator had a light touch and its gears shifted ever so smoothly. When I used to drive my father's Maruti 800 (1985) I had to consciously remind myself to be light on the right foot. You can't even imagine the difference between the steering column gear handle of the Ambassador versus a Maruti 800's floor shift.

Except sir, all other auto makers were throttled by the govt will Maruti was given exceptional and downright illegal (per the laws then) leeway.

This is how Maruti was birthed, you decide for yourself how many violations were allowed it.

All starts with Sanjay Gandhi returning home from a 3 year internship stint at Rolls Royce in the UK. He comes up with the idea of India's own Volkswagen, a people's car.

Now, the small hitch is, Indira had pretty much nationalised everything, and the few private companies left, like Hindustan automobiles or Premier automobiles or even Bajaj of the Chetak fame had stringent licensing norms, and buying even a Chetak meant at least a year in queue after paying the money...if you were lucky. No matter, what Sanjay wants, he gets.

Mind you, these companies had to even get their designs approved by state run bodies. The tarriff commission decided the quotas which they used. International tie ups were frowned upon, and are a regulatory level, killed in proposal stage itself.

Taxes were super high, like the road tax in 1975 alone was around half the average annual income of an average citizen and that's just the road tax.

All this was violated to help Sanjay set up Maruti.

In 1971, with ZERO experience in this field, no degree, no nothing, the GoI awarded a contract to this unknown entity to produce 50k cars (when even as late as 1991, India had a total car sales of some 100,000, in the 70's, this was around 30k units per year). No tender, no competition...nothing! Cronyism max...and it is just the start.

The moment this was done, everybody had to fall head over heels to satisfy Sanjay. So, the Congress CM of Haryana promptly offered all the land the Prince wanted. But it was in a sad place in Haryana...our Prince had his eyes set on prime farm land and land belonging to the ordinance factory....Land Acquisition bill you say? Naw, rules didn't apply to the son of the empress of India. Land was acquired at dirt cheap prices, the army made to give up its land and the factory was put up.

Now, they offered a prototype for testing...it failed all the tests, but no matter, safety mafety. The contract was upheld!

Bad? It gets worse.

Industrialists were literally extorted into buying shares of this company...if you didn't, you had family members thrown into jail till you paid up. Listing rules for the share market were outright broken to allow special provisions to this company. MMS was the RBI chief then and as always turned a blind eye to all of this.

If you had applied to be a dealer, you were out of luck as you were threatened to buy shares (literally using goons and threat of violence) in the company...or else. Even if you were not applying to be a dealer, you were doomed.

Some random guy, applying with the Harayana Govt to buy some land was told that he had to buy shares in the company, or kiss his licenses good bye...he got the shares!

Businessmen who complained, including to the then Minister of state for finance, our Hon exPresident Mr Mukherjee (who did nothing) were then arrested under various acts, including the infamous MISA. Yes, if you protested, you saw jail time.

Cement, Iron and Steel procured to build the complex (strict quotas were in place for anybody without the Gandhi surname) were then promptly resold in the market for a profit, and more quotas kept getting alloted to this company.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Many share holders listed never existed, huge monies were laundered through this sham of a company, many of Sanjay Gandhi's official documentation and requests were never dated or signed. Minutes of shareholder meets either were manipulated or didn't exist at all.

After the Janata Gov took power, they rightfully scrapped this company, established a commission, whose report has been buried by a compliant media (though it's freely available now)

Yes it was a revolution, but then it was an artificial revolution that was rooted in a giant massive uber scam.

[JTM]

Countless memories with our 2001 Maruti 800 DX 5-Speed ! It's taken us everywhere for the past 20 years and has never let us down. It was bought as a replacement for our 2000 Maruti Zen, which unfortunately got stolen around that time Our 800 is mechanically perfect, but needs a cosmetic revamp, which will be done in 2021. We've already bought all the parts. We love it to bits

[Hayek]

Originally Posted by Stribog

After the Janata Gov took power, they rightfully scrapped this company, established a commission, whose report has been buried by a compliant media (though it's freely available now)

Yes it was a revolution, but then it was an artificial revolution that was rooted in a giant massive uber scam.

You are referring to Maruti I - the private entity set up by Sanjay Gandhi. But the car was launched by Maruti II - which took over the assets of Maruti I out of bankruptcy (or whatever passed for that back then), and then held a transparent (for the day) tender process to select an international partner. Agree private players were screwed - but frankly they too had benefited from 30 years of being the Big Fish in a small pond.

Coming back to the topic - and the car itself. We were amazed when the Maruti first came in. My dad had a Landmaster back then, which my mom could not drive since she was not tall enough for that car. We were not part of the first wave of bookings for the Maruti, but booked in 1986 when the second wave of bookings started, when manufacturing of the next generation car - the Maruti 800 most of us know - moved to India.

I really learnt driving on that car - while I had trained on a Padmini to get my license, it was with the help of a friendly driver we knew that I really learned to drive on our own 800. One huge advantage of the car was how easy it was to repair - when it first came in, people thought it would be expensive to maintain. But by the early 90s, I managed to get the first dent I gave it (trying to park in the lot next to Matunga station) repaired with my Birthday gift savings (a few hundred Rupees). We had originally bought a non AC car, added an AC in the mid 90s, and retained the car all the way until 2004. It was only when we were about to sell it that we realised that it’s registration had expired the previous year.

[nishsingh]

My earliest memories of the Maruti 800 are of these cars zipping past the Premier Padmini and HM Ambassador cars that we mostly travelled in.

A lot of old people and drivers back then dissed the Maruti 800 by sharing stories about how these cars were prone to accidents (stories like how a crash between a cow and an 800 resulted in the car being totalled and the cow walking away etc).

