samishka

I understood.

Since Indian Automobile Industry has come out of age (though still not upto Japanese or German standards.)each and every Indian made vehicle should not be dismissed, as was the case 10 years ago. Forget about Marutis, but in "that" thread, the way most of you commented on Indian vehicles (Read Anything Indian) made me think that you all will never ever admire a TATA vehicle. So I was surprised to find this thread made up of favorable comments on Tata Nano.

You better go through that Maruti thread to see how this Batallion scoffed at even Indian-made Hondas.

Definitely. Micro has to try really hard in improving their customer service.

All right.// Go ahead with the TATA NANO discussion, with your friends.

Re-read my previous post. I have emphasised "ANYTHING INDIAN".

It has to be Nano Vs Micro Econo/Privilege. Micro's maiden attempt (Econo/Privilege) was commendable, since it was launched 5 years earlier than Tata Nano and that too by a new comer into Auto Industry! Just like Mr. Ratan Tata's "INR 1 Lakh Car", our very own Dr. Lawrence Perera of Micro had the dream of a "LKR 3 Lakh Car". (Both the above prices are ex-factory) While Micro successfully came up with the car, it could not taste the success it deserved owing to many unforeseen obstacles that befell on the company with Govt. bureaucracy being the biggest culprit. Finally when they started accepting bookings, the ex-factory price of the car jumped to 3.95 lakhs (i.e. between 4.35-4.75 lakhs after adding 10% and 20% VAT respectively) Even at that price Sri Lankans were ready to buy that car, but then Micro had to face production capacity constraints. Remember all this happened 5 years ago. It is sad to note that although Micro has overcome most of their initial hiccups, they have discontinued that Sri Lankan equivalant of Tata Nano. Since Micro Trend is of Chinese origin, they may have used their experience in assembling the Trend to come up with their very own MICRO NEW PRIVILEGE. (The very first, truly Sri Lankan Hatchback with FF format unlike the RR format previous model) Everybody ask "When will it be launched ?" Officials at Micro are still tight-lipped about the launch date.

Glad to see those guys who used to hate "Anything Indian" at last admiring an Indian Vehicle (i.e. TATA NANO)

SEE THE VERY FIRST ANSWER IN THIS THREAD. INSTEAD OF GIVING A SENSIBLE ANSWER THAT PERSON GOES ON TO SAY "please do it so i can laugh at you". EVEN AFTER IT WAS EVIDENT THAT IT IS NOT FEASIBLE TO MODIFY A M800 INTO A TRUE PERFORMANCE CAR, THESE GUYS GO ON AND ON MAKING HARSH COMMENTS ON NOT ONLY MARUTIS BUT ANYTHING INDIAN. WHILE MOST OF THE PARTICIPANTS OF THIS FORUM, INCLUDING "EK3" HAS GIVEN MODERATE UNBIASED COMMENTS, A HANDFUL OF PARTICIPANTS DRAGGED THIS FORUM WITH ONE AFTER ANOTHER CONTINUOUSLY ARGUING WITH ME. I HAVE ALREADY STOPPED ARGUING IN THIS THREAD 2 DAYS AGO. HOWEVER I WANTED ALTO OWNER MIYURU DAMINDA TO HAVE A LOOK AT AN UNBIASED REVIEW ABOUT MARUTI ALTO. THEN THE SAME PERSON WHO LOVES TO LAUGH AT MODIFIED MARUTIS, COMES ON AND SAY "OT alert!". WHILE MIYURU HAS GOT THE PROPER ANSWER, IT WAS THE MEMBERS OF THAT PARTICULAR "MARUTI BASHING TEAM" WHO AGAIN STARTED BEATING ABOUT THE BUSH. NO POINT OF A SINGLE PERSON CONFRONTNG AROUND HALF-A-DOZEN GUYS, WHO SEEM TO BE WATCHING BBC TOP GEAR AND LEARNT THE "JEREMY CLARKSON WAY OF THINKING". FINALLY AGAIN I POINT OUT THAT WITH MAJORITY OF MARUTI OWNERS DRIVING THEIR CARS DEFENSIVELY AND ALSO WITHIN THEIR CARS' LIMITS THEY DON'T WORRY ABOUT LACK OF SOPHISTICATED SAFETY FEATURES. AGAIN I SAY THIS IS SRI LANKA, WHERE THERE ARE MANY THINGS TO DO IN IMPROVING SAFETY OF ROAD USERS, OTHER THAN MAKING COMPULSORY FOR CARS TO HAVE ADVANCED SAFETY FEATURES. REMEMBER FATAL ACCIDENTS DO NOT ALWAYS INVOLVE A MARUTI. FURTHER IT IS SAID "A competent driver is the best safety feature in any vehicle". MARUTI OWNERS INCLUDING MIYURU, BETTER KEEP OFF FROM THIS THREAD, OR YOUR SENTIMENTS WILL GET HURT. ALWAYS SEEK UN-BIASED, SENSIBLE ADVISE REGARDING YOUR CAR. I'M LEAVING THIS THREAD NOT TO RETURN, SINCE IT IS NOW UNDER STRONGHOLD OF THAT PARTICULAR "MARUTI BASHING TEAM" TO EXPRESS THEIR FEELINGS. SINCE THE TOPIC STARTER QUESTION (REGARDING M800) HAS GOT A DEFINITIVE ANSWER NO POINT OF DRAGGING FURTHER. WISHING ALL HAPPY AND SAFE MOTORING!

