Maruti Suzuki Alto review - Ride and Handling |
The alto comes with McPherson Strut with torsion type roll control device in the front and Coil spring gas filled shock absorbers with three link rigid axle and isolated trailing arms at the rear. Don't worry about the jargon, it just means that the alto uses a typical suspension layout; with gas filled dampers and a three link suspension as a speciality around the rear. The alto comes shod with 145/70 R12 tyres which are now standard among zen, alto and the maruti 800. Braking is accomplished by disc brakes at the front and drum brakes at the rear.
The Alto, just like all other maruti cars is very light. It's also very small. This renders high speed stability lurking near the nervous corner. The Thin tyres don't help either. But, the alto is not designed to handle very high speeds. It is meant to take the fight to the urban potholes. The small wheels do hurt on the big crevasses, but overall once the speed is maintained around 30kph; the alto does float away from the pothole. No, you will not find the lead footed-ness of the indica xeta but the ride is not what I would call bad either. The electric power steering is a very handy aid around town but the excess of assist makes the alto feel like a toy in your hands.
Verdict
Well, the public seems to have decided that the alto is an excellent step up from the maruti 800. Why not, it looks bigger; feels relatively new and comes at almost the same price. Value for money is never a question as far as Maruti goes. This car also keeps up with all the maruti virtues like reliability, fuel efficiency and performance. All in all, a winner that looks like it won't show any slump in sales anytime soon.
But one begins to wonder if it is better to look less at tried and tested manufacturers. Space is undoubtedly a constraint on this car; and with manufacturers like tata slowly bringing in the goods at much lower prices, maruti really needs to step up the game in many areas if it must keep the sales numbers where they are.
We want to know what makes alto click, do you own one? let us know here. Watch out for a comparison test between the small car giants of the Indian market soon |
![Maruti suzuki alto exterior](javascript:openwin("largephoto.asp?imagename=alto2.jpg&imagetitle=Maruti Alto exterior"))
![Maruti suzuki alto exterior](javascript:openwin("largephoto.asp?imagename=alto3.jpg&imagetitle=Maruti Alto exterior"))
![click to enlarge](javascript:openwin("largephoto.asp?imagename=alto2.jpg&imagetitle="Maruti suzuki alto exterior")){kind=link}
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