Supra_Natural

You may want to use your own brains and watch your language a bit.... the general consensus among people who have gone there is that 750 is too high for ten minutes of usage... 500 bucks is an ok figure but you need to remember its only for ten minutes, if you are unfortunate to get stuck behind a slow driver, you cant get your money's worth. Would have been better if they had done what the old place did and set a price for a number of laps in a way.

Just to clarify, nobody has accused you of posting under any other name mate, like i said in my previous post, it was merely your bad luck that you posted your experiences shortly after that particular thread. The person i am referring to operated under the handle of "Ek3"...

Oh shite, wrong category.... Peri can you do the needful please? Sorry.. Also, Maruti owners please feel free to use this thread to discuss anything you want to... and all you other guys please leave them be, we've had our fun lets move on eh? Cheers all! S_N

I'm feeling a bit guilty about posting so much OT stuff in the last two threads about the Alto, so I thought i'd open this up. Shortly after Maruti Thread War 1 started, one of our members, namely milindu who has a couple of Altos in his fleet, got sick of me and a few others placing altos in the same level as the M800 and decided to shut us up by taking us for a spin in one. My expectations were very low but I came away pleasantly surprised, so in the interests of fairness I figured I'd post up what I thought. first and foremost, It feels like a much better put together car than the old 800, I suppose thats the near two decade differences in the design age that shows through. The interior obviously felt plasticky and low-rent. Fair enough, it IS an economy car but the strange thing is that I had been in jap Alto previously and that had a much more pleasant interior with nicer plastics and fabrics. That was my impression anyway, It may or may not be the actual case. Regarding space, it could fit four people reasonably ok, but since I generally adopt a very laid back driving position with the seat pushed far back, I found that the person behind me (who was about my height, 5 feet 9ish) had no room to put his legs comfortably. Front passenger seats were comfortable though. Boot space was tiny, enough for maybe one med sized suitcase. Now, Driving. The steering scared the hell out of me at first because it had no resistance or feel whatsoever! Honestly it felt as though it were not connected to anything at all! once you get past this however it is actually quite accurate and you can place the car on the road reasonably well. The engine was an amusing little buzz-box, wasnt expecting anything at all from it but it surprised us with it's eagerness to rev and when given it's head it could work the car up to a decent pace, even with three blokes on board. Ride comfort also coped quite well with colombo roads, but naturally the handling wasnt all that great.... did an okay job at keeping up with the traffic and doing all the city car stuff though so it fulfills it's pupose well. Brakes were disappointing, had to stand on them to get response and they felt quite unsteady, might have been an issue with that particular example of course, but it felt like an ingrained issue rather than an individual one. Also despite it feeling considerably more solid than an 800 it did give off a distinct feeling of vulnerability, esp when in between buses and such. On the whole, came away pleasantly surprised, it was actually a decent little car for city buzzing and had a peppy little motor as well. Of course to actually be able to get anywhere quickly you have to rev the cojones off it, which naturally puts a dent in those near mythical fuel figures. And switching the aircon off seemed to double the available acceleration! Overall then, if what you want is a brand new city car to get from A to B then it's an ok buy. However if you need to carry more than two normal sized people comfortably over a distance or indeed, will be driving any considerable distance on a regular basis, I respectfully suggest looking towards the pre-owned japanese alternatives. Find a well kept example of an AE100 or an FB14 and you will probably have a more enjoyable all round experience altogether.

You post about hair splitting just after one of the most split hair sentences i've ever seen in my life... That is indeed interesting. I could dissect this reply line by line because there is so much that calls for a response but instead i'll be brief (ish) Point 1: The reason certain members started lobbing accusations of cheap marketing at people who praised Marutis was because a certain individual who shall remain nameless did exactly that... attempt a cheap marketing trick. Said member has suddenly vanished from the site shortly after it became clear that his attempt has failed. (another school of thought says he is very much active under a different user name... but I digress). It was unfortunately Thusi's bad luck that he decided to put up a thread sharing his positive experiences with a maruti immediately after that flame war. Point 2: While it is true that certain members may have misunderstood the concept of civilized debate when responding to thusi (and I make no excuses for them, that was indeed out of line), the whole issue would have been averted if yourself and the other so called Maruti "Fan Men" didnt throw fuel on the fire by jumping up and down responding to EVERY SINGLE post, even the plainly idiotic ones. Sometimes it really does pay to turn the other cheek. Point 3: On the definition of Enthusiast. Anybody who read my posts on that matter with an ounce of common sense instead of "raised blood pressure" will realize that at no point did I even SUGGEST that anyone was not welcome on autolanka. What I did say was that a large proportion of the members who are regularly active are infact car enthusiasts and as such that cars whose sole purpose in life is to get from A to B, whose makers wouldnt know the concepts of "Soul" or "Character" or "Driving Pleasure" even if they ran headlong into them, will naturally be viewed with a certain degree of disdain simply because we know that there are far more interesting choices around for the same money. So there was no need to get all touchy about that in the first place. In conclusion. Autolanka is and always has been a site for everybody, Those of us who hang around here regularly take pride in the fact that we help each other (and anybody else who asks) out as best we can and have formed into our own little community. Differing opinions exist but somehow we manage to shake down together and co-exist (mostly anyway). The thing is people around here have learned that there are always going to be others who have views that are sometimes the complete opposite of what you may have. Therefore when someone with a "my way or the highway" attitude comes along we tend to have a little fun with them. No harm is intended and we certainly don't want people to leave the site because of a silly disagreement. Nonetheless if you want to do that it's your lookout mate, what with your blood pressure and all, but please dont lob false accusations of being "ganged up on". You just managed to infuriate a lot of people at once with your style of replying So much for being brief.... Cheers!

