[anjan_c2007]

The Maruti 800 SS 80 in pictures during its 37 year journey. The restoration was done by late 2020 and hence the journey though now 39 years old shows images on record till December 2020.



A collage of its journey from then to now



Mr Harpal Singh



Mr Harpal Singh and Mrs Gulshanbeer Kaur



The car with other family members







The above three pictures show the car lying in a state of neglect



Getting restored



Getting restored



Mr Shashank Srivastava, Executive Director, Maruti Suzuki with the car at the Maruti Suzuki India Ltd Hqs

[volkman10]

Maruti 800 first unit restored – Showcased at Maruti HQ

Its first owner was Mr Harpal Singh from New Delhi and the keys to this brand-new vehicle were officially handed over to him by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on 14th December 1983.

The car was reportedly in a decaying state and was almost abandoned by Singh’s family. A few pictures of the car appeared on the internet, which grabbed the attention of many enthusiasts.

The company chipped in for the restoration of the car. All original spare parts and components were restored in the car. But the family could not use it any further as the car was no more eligible to be driven on Delhi roads.

The company then decided to display the car at its headquarters as its first success story in India.

[Leoshashi]

Restored and proudly displayed at MSIL HQ:

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by Leoshashi

Restored and proudly displayed at MSIL HQ:

Attachment 2350806

Thank you Leoshashi for sharing this. Truly the most important historical car in India.

IMHO this variant, the very first one was more handsome than any of the other Maruti 800s and Alto's that followed it. For those of us who graduated from the old Padmini, Herald, Ambassador to Maruti 800 this aircraft was like a jet fighter in its acceleration, its braking, its turning, responsiveness to controls and sheer modernity. With the old cars and especially that Ambassador you had to apply real muscle power to turn, to brake. With the Maruti 800 it was all soft touch. The first few times I drove my fathers then brand new Maruti 800 in c12/1985 or 01/1986 I realized with my heart in my throat, that your touch on the accelerator and brake needed to be g-e-n-t-l-e and not old car style.

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by Leoshashi

Restored and proudly displayed at MSIL HQ:

Lovely - thanks for sharing. A truly special car indeed and so happy this has been restored. Any chance of seeing more pics of the interiors perhaps? Would love to take a peek inside as well.

Cheers

[Leoshashi]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Thank you Leoshashi for sharing this. Truly the most important historical car in India.

Originally Posted by Axe77

Lovely - thanks for sharing. A truly special car indeed and so happy this has been restored. Any chance of seeing more pics of the interiors perhaps? Would love to take a peek inside as well.

Cheers

A detailed video of the same:

https://youtu.be/95IPP0hGOXU

PS: The wrong ORVM sticks out as a sore thumb, in addition to the wrong 800 badge placed at the rear. Nevertheless, a great effort by MSIL except these few small issues.

[anshumandun]

What an iconic car!

When my uncle got one, I was blown away to see that the car had an air conditioner . I had only experienced an AC a couple of times when my dad took me with him for a few official family dinners in some fancy restaurants. It was hard to digest that a car could be air conditioned!

Later when I learnt driving, I got to know that the A/C button was also like a Boost button. You switch off the AC and the car flies

[sacrust]

The article reminded me the days my dad owned the same generation Maruti 800 which he had driven all the way from Delhi to Assam. This pic was of me in Assam with the White Diamond.

[pananth]

Still looks nice than some of our current cars..Those lines are neat and were flowing.

The rear tailgate of the car is also good (reminds me of some old Porsches)!

[skyocean]

Excellent. What an amazing piece of history ! A well deserved restoration, although the attention to details could have been way better.

This is also a grim reminder of how Maruti has been killed in India. Foreign brands enter India with partners and then take over the majority stake and have their say. If I'm not wrong Maruti logo is not there on a single car manufactured today everything is a Suzuki.
And we Indians love foreign branding don't we ? If we could have a Suzuki car branded as a Maruti and sold in India decades ago why not today. Using Maruti only for playing with Indian sentiments and getting away with "S" logo is really not honorable for a Japanese company, also besides the cosmetics it pains to see how lightly they have taken the safety standards for India just to mint money.

[anjan_c2007]

An anecdote from Kolkata:-
Meccano Techno Sales Ltd, Alipore Road, Kolkata, (now also Maruti Suzuki Arena) who were perhaps the sole dealer for Maruti in Kolkata organised a contest in 1985. School children were eligible and were told to note down and submit the registration numbers of the new Marutis sighted to the dealership at a designated address. The child who sends the maximum number of registrations would get the first prize with runners up following.

My little nephew who was in Julien Day School, Elgin Road, Kolkata, used to carry a small note pad, whenever out on a road with parents (they had an Ambassador WMA 1744), relatives like me and others. He would dutifully sight the then tiniest cars that looked frail in the company of Kolkata traffic dotted with mightier trams, buses, mini buses, Ambassadors and rarely Fiats. I don't remember him winning any prize but that was the Maruti fever of the era.

The series was WNF xxxx mostly for the metro. There could have been some Marutis in its trailing series "WNC" in its later part, but WNF had quite many Maruti SS 80's.

[dust-n-bones]

Originally Posted by skyocean

And we Indians love foreign branding don't we ? If we could have a Suzuki car branded as a Maruti and sold in India decades ago why not today. Using Maruti only for playing with Indian sentiments and getting away with "S" logo is really not honorable for a Japanese company, also besides the cosmetics it pains to see how lightly they have taken the safety standards for India just to mint money.

I hope you know Maruti Suzuki was a joint venture between Government of India (Maruti being the JV vehicle) and Suzuki Motors. Hence Maruti-Suzuki, which was a public sector company with private partnership.

In 2002, GoI decided to divest its entire stake in favour of Suzuki, which rightfully rebranded the company as Suzuki - a wholly owned subsidiary.

More details here.

As far as 'cheap' and 'flimsy' accusations go, they are part of the DNA of Maruti-Suzuki, not really something Suzuki shoved down its throat, and with good reason. Refer to this interview.

[SanSabh]

Nostalgia!
My first car was a slightly used powder blue one, 1985 model with most parts Japanese. I had it from 1987 to 1996
Good times! At the drop of a hat I'd just take off and head for the hills! With and without company
Above all, it was GREAT FUN to drive!

[Maky]

Could someone fill me in a little on this particular model of the 800, mainly regarding power output and overall build of this Vs. the later model of the 800. It had a more powerful Japanese engine I recall being told, but not by how much or any other details of the engine in specifics?

My family had one when I was very young, I remember my father telling me they sold it for more than they paid for it.

[V.Narayan]

On a lighter note. A few days before my marriage I took my maternal grandmother to my in-laws home in Greater Kailash Part II, New Delhi. She wanted to meet all the 'soon to be our relatives' on the other side and to complete a religious ceremony. Mind you my grandmother was quite a Patton tank. I was a little nervous and my wife to be was sweating out bucketfulls. And lo there in the driveway in 1985 was this white Maruti 800. My F-i-L, as per the lottery, got one of the very early deliveries. My father's delivery came some months later. All went well at the lunch. On our way back my grandmother gave me a running assessment of her take on my to be in-laws and then said in Hindi, "they seem like well-off people, they even have a Maruti 800." I told my wife to be that the Maruti 800 saved the day for you lassie.