[Viswam]

Great Review and excellent photos!

As stated by someone, i cant say the same about the car, which i feel gives me mixed signals. Having owned the clean-lined Alto LXi for 4 years until graduating to Ertiga recently, i should concede i continue to like the old Lxi exterior. May be, with time, i will get to like the new look Alto800 with its meaner looks and all that.

Didn't think MSIL will go to such levels in their pursuit for austerity/VFM which is evident in many areas, mainly the wafer thin seat cushion and the ultra thin and tiny tyres. The slightly high stance and the shortened length also does not give a well-rounded feeling. The optional airbag is a surprise positive. But this does not give a feeling of a end-product which was in the design board for 4 long years! However, I am sure this will be another hit from the Maruti stables with spectacular sales figures. About time, MSIL decided to prune the long list of Alto variants available in the market and bet bigger on select models.

[byomjeet]

Though the interior seems to be well appointed, nice designed; the exterior may not appeal many. Maruti Suziki should have given a little thought about the present day trends. Nevertheless, the car is going to grab the market. This will prove to be a very practical city car.

All the best wishes to the competitors.

[manij]

Great, detailed review. Congrats! and Thank You Very Much!

I did also go to view the new car and my quick feedback:
1) I like the headlamp with the new turn indicators, and the new character lines.
2) From the inside feels very much like my M800 with all the exposed screws and similar looking fittings - actually the comment from my family was that the back seat of my M800 was much better than this (the M800 also has 60/40 split seats at the rear).
3) In light blue which was the color of the display car at Pratham Motors/Bangalore, the car is not appealing. Red looks much better.
4) Will probably need to fit in the extra rear bumper guard/bull bar to prevent damage to the rear considering low rear bumper overhang. Good business potential here, I guess.
5) I really don't feel like replacing my current M800 with this, wondering about those huge number of bookings and if they were mostly first time car buyers or if there are replacement purchases there. This is for my second car, and I am really not looking at anything beyond this segment, primary reasons being convenience for parking, low turning radius, and low maintenance costs like I currently have on my M800 5S car. (My other car, the Xylo is somewhat of an elephant when it comes to difficulty while parking in narrow spaces and turning radius, though it is quite good on the maintenance costs front). I will now hang on to my M800 for some more time, I guess.

[S_U_N]

Excellent review.
I would not be disappointed with the package at the price.
I am however surprised that there are just over 60 replies on the fourth day. The Quanto thread had clocked 60 replies in a little over 24 hours.
Has the community interest level for the car gone down?

[Harshal.Bhosale]

Originally Posted by S_U_N

Has the community interest level for the car gone down?

Well, lets just say had the new Alto come with the K10 engine, it sure would have been much-loved on this forum. As it stands now, I like to believe that Team-BHP does not represent the general masses as far as economy-class vehicles are concerned; it represents us petrolheads who LIVE TO DRIVE!

Disclaimer: Just a personal opinion, no offense meant to anyone.

[Viswam]

Originally Posted by S_U_N

Has the community interest level for the car gone down?

Originally Posted by Harshal.Bhosale

Well, lets just say had the new Alto come with the K10 engine, it sure would have been much-loved on this forum. As it stands now, I like to believe that Team-BHP does not represent the general masses as far as economy-class vehicles are concerned; it represents us petrolheads who LIVE TO DRIVE!

Disclaimer: Just a personal opinion, no offense meant to anyone.

Yes. In spite of this segment being not interesting to most of forum members, i still feel the interest level sure has gone down, may be because there is no single big ticket USP.

To put things in perspective, it is to be noted that Eon review clocked 100 posts in the same 4 days! May be because Eon as a product was far more interesting. And then, there is this GTO effect

[SDP]

Originally Posted by S_U_N

Excellent review.
I would not be disappointed with the package at the price.
I am however surprised that there are just over 60 replies on the fourth day. The Quanto thread had clocked 60 replies in a little over 24 hours.
Has the community interest level for the car gone down?

Originally Posted by Harshal.Bhosale

Well, lets just say had the new Alto come with the K10 engine, it sure would have been much-loved on this forum. As it stands now, I like to believe that Team-BHP does not represent the general masses as far as economy-class vehicles are concerned; it represents us petrolheads who LIVE TO DRIVE!
....