Thanks man , hehe just one of those things you pick up randomly i guess machan, the viewt is essentially a Nissan MArch that has had a front and rear end grafted on to look like the Jag Mk2. Another one of them crazy jap ideas! I knew it cos there are a couple around in SL and my best friend's neighbor has one too, so i've seen it around. Made me right confused the first time i saw it! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsuoka_Viewt I declare the floor open. if nobody posts i'll put something up but too lazy to do the needful at the moment....

Very devious indeed... my first guess was the mk2 jag Im guessing Mitsuoka Viewt?

Yes that's quite clear, what I pointed out was that there was really no need to do so. MasterDon made a very legitimate inquiry about samishka's driving habits, so there was no call for him to get hot under the collar. The whole point of a forum is civilized debate after all. I do agree with you that we should stop dragging this on though. I said the same thing about three posts into the thread, but I appear to have distinctly NOT practiced what i preached! Shall remedy this immediately, this has become rather repetitive now anyway... That old "Irresistible force meets an Immoveable object" concept comes to mind

Really my friend, there is no need to shout... (typing in large size, bold letters and/or block capitals is considered shouting when online btw) I'm sure everyone can see and comprehend what you're trying to say.

You mean the Suzuki Kei right? that's the little car that looks like a smaller version of the previous generation swift isnt it? Well it's a smart looking little thing IMO, but it is rather tiny so space inside for four or five people will likely be somewhat restricted. It generally comes with a 660 cc engine as per japan's "kei" regulations if im not mistaken which means it should be quite economical although I suppose going upcountry with a full load might present some issues. Have not much idea about the parts availablity though, I suppose the engine bits must be interchangeable with the Suzuki Every buddy vans, but bodywork and such might be a little tough to source in case of accidents and such. Not seen too many on the roads either. Any particular reason you're looking at this specific vehicle? what are your requirements and what is your budget like? maybe if you post them up we will be able to help you with some possible alternatives too.

Oh really? I figured it must have been one of those american ford crossover thingies... what is it really then? a Geely?

Ahem, several people including myself, Gfx, Ripper and a few others who have driven Marutis pointed out on the previous thread that the Maruti has terrible brakes. That was part of the whole "Lack of safety" aspect that we were talking about. Also pointed out that I have driven an alto and found it a decent little thing, except for the brakes, which I felt could have had more power.

Where has it been said that you need to OWN a car (of any kind) to be an enthusiast? you seem to have some issues with comprehension my friend, in spite of your impressive vocabulary... The point at issue is what exactly defines car enthusiasm, and as I said earlier among the slightly eccentric group known as Enthusiasts, cars whose sole purpose in life is to provide transportation from A to B and do nothing else tend to get a bit of negativity. Mostly because there are plenty of cars out there which do provide basic transportation at low cost but also somehow manage to provide entertainment while doing it.

any hints? btw, i think it was a generally accepted rule of the trivia thread that at least one example of the vehicle in question should be on SL roads, just to make it a little easier for everyone. Im thinking maybe a Ford of some kind?

My My, don't we know some big words!! Unfortunately though the misinterpretation of the term Enthusiast appears to be something You've gone an done mate. Correct me if I'm wrong (and I could be of course, considering that I don't know half as many big words as you do!) but nevertheless the generally held definition of an ENTHUSIAST is someone who has passion for something. By that definition a CAR enthusiast would be someone who is passionate about cars don't you think? So as I pointed out earlier, such people generally tend to look upon cars whose sole purpose in life is providing cheap transport and forget about anything else with a certain amount of disdain. And I'm sorry, even if you stand on your head and shout about it, there is no getting away from the fact that NOTHING Maruti currently makes is either fun to drive, or has even an ounce of that elusive quality that stirs emotions, Character. And in case you were saying that is merely a by-product of the cars being cheap, I'd like to point out that there have been plenty of cheap cars that have loads of that "Xfactor", cars like the Mini, the VW beetle, the Morris Minor even! Regardless, everybody is entitled to their own opinion, and as I have already pointed out before, If you would only stop shoving your oar in every time somebody mentions even a slight negative about something produced by Maruti, then this discussion would have stopped quite some time ago. Still, at least it's providing all and sundry with endless entertainment!

