[rajeev k]

What makes the rear look cramped in spite of the favorable stats is the big front seats which are comfortable as in the swift. The alto front seats are not at all a match to the A tar seats.

Away from this point, once Alto becomes the M800 replacement, which will naturally happen soon and with price corrections, it can be predicted that the A star will start selling in large numbers like what Alto does now.

[M00M]

I feel the Astar doesnt sell because in Europe Astar replaced the Alto and in India because we get outdated cars selling along with new ones at higher price (a ridiculous practice) people perceive the alto as better value and therefore end up choosing the alto because at the budget end people are very price conscious. Manufacturers need to stop selling out dated cars here.

[aniketi]

All agree that its a good car technically. Also it has AT option. The main problems seems to be space inside the car. Why cant Maruti launch it with spacing improved? Is it possible to do that keeping most of the things same? I mean to say increase the length of the car so that rear leg room & boot can be increased. I know some parts need to be redeveloped or modified like rear doors. But i guess it will be worth doing that. It will sell in good numbers if space is increased inside. What say?

[Gansan]

^^Actually the space inside is not that bad. I would imagine it to be more than the Alto actually. What creates the illusion is the rear window design. Similarly, in the Alto, the glass area creates an illusion of more space.

[aravind.anand]

When the A-Star was launched, I used to think, Maruti's ambitions of taking on the i10 with the A-Star was going to be a suicidal misson

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by pgsagar

It's an individual's pick. I like sportiness and black interiors. Also since, mostly I travel alone in car, I don't give a damn about interior space.

The space part is also quite exaggerated. Yes, if you are a family of 6-footers, you are looking at an issue. But for the average Indian height, there is more than enough leg-space in the rear - a group of 5 of us (tallest being 5' 8" & all average Indian build) found it comfy for a 300km trip we did. Also this space thing is relative - my wife was in Chennai after a long gap and after a drive in the Baleno her comment was "It feels like acres of space inside. Maybe because of being in the M800/A_Star/Swift".

Regarding seating 3 in the rear, which hatch or sedan seats 3 normal-build gents in comfort at the rear. It is a compromise with most hatches available in the market. And the rear and boot makes a difference only for those who use it regularly - in most cases, it is just 1-2 people in the car. In 6years of owning the Baleno, the rear and boot would have been used max 20-25 times. I could have instead enjoyed the advantages a hatch provided.

Originally Posted by libranof1987

Ritz of course still managed to pull it off but wonder what even Europeans saw in A-Star. Agreed they prefer hatchbacks now but A-Star?!

From what I saw during my short stay in Belgium in the late-nineties, they prefer hatches, with 2-doors being quite common. My boss had a 2-door hatch and since his wife also worked with us, I had to get in by putting down the front-passenger backrest. With small families (DINKS, DISK etc), such cars are best for their need, since rear-seats are mostly never used. Does not have much to do with affordability, since he also has an awesome BMW bike & a nice home in the countryside. Also this car is low on emissions and big on FE - am sure even Europeans won't mind some savings from FE.

Originally Posted by rajeev k

What makes the rear look cramped in spite of the favorable stats is the big front seats which are comfortable as in the swift. The alto front seats are not at all a match to the A star seats.

Yeah, there is no comparison between the seats in the 2 cars.

Originally Posted by rajeev k

Away from this point, once Alto becomes the M800 replacement, which will naturally happen soon and with price corrections, it can be predicted that the A star will start selling in large numbers like what Alto does now.

They should actually drop the M800 to the sub-2lakh segment and have it as the basic entry car, staving off competition from the Nano. Position the Alto/LX/LXi/K10Lxi/K10VXi in the range from 2-3.25lakhs range and the A-Star to cover the 3.25 to 4lakhs segment. An A_Star_Zxi is fully loaded and at 4lakhs, it is tremendous value - even at its current price of 4.4L, I doubt there is another car that gives all the features, ABS, airbags etc.

Originally Posted by aniketi

I mean to say increase the length of the car so that rear leg room & boot can be increased. I know some parts need to be redeveloped or modified like rear doors. But i guess it will be worth doing that. It will sell in good numbers if space is increased inside. What say?

More than length, it is the height that is reducing the boot. Unlike the Alto, where the boot is low-down, here the boot starts higher up (due to its design) leading to vertical volume being less. I doubt sales would increase - as people would still flock to the cheaper Alto. I would rather, this car is retained as it is - a sporty, FTD, city commuter that is great on FE.

@gansan, it is indeed spacious than the Alto - a cursory look inside would make this clear. You are right about the glass-effect.

[jinojohnt]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

I fail to understand how people say the Alto is more spacious than the A-Star. And no one even says Spark is low on space, though it is as long as Alto and just 2cms wider.

I have a 2.5 year old Alto Lxi (800cc), and I bought an A-star Automatic last week. I hadn't taken a test drive, and this is the first time I am travelling in an A-star.

I had read a lot about the lack of space in A-star, but I was surprised at the rear space in A-star. In the rear seat of my Alto, 2 people can hardly sit if I place a child seat in the middle. But the A-star can easily accomodate 2 people with a child-seat in the middle.

I am only 5 feet 7 inches, I found the rear legroom quite decent (even if some one with the same height sits in the front seat at the same time).

Boot space is not very large, but ok and comparable to Alto (may be only a bit less).

The rear window and the rear wind-screen are very small, and this gives an illusion of less space. Reverse visibility may be a bit less because of this, but I feel a lot safer in the rear seat due to larger area of metal.

Rear head room may not be sufficient for 6 footers, but more than enough for 5 feet 8 inchers.

