A Dream Come True.. Review on Maruti Suzuki 800

I still remember that day when me, my bro, his wife and my cool nephew were going to CP(Delhi) in our old worn out **Padmini Premier 118 NE(Cherry) **and we stopped at Noida roundabout – which was now a crossing and that ancient kool looking circle is gone. The moment lights turned green a couple of Maruti 800’s whoosh past us and my bro was still paddling it hard to run, only after a couple of KMS we did managed to over take them as he usually loved driving fast, touchwood we never met an accident till he kept sitting on the drivers seat. My nephew than was hardly in class 2nd asked him **“Papa, why do all these guys keep on over taking us on the red light? Is our car khatara?(Obsolete)”*

Oops, what a mistake that child had done that day unknowingly, it almost cost us all the savings my bro had done for the second floor he was planning to build. It hurt his ego very badly and he being one of those guys who can do anything under the sun for their children – whatever cost it may require.

*Next day morning **I saw him gone past me in the office telling me that he will be back by evening and I was ordered to collect some 8 – 10 good old classic songs cassettes and pack the bags as we were going out for a long drive, I had no clue why and how and where?

Anyways we packed our bags and waited – as there were no mobiles at that time, he came back around 5 O clock in the evening – driving a brand new Maruti 800 DX. I can never ever forget those bright shining eyes and that 800 watt smile he had on his face when we really smiled and jumped and touched the car as if it was a new born baby and needed some cuddling and koochi kooiing from our side. He was fat and used to sweat hard. He took the than top model available which was a deluxe one with AC.

*We were all proud and happy **ear to ear with flashing smiles, had a quick puja and set out on our drive to Simla overnight. The kid was happy that his dad was overtaking almost all the cars on the highway and bro was always looking towards him whenever he overtook the cars, trucks, buses and all and - took special care that he didn’t go overboard on speed. Controls were good and even on the top speed it didn't made us passengers feel anything inside.

Now whatever power they have given to this small car was more than enough to carry our small family of 4 to places, mileage was not at all an issue – although he never bothered to check, but it gave us more than 20 on the highways with his driving and close to 16-17 on the city roads.

Power wise it was good, easily clocked 100 KMPH in no time at all. Almost with 37 horses pulling the load they have put in the car, I was surprised by the cars pick up and the sound it will make once we really race it ahead on the red lights. While he drove it with ease but I had issues of pulling up the car once he was on the passenger side, I found that car was dragging once he was in and without him I used to feel as if it was flying. May be he was too heavy.

Never felt a need to have a power steering in such a small car, but the shocks were good as I remember I used to always forget that there were some speed breakers on the road and we almost jumped so many of them, car did landed with a thud but we never broke off anything anytime yeah he always complained that the alignment must have gone out after all those high jumps.

Surprisingly the brakes were better than our oldie as it had front Disk and rear drum brakes. In the history of my driving – I never got an opportunity to skid or scramble both – but with this new baby – I did some skidding to show off friends – I loved that screeching sound – thanks to the disk brakes and did some scrambling too – thanks to the nice pick up. At that time it always felt as if **I am driving a Ferrari **cause of its pick up when almost all of my friends had either bajaj or a hero Honda to their credit. Mine was still a Car.

AC was not at all efficient as I could see him sweating profusely even after turning both the AC ducts towards his face and this was one point where we used to miss our good old NE as her AC was a lot better than Maruti, getting inside the car too was an issue for him – as he was maintaining his huge pot belly throughout the last 20 years, the moment he will sit on the drivers seat, the car will tilt to the right side and he will instruct us to sit on the extreme left side of the car, me, my sis in law and the little angel Ankur. Stereo which we got fitted was good enough to play the cool songs. And the dash board glove compartment was quite ok to hold 10 – 12 odd cassettes and the car documents.

It came with normal tyres but with my friends help we got them all replaced with Radials(200/- each) right than and believe me it looked so kool to park with its front towards the road and the steering on extreme right, when the front right tyre will be out and will be showing its width, at that time it was a rage but now every other car comes with a radial.

Boot of the car is just about OK to hold a normal family size suitcase – we always used to put in the suitcase first than close the boot door and rest of the hand bags and air bags we will stuff from inside - that ways you can make the full utilization of the space and later we will beat up the luggage so that bro can still see the little bit of traffic on his cabin mirror.

Fuel tank capacity was 28 liters and maruti has still maintained the same capacity tanks for their all 800 models as they know it gives good mileage hence you don’t need to carry so much of weight around.

Easy to drive and maneuver in the congested city road, parking it was a kids game – as after learning driving on a padmini premier that too on a wider one – this was like left hand task for me.

*Maintenance **wise it was a clear winner – we spent nothing in the initial couple of years – apart from the regular service and a little things I used to break but that will be inside the bracket of a 1000/- per service including Engine, Oil Filter, Washing, Vacuuming etc.

One of my close friends happened to be a spare parts dealer in the city and I was glad to know that almost all the parts of the maruti were so damn cheap and easily available. With so many authorized service centers in almost every city. We had no issues in driving it down to any part of the country. We almost visited Simla, Mussorrie, Nainital, Chandigarh, Amritsar etc in it and never faced any breakdown or any issues at all.

It gave us no trouble till it lasted with us, as the time passed the baby grew up and his demands too kept growing with time(wait a little for the sequel).

To this day it still remains a perfect companion for so many middle class Indians who dream of upgrading from scooters and bikes, this comes as the first dream. Hats off to Sanjay Gandhi and Maruti to come up with a dream come true car for us.

*Ratings and Comments are more than welcome.*