[TDR]

Hello!

I'm from the Netherlands (a.k.a. Holland). Bought my first Suzuki (Maruti)
Alto five years ago. Here, we call it this model a "MK III" Alto. It sports
a 1 litre engine with 8 valves and multipoint injection. There have been
three MK III Alto's in my country;

- 1 litre 8 valves and singlepoint injection
- 1 litre 8 valves and multipoint injection
- 1 litre 16 valves and multipoint injection

All with "catalic converter" but without ABS & Airbags. There was also no
aircon on these Alto's. At least not for the European market..

Here is a picture of me grilling some pork on vacation. The Alto is the
blue car in the back;


I've done little to this car, well besides driving & cleaning it. It has been
all over Europe! It's an Alto Spirit from 1997, btw... 130.000 km on the
clock and never let me down! You just have got to give credit to Maruti.
They really know how to built an engine!

My next car is going to be a Suzuki (Maruti) Alto "MKIV". In India, it is known as the, now discontinued , ALTO VX.

It has the lovely F10D engine; which displaces 1061cc.


Odd thing is that the Suzuki Alto's sold in Europe are Maruti cars from India,
instead of Suzuki Alto's from Japan!


Anyway, I'm planning some mayor works on the new car, already bought all of the audio stuff & some nice rims & tyres. Hope to get more goodies with
the help of fellow Alto fans here!

And who am I? I'm 37 years old, I work at a Mental Hospital as a clerc and I love to read Robert Jordan novels, hence my nickname...


I'm glad to have found this place!

TDR

[binz]

Hey,welcome aboard!
The alto you have is known in india as the zen.YOu would be suprised what people have done to make these cars 'peppier' to say the least.

How is the scene with spares?

[adya33]

Welcome to the forum TDR

Your car looks in great condition for a five year old one.

You would be surprised to know that so far we have had three generations of Alto in India and at one point of time all of them were sold with different names

[TDR]

Thanks, Binz! Good to be here!

I can get all "standard spares" from the local Suzuki dealer.

As "performance" parts are concerned... things don't look so good...
Tyres and rims, they can be found, but you have to look for them
carefully. Luckily, tyres from the likes of Bridgestone & Toyo are more
and more common here.

Just bought these rims & wheels to fit the Alto VX/Alto MKIV I'm going to
buy;


Those are "TOYO 350" 165/65R13 tyres on "Dotz Imola" 5.0 x 13" 4/100 ET 35 rims.

TDR

[iraghava]

Welcome to the forum TRD! There are lots of Alto nee Zen lovers here including me who owned the Zen albeit in 1 litre, carburetted form from '95 to '99 as my first car!

As for the tyre upgrades that you're planning, remember you'll have to so minor DIY altering to the rear wheel arch (mainly bending a few parts of the inner sheet metal with a plastic hammer) so that the rear tyres do not foul with the body work under loads!

[Nitin]

Welcome aboard,TDR! Good to see a Dutch newbie!
Probably one of my all time favorite countries-The Netherlands. My first visit was in 1997 & the next one in 1999,but every single aspect of the country stays fresh in my memory..

Have a great time here!

[1100D]

Fantastic, you bought the wheels before you bought the car! How many doors does your MkIII have? Does it have the electronic power steering that we used to get?

Anyway, welcome.

welcome TDR
great to see indian cars being appreciated by people who have access to every global brand.

TDR- you should post a thread in the long term ownership section.

it was always a dream to get a 2 door alto/zen and mod it to within an inch of its life. too bad the petrol prices dont let me.

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by TDR

Here is a picture of me grilling some pork on vacation. The Alto is the
blue car in the back;

Now, that pork looks yummy. would love to wash that one down with some chilled beer.

Originally Posted by TDR

I've done little to this car, well besides driving & cleaning it. It has been
all over Europe! It's an Alto Spirit from 1997, btw... 130.000 km on the
clock and never let me down! You just have got to give credit to Maruti.
They really know how to built an engine!

that's the beauty of these cars & that is exactly why they are so popular here. Glad to know you will be going for another maruti. cheers

and welcome to the forum.

[HappyWheels]

welcome to the board TDR! as metioned, what you have is known as Zen here in India, which, unfortunately, has been discontinued and replaced by the Estilo.

i am also the proud owner of an Alto LXi (the top end that is available; due to VX beign discontinued!!!), and not surprisingly, it has not let me down at all - not for the past 45k which has been clocked in the 2.5 years of me driving it.

you got the goodies for the car even before you got the car - Great! :-)

[im_srini]

Hi, I'm an Alto fan too Mine has done 58,000 Kms in the past 7 years. Hasn't missed a beat, yet...

I was running GoodYear 165x65R13s for about 6 months, but switched to Yokohama 175x60R13s a couple of months ago. You could have some fouling issues with more than 2 people on-board or on bad roads. In fact, it was why I had to remove the rear seat in my car !

The F10D engine, although extremely reliable, doesn't seem to have a lot of performance parts built for it - sourcing parts could be a major pain ! I'm saving up for an engine transplant myself

[TDR]

@1100D; My car has 3 doors but the 5 door version is just as common here. To my knowledge, the Alto Zen, a.k.a. MK III, has never been sold with power steering in Europe. The GLS had power windows, though.

@rippergeo; will do that soon!

@im_srini; yes, I know… “tuning” isn’t going to be easy with this car, at least, not engine-wise… I’m mainly looking into “stiffening” the car by installing an upper/front
strut(tower) bar & polyurethane bushes instead of the original rubber bushes.

I like the riding height, as is, so I won’t lower the car. In the Netherlands most roads are suberb! (hence the huge amount of road tax we pay here) but in France, where my wife and I like to go on vacation things are a bit… well worse… Maybe some new gas filled shocks…

As far as the engine goes… I’m aiming at a cold air intake & a new exhaust from the “catalic converter” to the back. I’m tempted by a custom manifold but I fear the catalic
converter would not like it… besides, regulations are very strict here!

I’ll probably buy a nice Sebring exhaust, those are from stainless steel & give a few extra hp’s without sounding too loud. It will probably need some flexing & welding to fit, though.

@HappyWheels, yup I got the goodies before the car, lol, my friends call me insane but hey, I work at a Mental Hospital! What’s sanity anyway :-
))


Anyway... thanks to all of you for your warm welcome! I already feel just at home here!

TDR

[ram_hyundai]

welcome buddie,i was really surprised to see our zen parked in europe.lol.why dont you performance mod your beauty.which color is the new car.start a thread after the car is delivered.good luck,
ram

[bottle]

welcome aboard lord dragon

the alto which was called zen here was the first car i started driving in an I had a lot of fun with it. your car looks like its well maintained in spite of all the miles clocked happy driving

[Dhar's]

Welcome to TBHP.
A fellow Alto fan here too. (check out my garage).

Originally Posted by TDR

Odd thing is that the Suzuki Alto's sold in Europe are Maruti cars from India,
instead of Suzuki Alto's from Japan!

Same in UAE too.

Originally Posted by TDR

Anyway, I'm planning some mayor works on the new car, already bought all of the audio stuff & some nice rims & tyres.

Check out the ICE section for car audio stuff and get 'spoiled' urself.