If you’re looking for a mode of locomotion that can take you from point A to point B at comparatively low cost, well, you might want to take a look at the Alto LX. Then again, you might want to take a look at a bullock cart, too!
Apart from its better fit and finish vis-a-vis the 800, there’s little that one can say for it.
Against it? Well, there’s enough to fill its entire user’s manual. For starters (or non-starters) is the underpowered engine that ekes out just about enough power to get it moving: remember, it’s the same engine that made the 5-speed 800 such a brilliant drive. Well, the extra 200 kilos or so and the changed gear ratios have all but turned the nifty 3-pot job into a foot-dragging laggard. Maruti is selling these lemons for want of a better alternative since the 4-speed 800 currently available is even more underpowered.
The effect is that for all its great and improved airconditioning, there’s little power left to move the car. So you can either drive or switch on the AC. Ok, am exaggerating a bit here, but try overtaking a 10-axle tractor trailer on a 2-way highway with oncoming trucks inviting you to a game of rugby by playing ball. In an Alto LX if you’re standing on the gas pedal even in 4th with the AC on, chances are you’ll go for a toss.
Even with power steering (convenient in its own right), there isn’t much point since it will make it easier to get in and out of corners and tight parking slots. And the Alto shouldn’t leave a parking slot in any event. In fact, it shouldn’t have left Maruti’s factory in the first place!
Forget highways, even in city traffic it’s not much fun driving forever in the first or second gears, since the engine stalls in the 3rd if you so much as slip a notch below 35 and in 4th below 45. The result is frequent gear-shifts that makes the drive all the more exasperating.
The upshot: don’t go for it unless you’re upgrading from a fiat (the padmini, I mean). The cramped interiors are par for the course, since that’s obvious when you check it out first.