The Maruti 800's glorious production run of over two decades drew to a quiet end last year in April. Despite Maruti Suzuki's valiant efforts to hide the car's age by providing it with as many minor cosmetic jobs and facelifts as Simi Garewal, tightened emission norms meant the 800 would need a non-financially-viable redesign effort. And with the Alto doing such impressive work, Maruti Suzuki had the replacement labour it needed to finally end the 800's run. But when it first arrived on the scene, this little Maruti broke all sales records in the Indian market with its unique blend of efficiency, reliability and easy-to-drive USPs. The ancient Ambassadors and Fiats that the Indian consumer had
to previously put up simply with had no chance.
Although a 0-100km/h time of around 18 seconds spoke otherwise, the 800 was still a fun car. The light and direct steering sent fairly precise
inputs into the driver's hands and if the gears were worked hard enough, it would surprise you into a tiny grin in the hills. But since most of the buyers of this car were previous motorcycle
owners wanting to move up into the car segment, performance was not the issue. The
800 was the ideal city car, with its small size and highly efficient 796cc, three-cylinder
engine unit that ran an amazing 16 kpl in stop-start city traffic and hit the mid-20s on the open highway. It could be parked in small places and squeezed through
slightly-wider-than-auto-rickshaw-gaps in traffic.
Image source - www.carcabin.com
Perhaps the most major drawback of the 800 was safety. Protection stopped at seatbelts and the driver's common sense, making it a little safer than a motorcycle. Okay, that’s exaggerating matters a wee bit, but the standard brakes wouldn't provide adequate retardation too. It made a huge difference with the optional brake booster fitted, despite sales and mechanic folk annoyingly disputing this fact. The ABT Maruti staff that delivered the Rajkumar family's much-loved white example did, however, finally accept this to be true.
The 800 had only 37 horses to move its freight and thus power became an issue very quickly. With a full load and the air conditioner running, even a
slight slump in speed necessitated a gear change or two. The dash was clearly
made of the cheapest possible plastic, and amenities were as Spartan as Mallika
Sherawat’s dress sense. The build quality was nothing to write
home about either - rattles and squeaks developed rather early in the car's life.
Space was an issue because of the car's tiny dimensions, with it being able to seat four people and very little luggage. Seating five meant the rear passengers had to be really good friends… The small 12-inch wheels meant that one had to grow an extra eye for the road, because unexpected pot holes or undulations would throw the car off intended course.
Maruti’s kickstarter to Indian domination constantly reminded that you owned one of the cheapest cars in the world. That being said, here was one of the most reliable cars in the market that was fun without the modern hassles of over-assisted steering or electric window failures. The 800 did take you back to the basics, but one can’t help having a soft spot for the big-hearted small car that enabled over 2.5 million buyers realize the joy of hassle-free motoring.