Very good observation S_U_N and a very valid response by Harshal!

Even I do believe that most of the active TBHPians are the ones who dream of owning & driving better & powerful machines. Entry-level hatches like this one - although tremendously important for the broader Indian auto market - are hardly the 'aspirational' vehicles for most TBHPians. And that, I believe gets reflected in the overall activity level on the thread.

Alto K10 - although bareboned - was a slightly different story with its power to weight ratio and what it meant to BHPians who love to discuss 0-100 times of various vehicles.

On a separate note, if you look at the monthly sales analysis, out of every 100 vehicles sold nowadays, only 55 are hatches and if we further disect that to entry-level hatches, that number is even lower (~20). May be, we as a developing nation are shifting to bigger and more feature-rich vehicles.

[Harshal.Bhosale]

Originally Posted by SDP

Alto K10 - although bareboned - was a slightly different story with its power to weight ratio and what it meant to BHPians who love to discuss 0-100 times of various vehicles.

Agree:
The K10 is the best pocket rocket I've ever experienced, it sure makes for an affordable thrilling experience.

Originally Posted by SDP

May be, we as a developing nation are shfiting to bigger and more feature-rich vehicles.

Sounds like good news. Bring it on! (What's the source for these stats bdw?)

[download2live]

Oh my God !!!!
What they did to the old M800?
This one is ugly. Looks like Toyota design team gave some tips to Maruti guys.
I love the clean straight lines of the older version.

[anu21v]

Originally Posted by download2live

Oh my God !!!!
What they did to the old M800?
This one is ugly. Looks like Toyota design team gave some tips to Maruti guys.
I love the clean straight lines of the older version.

"What they did to the old M800?", So what you are insinuating is forget Alto the new one is not good even if compared with 800.. waaqh waah

[subratasenn]

Originally Posted by download2live

Oh my God !!!!
What they did to the old M800?
This one is ugly. Looks like Toyota design team gave some tips to Maruti guys.
I love the clean straight lines of the older version.

I have a different take on this. May sound weird though, but I think I have a logic.

We grew up on cars designed in the West. Now, what is the definition "good looking" there? Big, round eyes, a properly defined nose. That's how Anglo-saxons look. So, most of the cars had round headlights and had noses.

Now what happens when Japs and Chinese start dominating the car market? Their sense of "good looking" can't be the anglo-saxon way. They'll prefer the mongoloid look perhaps? So the cars slowly transformed themselves into "chinkys". Maruti can't be an exception, right?

How do you think my theory is?

[aravind.anand]

At first I never liked the design and kept complaining. Later I started convincing myself that this car would anyway sell, as this was a Suzuki. Later when the prices were announced, I stopped complaining and grumbling. After reading this review, I am ready to seeing this car on roads, though I completely hate its looks. Like it or not, we would have to see this cars (loads of them) on our daily commute from now on.

[SDP]

Originally Posted by Harshal.Bhosale

...Sounds like good news. Bring it on! (What's the source for these stats bdw?)

I hope you are not missing the monthly sales analysis thread on TBHP.
Here's a link to the latest one:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...s-figures.html

Gives some good insights. e.g. for every 2 families buying sedans, there are 2 families buying a MUV and one family opting for a SUV.

[KkVaidya]

I just drove my friend's new Alto 800 few days back:

- The seats are disappointing compared to the ones that came with head-rest (pre 2012). The have been made too short for increasing the legroom and to make the car look roomier
- The suspension gets my five stars. Really soaks all the irregularities

- As discussed in the previous quotes, the power window switches are not positioned on the doors and worse still ; they are nor illuminated so you have to fumble at night

- I could not know the reason why MSIL has given a texture finish paint to the bumpers

- The F8D is at its best now - They have squeezed it to the fullest!

[romeomidhun]

Originally Posted by Viswam

And then, there is this GTO effect

Yes, GTO is to Team-BHP, is what Maruti is to car industry!

Source: http://www.gaadi.com/blog/maruti-alt...gine-next-year

"development of the Alto 800 K10 is well underway which means the more powerful variant of this new small car will be in India around mid of next year."

I expect the new comer "Alto1000" to come with bigger tyres, blackened B-pillars and better equipment levels to replace both Estilo and Alto K10.