My 4 Years Trusted Companion: My Maruti 800 Review (Now Sold)

[PaulRocks]

Hi All,

I just want to share my buying and ownership experience of my first owing car a lovely Maruti 800.

Story:

The story started when I wanted to buy a car in my current city Bangalore. My previous experienced with car was my father's HM Ambassador Matador diesel vehicle and learnt driving in that. I had both good and bad experience with that old school car, finally he sold it out for a throw away price and bought Santro during 2006.

As a three member small family, my first consideration was Maruti but was not sure which model and variant and my budget was also very less and wanted to have a reliable and pocket friendly car. And I don't want to spend more money after buying a less priced car like Palio,Ikon etc. I was aware of horrific stories of my friends and such cars are very difficult to maintain if we are not getting a trusted mechanic. The hunting was started somewhere in beginning of 2010 and was looking into various ad sites and news papers.I wanted to buy from the direct owner and spare sometime for searching to avoid true value/any other dealer prices were high. My main sources were online ads and free ads news paper. After researching a couple of weeks, I have realized that Maruti 800 or Santro is be best fit for my use and budget and finalized the targeted car. My father is having a Santro in my native and he used to get ridiculous bills after the service and hence I ruled out Hyundai from my list. I have concluded the below facts from my Maruti 800 hunting experience.

• 
  Used car market in prices in Bangalore is very high and owners expected price are very high even for a poorly maintained car.

• 
  Most of the M800 cars are abused or done more than 1L and very difficult to find out a genuine car with low mileage within my budget (<1.25L,<5 year old,<50K mileage).

• 
  If we found a new add in online sites / news papers, if we are late to contact the seller, outside dealers might have already closed the deal. Not sure this much genuine demand is there for this segment (A) second sale cars.

I saw a couple of cars and didn't like any of, either it's poorly maintained or I feel something fishy about the car while inspection.

One fine day, I have seen an ad in sulekha about a red color M800 AC, only 28,000 ran, first owner and mentioned that it's well maintained. I just called the owner was a lady and said she's out of station and will be coming on next Saturday to Bangalore and I have noted down her address.

I was eagerly waiting for next Saturday, since I have previous experience that if we are late then someone would have already closed the deal. So I prepared to start in the morning itself, started at 6 am and reached at her place by 6.45 am. I saw the car and it's excellently maintained and the owner said it's her first car and feels like she's emotionally attached. When I was inspecting the car she got other calls from other dealers asking her land mark. Since I was the first one reached, perhaps I was the first buyer looking into. This is her personal car, she's selling it as she's going abroad and they have one SUV and Sedan in her family. I liked the car in a short test drive, felt it as very genuine seller and finally settled it within 30 mins . I crossed my figures and didn't take the car to any mechanic / ASS and the inspection was done by myself. No gimmicks, the car is very basic and there's no extra accessories or ICE to worry about when you give it for service . Here are the details.

Model: Maruti 800 AC, Single owner
Year :2005
Mileage: 28,000 KM
Color : Cherry Red
Insurance : Recently renewed
Registration : Karnataka
Battery : 2 years old
Service history : Full (from Solar)
All four tires were good for another 15/20 KM (as of my usage)
Asking price: 1.25L, finally settled for 1.2L

I was always doubted with the price was little high that time but I was in a hurry to get the deal done. The ownership of this car is a very pleasant experience and it never troubled me and the MASS provided excellent service. I used to service from Aryan Motors at Banasawadi was excellent. During 4 years of ownership, once it was failed the fuel gauge and replaced it in the next routine service, every service charge costed my between 1700 to 3000, depend on whether to change engine oil, other rubber bushes, filter etc. The battery she replaced was local made, became kaput during 2012 and it was replaced with Amaron Go costed me 3,300 in exchange with the old one.

Pros:

• 
  Good in handling, I was very confident in M800 than my current Zen Estilo while driving in traffic and narrow lanes or crowded areas

• 
  Very fuel efficient.

• 
  Cheap to maintain

Cons

• 
  Pathetic brakes

• 
  Power drain when A/c is switched on

• 
  Getting tired while travelling to long distance.

• 
  AC is not effective during summer noon

In 4 years of ownership, I haven't done any long distance travel except to the nearest places like Mysore and I completed only 12000 KM during the 4 years of ownership !! I am tall and suffering from back pain and felt difficult while ingress and egress from the car, it's advised to use any tall boy type cars and finally sold it out early 2014. But I was very much happy with the car and still missing it!!

 

[kannan]

Maruti 800 was a solid vehicle.
The one which we could buy with our eyes closed. I too remember the golden days i had with my 800. I'm sure that many members will agree with me.
Sad that the legend was phased out.
MUL should have fitted a new engine (with current emission norms) and kept the vehicle running.
Glad to see that you have sweet memories of the car.
I literally cried when the service people came to take away the car (True Value).
May be because, I've never seen her like that, like she was bidding adieu to me. I'll never forget those headlamps, seems like big eyes they were focused on me.
I couldn't do anything, just stand there and stare in to the void.

 

[incarnation]

its a fact that most of the people had this car as their first car after they learnt driving. so definitely we all will have sweet and sour experiences with it. that being said. it was and is a car which appealed to the masses when it was released for its ease of maintenance, heavy mileage, less niggles and go anywhere car. even today many of us have it as a spare car. i had purchased it second hand hand from kapildev's coach in Chandigarh. it was a navy blue colour car with Ac it sure was one heck of a car.however it wasn't my dream car. nice memories though. you just took me back in time.