You can call it whatever you feel like mate, there are no wrong answers here!

This is indeed great news, was a regular visitor to the old place at excel world when it was operational and covered lotsa laps there! The pricing does seem slightly ridiculous though, I do hope they'll make it more affordable as time goes by. Its interesting in a way though because this format means you are obliged to see how quickly you can drive to make the most of your ten minutes!

Mitsubishi Mirage perhaps? or maybe a Mitsubishi Towny?

I have to ask, why do you feel the need to shove your 2c in after EVERY SINGLE REPLY on a Maruti thread? do you actively want to stoke up the argument? or do you simply like drawing attention to yourself? what does that post even mean anyway?

Sigh, there you go again, completely missing the point. try rereading my post slowly and carefully one more time and see if you may have missed something there too please. Might help.

Greetings, well the L touring is a pretty solid car and it looks like you've got some experience with toyota wagons to start off with, so what sort of assistance do you need mate? ask and you shall receive

Oh for the love of god, ENOUGH OF THIS ALREADY! you made your point, YOU bought a maruti and nothing has gone wrong with it so good for you mate!! In case you havent noticed, this is primarily a forum for car Enthusiasts, and therefore cars whose primary purpose in life is simply to provide transport and nothing else, essentially cars that are interchangeable with domestic appliances, are ALWAYS going to recieve a bit of contempt, because thats how it IS! Also, as I pointed out earlier, Marutis arent the first cars members have been errm... unkind about. The Toyota Corolla was a favourite target not too long ago, but NOBODY BOTHERED... the corolla owners chuckled to themselves, we all had a good laugh, and we moved on... end of story. Here on the other hand, Maruti fanboys (im sorry, maruti fan-MEN) consider it nothing less than their DUTY to jump in and start mouthing off the moment their beloved chapathis are criticized even slightly... whats up with that? Hmm hang on, didn't someone mention an inferiority complex somewhere? Also, the reason members make snide remarks about working for A_M_W is because certain people not too long ago made several posts that were really poorly disguised marketing attempts for marutis, those same people have now gone silent incidentally, but nonetheless whenever there is a passionate outburst of maruti championing, people tend to wonder a bit after the effects of that. In conclusion, If you've bought a maruti and it serves you well, good on you mate. Some of us on this forum however will continue to believe that there are wiser ways you could have spent that (quite large nowadays) amount of money (which by the way is a FACT not just an opinion), and no matter how much you quote spec sheets, post links to indian websites or type till you've got sore fingers, we will continue to maintain that, just like you continue to maintain that you have a superb car. Also there will be instances where said superb car WILL be criticized, and if you decide to wade in guns blazing and colors flying to defend the honor of your pappadam, be aware that you will face a large amount of adverse opinion yourself, thats just the way it works. If you didnt rise to the bait yourself, there wouldnt be anyone arguing with you, it DOES take two hands to clap after all! So do us all a favour and the next time you feel obligated to charge in to defend your maruti from the "superior car drivers", just........DONT.

No no, you drive a SPRINTER! there is a difference!! Couldnt agree more though, We've seen a decrease in the Toyota bashing as of late, but even when the discussion was at it's highest level, no Ccorolla owners made this much of a racket extolling the virtues of their rides. Maruti fanboys appear to be almost as bad as English Football supporters in their vehemence! I'll say this much though, as a city hop about, the alto is ok.... if driven foot down its quite peppy as well, although naturally that sorta driving (which to be honest you do need if you ever want to get anywhere in this lifetime) wont give you the magical fuel figures claimed here. As to Corollas, I really need to change my signature now.... that was a Jeremy Clarkson quote that I found amusing at the time, but I've been in and driven several corollas and honestly have respect for them as sensible trouble free transportation, especially the 121's. I probably would not buy a corolla as my first choice, but neither will i complain much if circumstances dictated that I had to drive one. If it was a maruti on the other hand, especially if i had to do the sort of trips my work sometimes requires... I'd rather go down to pettah and hop on an Intercity bus.

you can def pick up a top condition E30 in that kind of range... go for a 89-91 car that has full service history and you'll be sorted. E36's will be a bit higher, generally they go from about 1.3 upwards but in the current market you should be able to pick up a decent deal.

a 2500cc twin turbo legacy? there was no such thing at least not that early in the legacy's life... the only twin turbo legacys have the EJ20 (2.0 Liter) motor, same one as found in the impreza, only it has twin turbos instead of a single turbo. What was the number of the car do you remember?