WHO SAID I WANTED TO CHANGE YOUR WAY OF THINKING? I WAS ONLY SAFEGUARDING SENTIMENTS OF MARUTI OWNERS (READ MARUTI ALTO), WHEN A BUNCH OF "JEREMY CLARKSON WANNA-BE'S" GOES ON A MARUTI BASHING SPREE. WITH A TEAM ATTACKING A SOLITARY PERSON,ITS EASY FOR YOU TO SAY THAT I HAVE BURIED MY HEAD IN THE SAND. ALL OF YOU TOO SEEMS TO BE DOING THE EXACT THING BY IGNORING MARUTIS' STRENGHTHS (WHICH AMOUNTS TO ROUGHLY 70%) AND EMPHASISING ON ITS WEAKNESSES (ROUGHLY 30%.) AND CALLING MARUTIS ARE 100% BAD. BY THE WAY START READING AUTOCAR INDIA INSTEAD OF AUTOCAR UK. FINALLY WHAT YOU ALL COULD PROVE IS THAT ANY TYPE OF BRAND NEW MARUTI IS NOT WORTH ITS 1 MILLION PLUS PRICE TAG. DID I SAY ANYONE TO GO ON AND BOOK A B/NEW MARUTI? NO! I JUST WANTED CURRENT MARUTI OWNERS LIKE MIYURU DAMINDA TO NOT TO LOSE THEIR FAITH ON THEIR MARUTIS.

I repeat. No need to cry over Maruti's lack of safety. This is Sri Lanka. A country where even wearing of seatbelts is not properly enforced yet.

Final verdict given! Hereafter no one needs to cry over Maruti's lack of safety.

Can't these Maruti-haters differentiate A M800 from an Alto? By the way, I wanted only Miyuru Daminda to read the Autocar India article about Maruti Alto. A stock Maruti Alto with maximum power of 47bhp is a safe car as long as it is driven within its abilities. Now it's time to close this thread or to move it to another section and rename it "The MARUTI BASHING thread". The original topic starter question is already given a definitive answer, i.e. A Maruti 800 is not worth modifying.

Don't Worry mate Refer the following link. http://www.autocarindia.com/new/RoadTestDetails.asp?ID=1050

Subaru Legacy = Drag Racers' default choice.

Nice to find a person who supports at least one of my arguments. (That is, Alto is the sensible alternative to the M800) However I have stopped arguing further since the more I support Marutis (Except M800) through this forum i maybe indirectly supporting A*W. i don't want that to happen.

You all admire those old models because newer models are prohibitively expensive to buy. And all of you seem to be loyal to Japanese Domestic Models. However what I was trying to say was that it is rude to condemn Maruti Altos, Honda Citys just for the sake they are made in India. Unlike Made in Japan vehicles, quality of Indian vehicles vary between brands. While Indian Toyotas and Hondas got the highest quality levels , cars like Ambassadors belongs to the other end. Marutis (the whole range) belong to the middle of the spectrum. Therefore when you see a rickety Ambassador or a Bajaj Trishaw don't expect every indian vehicle to fall apart like them. What I have been admiring upto now was not Indian vehicles but Indo-Japanese vehicles. Regarding 100% Indian vehicles even I also hate them. Marutis are now actually Suzukis in all but their name, since majority of Maruti-Suzuki stake is held by Suzuki Japan and headed by Japanese people. However Maruti has to discontinue the M800 which seems to be tarnishing the company's image. ek3 seems to have given up arguing for M800. No wonder when I find it difficult to argue for much better Maruti Alto. Finally I would like to stop arguing, since it is difficult to argue with a bunch of youngsters (Some of them even doesn't know that 38 sri vans are petrol) who love to hate ANYTHING indian, just like I love to hate recon vehicles. Let's keep our, sentiments to ourselves since you all and myself belong to totally different segments of car buyers.

You are spot on about how horrible is a Maruti 800. However when it comes to Maruti Alto It's a different story. What Alto has got, but M800 lack are 1) Collapsible Steering Column 2) Servo brakes.

It is my personal opinion. Might be after seeing one of my uncles having trouble with his 38 sri recon Delica while my father's 13 sri B/new Lancer ran trouble free. (Both of them were 1st owners)

I am not against Japanese vehicles. What I hate is Reconditioned Vehicles. I accept the fact that Indian vehicles lack the feel-good factor of their Japanese counterparts. I used to drive my father's 13 Sri Lancer C12. When it was time for me to buy a car all brand new Japanese cars were beyond my budget of 1.5 Million. (The cheapest brand new Japanese car those days was the Basic version of Daihatsu Charade at 1.8 million) Finally I settled for a Maruti Wagon R. It is sad that we don't get a brand new Japanese Wagon R in Sri Lanka. Otherwise I would have definitely have stretched my budget and buy one. It is even more versatile than the Indian one. Since Suzuki has moved its (export market) small car manufacturing base to India and they still turn out Second Generation Wagon Rs while in Japan they make the Fourth Gen. Wagon R.

True.

Gone are the days of humble Subaru M80s. Nowadays Subarus are tech-laden and positioned as up-market vehicles.

The Honda City is made in India by Honda SIEL Cars Ltd. ( A JV between Honda Japan and Shriram India)