I am not sure if any of these stories were true, but I truly do remember our Padminis and Ambassadors being left in the dust by these beauties.

[Stribog]

Originally Posted by Hayek

You are referring to Maruti I - the private entity set up by Sanjay Gandhi. But the car was launched by Maruti II - which took over the assets of Maruti I out of bankruptcy (or whatever passed for that back then), and then held a transparent (for the day) tender process to select an international partner. Agree private players were screwed - but frankly they too had benefited from 30 years of being the Big Fish in a small pond.

Except it was the same entity, the same factory (which Bansi Lal secured by offering the villagers Rs 10,000 / acre and then promptly his cronies sold it at Rs 35,000 / acre to Maruti, and then used police brutality to evict these villagers), various Maruti entities like MTS of which one Ms Maino Gandhi was the MD (at a princely salary of Rs 3,000 / month) were merged into Maruti Udyog.

It was Arun Nehru (the key henchman of Sanjay and later Rajiv) who on the instigation of Indira revived this project and the various members including Sonia and Rajiv cashed out.

Was Maruti I the same as Maruti II (Udyog to be specific)? No, but were there substantial tainted links? Yes.

Yes the car in itself was revolutionary but don't forget, from 1953 on (iirc the year correctly), there were 5 commissions to study the prospect of a small car and all were scuttled. Only Maruti first and Maruti Udyog / Suzuki later was given an exception.

Even HM had pitched a small car around 1960, sent to a committee (Jha committee IIRC) and given a bureaucratic burial!

The cars are brilliant, and the current company is not tainted, but Maruti Auto and its successor Maruti Udyog / Suzuki was linked by this taint of corruption which it has purged over time.

[manchandap]

Originally Posted by Stribog

In 1971, with ZERO experience in this field, no degree, no nothing, the GoI awarded a contract to this unknown entity to produce 50k cars (when even as late as 1991, India had a total car sales of some 100,000, in the 70's, this was around 30k units per year). No tender, no competition...nothing! Cronyism max...and it is just the start.

Didn't knew that Maruti was a 70's child. I always took it be a 80's kid.

Originally Posted by Stribog

Now, the small hitch is, Indira had pretty much nationalised everything, and the few private companies left, like Hindustan automobiles or Premier automobiles or even Bajaj of the Chetak fame had stringent licensing norms, and buying even a Chetak meant at least a year in queue after paying the money...if you were lucky. No matter, what Sanjay wants, he gets.

Mind you, these companies had to even get their designs approved by state run bodies. The tarriff commission decided the quotas which they used. International tie ups were frowned upon, and are a regulatory level, killed in proposal stage itself.

From the 80's, I remember how difficult it was to buy a new Bajaj Scooter (Priya, Cub or Chetak) due to its wait time and tantrums of the dealers. The license-permit raj controlled everything and those with 'connections' enjoyed the moolah. Really a sorry state of affairs.

For my family, a pre-owned 1995 800 Std was the first car. It taught me not only driving but also car-care tricks. It was good teacher who was not very harsh on my mistakes. We still own this car, albeit our mechanic drives it.

[sunny13]

There is no doubt of the uniqueness of the Maruti 800. It was a major change from the Fiat and Ambassadors. It was my first car too and a second hand purchase. But I distinctly remember it due to its convenience features, smooth pickup, gear changes and manoeuvrability. We had to really go soft on it as a transition from the fiat or the Amby.

It was also ultra convenient to maintain it. Almost every local guy had some level of expertise to service it. Besides, low cost of maintenance was another big USP.

I loved it till its last day I owned it despite the newer ZEN which I moved on to. I recall selling it and could not miss sight of it until it went round the corner to be driven away forever. I miss it for sure.

[invidious]

Sweet memories of learning to drive on the 800.

Dad told me that I couldn't learn driving without a license. Since I wasn't 18 yet, had to acquire one through an RTO agent. He took me to some corrupt chap who was issuing licenses who promptly told the RTO agent - "this boy looks 12!“

After some coaxing he was assured I was 17, and he issued one.

Was it on par with cars available around the world in the 1980s / 90s? Of course not. No safety equipment - was a glorified golf cart one accident away from being a coffin.


People will remember the crumpled 800s on many highways - it literally folded like paper.

But it was a liberating experience to drive one. I even remember kids being made to sit in the boot with their legs dangling and the hatch open while their folks drove at Worli seaface / Marine Drive.

Different era. It's ok to nostalgic about it I guess - a throwback to simpler times. In all likelihood, it is the times those are missed and reminisced about - with the 800 being a part of it. As an engineering machine, it was functional and spartan at best.

[samuelv]

We owned a 1999 carburettor version (with the greenwheels sticker) of the M800 in the common phoenix red colour. Bought for 2.26lakhs, it was value for money to the bits.

This was four speed version and if we had opted for the ex or the ex version, we would have got a 5speed gearbox with the MPFI engine.

Those days choices were made totally on a financial basis and not for the need of technology or any other aspect.

[Iksvaku]

Originally Posted by shancz

As a kid, when we had the Padmini, we always took a driver when going out of town, "not really to drive but to fix the car when it breaks down" were my father's words And break-down it did. Every trip gave us a chance to sit under the shade of a tree while the driver tried to fix it. Once I saw him break a branch, hollow out the stem and use it to route and jam the cables in the spark plugs.

I have been touring India by road since 1965. The first part of this experience was until 1988, when we were living in Jorhat (Assam), Tezpur (Assam) and Darjeeling (West Bengal). In this period, we travelled across the country in the Winter every two years in Hindustan Ambassadors. Each tour would entail a travel distance of around 6,500km. Though we did follow the norm of taking a driver-mechanic with us, not once have we experienced a breakdown.