No marks for guessing that I am referring to Maruti Suzuki 800, the car that made thousands and thousands of people realize their dream of having a car...
A dream that is spun around the growing household income and family status, a dream that children have ....to be dropped to school in car where all their friends will watch them, a dream that the wife nurtures that she will go to a kitty party driving a car, a dream that parents have that one day thier son will have a car and they will be going to temple in a car, a dream of a man because the car is one of the most fundamental substantiation of one’s achievements and progress made in career and all this and more was made possible by this entry level car.
Well the bad news is that its end is just round the corner. During the 2005-2007 time span the government bodies like ARAI, SIAM and others will come up with stringent safety requirements that Maruti’s bread and butter car won’t be able to comply with and hence its demise is bound to happen.
Although the fight is still on ...Maruti-Suzuki is still playing marketing and sales gimmicks to stop the continual sales decline that 800 has seen in the last 2-3 years, marketing gimmicks in the form of price cuts, more value for money in terms of more features in lesser prices and ofcourse the tie-up with SBI for the ultimate loan scheme for penetration into rural and semi-urban areas identifying them as the next best target after urban gentry moved higher up the value chain.
But how long how far
Maruti suzuki 800’s production dies have become very old some of them more than 20 years old. There is no fun and razzmatazz in the car left to attract big, important customer segments like DINKY(double income no kids yet) or young achievers. Safety wise the car is just next to an autorickshaw (that reminds me that some autorickshaw wala’s call it the ’’4-wheeler auto’’)...as far as my knowledge goes it would have not passed the safety requirements of year 1998 in california (U.S.) ...and its high time that we indians also want better safety standards in cars in terms of a solid frame, crumble zones, ABS, airbags (both active and passive safety systems in short).
Now Maruti-Suzuki knew that one day or the other it will have to stop producing M-800 what it did was to provide with an Altonative to M-800 the next level car Alto but the company is witnessing now that whatever gains Alto is making in terms of sales growth are getting neutralized by declining sales of 800.
I must appreciate that the company did the best it could to price Alto in such a way that the entry level urban customers still have a good choice and a cheaper one than the ZEN and Santro Xing’s but kept a lot of variants starting just above M-800 in terms of price and going right up to Zen lower versions. The following diagram will show the Line Filling Strategy of Maruti-Suzuki.
Zen
Zen LXi Bharat II Non-Metallic Rs. 349490
Zen LXi Bharat II Metallic Rs. 353113
Zen Di -- Bharat II Non-Metallic Rs. 387927
Zen Di -- Bharat II Metallic Rs. 391550
Zen VXi Bharat II Non-Metallic Rs. 375376
Zen VXi Bharat II Metallic Rs. 378999
Zen LX Bharat II Non-Metallic Rs. 322786
Zen LX Bharat II Metallic Rs. 326409
Zen LX Bharat I Non-Metallic Rs. 299161
Zen LX Bharat I Metallic Rs. 302784
Zen D - Bharat II Non-Metallic Rs. 364099
Zen D - Bharat II Metallic Rs. 367722
Alto
AltoLX - Bharat II Non-Metallic Rs. 269849
AltoLX - Bharat II Metallic Rs. 273472
Alto Spin LXi--Bharat II Non-Metallic Rs. 288652
Alto Spin LXi--Bharat II Metallic Rs. 292275
Alto Bharat II Non-Metallic Rs. 234005
Alto Bharat II Metallic Rs. 237628
M-800
Maruti800 AC - Bharat I Non-Metallic Rs. 212846
Maruti800 AC - Bharat I Metallic Rs. 215495
Maruti 800 Std with AC Bh-II Non-Metallic Rs. 234748
Maruti 800 Std with AC Bh-II Metallic Rs. 237397
Maruti 800 Std - Bharat I Non-Metallic Rs. 191977
Maruti 800 Std - Bharat I Metallic Rs. 194627
Maruti 800 Std - Bharat II Non-Metallic Rs. 208902
Maruti 800 Std - Bharat II Metallic Rs. 211551
The car with the 1980s technology maybe ailing in many quarters but still it doesn’t leave maruti-Suzuki...the company is still hoping against hope. Its obituary has been written before, but the 800 has defied predictions of its demise.
But changes to the regulatory environment in India could finally mean the end of the road for the 800. But perhaps not just yet.