[ra'ul M]

According to me [and I have covered over a 1000 kms in an A* over a period of 1 year] the reasons for it not selling relatively well are:
1. Not too much to offer over lower priced Maruti cars. The A* used by me was the one with ABS and airbags, but then it was over 4 lakh making it really close to cars from a segment above.
2. In all seriousness, I cannot sit behind in that car [I am 6'2"] even if the front is occupied by an average sized adult. But then I have the same problem in the Swift as well as the Alto. The feeling is accentuated by the tiny windows and mammoth front seats [comfortable though]. In other cars, you can remove the head rests and the cabin suddenly feels bigger which is not the case with A*.
3. The plastic quality is suspect. I have seen the AC vents falling apart one by one [ only the center ones]

On the other hand, its quite good to drive and returns decent FE even when pushed hard. Also, its very comfortable for 2 people [way more than Alto]. The front seats when pushed all the way back [even I dont have to do that] liberate a lot of legroom.

[pgsagar]

[quote=supremeBaleno;2334996]The space part is also quite exaggerated. Yes, if you are a family of 6-footers, you are looking at an issue. But for the average Indian height, there is more than enough leg-space in the rear - a group of 5 of us (tallest being 5' 8" & all average Indian build) found it comfy for a 300km trip we did.

S'Baleno, you are right. More than actually being cramped, A-Star gives an illusion of being cramped because of the small green-house. But as someone has pointed out, less greenhouse more steel is safe in the event of accident.

I fail to undrestand how people find this car not attractive. The rear looks very sporty and sometimes from a distance I confuse it with Swift. The front headlights are simply ADORABLE. Not dissimilar to Beetle's. How can anyone not like it? Yes, the side profile is the chink in the visual-appeal armour. It could have been better. Those thick A,B,C pillars need trimming. They are way too thick. Or, MUL could have blackened the pillars.

BTW, I have seen an A* with HID. It looks stunning. The light spread and reach are simply superb. Better than many premium cars. May be because fo those huuuge deep dish bowl reflectors A* has. SB, try 'em on your car. You will love the effect. I wanted to stop this guy and ask but I lost him in traffic.

[YaeJay]

Probably the looks. Add to that the illusion of being cramped as SB pointed out. I guess our market is a lot more complicated than it seems!

P.s : Two of my friends were initially very interested in the Astar. One drives a Figo and the other has a Manza now.

[9thsphinx]

My cousin was out in the market for a 'small' car. We checked out the Alto K-series, the Limited Ed Wagon R and then just for the fun of it tried sitting in an A-Star. The car was meant for my cousin's wife and the first thing that my cousin noticed after sitting on the driver's seat was the unusually high arrangement of the dashboard (specially the center part) for a small car due to which there was limited visibility of front windshield. Not a good design for short drivers! Another thing we noticed was the extremely small boot - good enough for storing only 2 small bags and nothing more. Another minus point. If the car was to be converted to CNG in the future, there was no space for a 10kg tank!
These were the 2 points that we thought would be the main reasons as to why we do not see a lot of A-Star's on the roads today!
On a different note, he settled for a Chevy Beat.

[kaks15]

I own an A* , personally i like the handling of the car better than our old santro also i find the looks more pleasing, but if i am sitting in rear i would prefer an i 10 or a santro any day

Heard from a friend something about Maruti exporting A star to Honda so the focus is less on B2C selling if compared to Alto or a wagon R, is it true??

P.S - my first post

[kaks15]

heard maruti does not push B2C selling for A star because of decent revenues from exports to Volkswagen, is it true?

[romeomidhun]

Source: Mauti A-Star to be upgraded, to become a compact sedan between sub 4 mt Dzire and SX4

"Maruti Suzuki, India’s top automobile manufacturer is planning to give A-Star, its one of the costliest small cars a bit of an upgrade. Maruti A-Star was priced close to a sedan in India when it was launched in November 2008 as a contemporary hatchback. The car was launched for the European small car A-segment with a superior KB series engine that made a debut with the A –Star. The automaker plans to place the new upgraded A-Star sedan somewhere between new sub-four meter Swift Dzire and mid-sized SX4 sedan. With the launch of the upgraded A-Star, Maruti attempts to boost the brand image and hence the sales volume for its otherwise no-so popular car.

Maruti A-Star experienced a low sales graph in the country. Although it is a powerful car with 3 cylinder, 12 valve MPFI unit that generates 67PS peak power at 6200 rpm and 90 Nm of max torque at 35000 rpm. The mill is mated with a 5-speed manual transmission that returns 19.5 kmpl. But with a 3,000 units sales figure a month, A-Star definitely needed some overhauling by Maruti.

The low sales figures prompted Mauti to create an entirely new sub category with in the segment, the same it plans to do it for the Swift Dzire. Very recently we heard the auto giant planning to bring a Swift Dzitre with a sub-four meter design that not only saves the excise duty by 10% but also creates a whole new sub category within the segment.

Maruti understands that competition at the entry level sedan is gearing momentum in the country as more and more players are entering the segment with upgraded or newer models. According to an official spokesperson from Maruti, the auto giant has the ability to attract customers by creating new sub-segment or by making capacity expansion plans. India being a suitable market for different kinds of products, and with a little change in price one can create an entirely different market altogether."




Though Maruti may try to develop a sedan under 4m length from A-Star, I can't believe it will be placed above Swift DZire.

[Saanil]

So the Swift Dzire will move one segment lower while A-star will climb up? A-star compact sedan will be interesting. I think this is will happen after a long time. A-star hatch and sedan could sell side by side. Wondering how the sedan would look like