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I own 2 Maruti vehicles. One more strength that is not highlighted in the article is the large service center base they have around the country. I drive 60 km

I own 2 Maruti vehicles. One more strength that is not highlighted in the article is the large service center base they have around the country. I drive 60 km a day total, and have been doing so for past 12 years, commuting to work. I keep meticulous record of my costs,and the average maintenance for the car comes to around .55 Rupees per km. Less than 1 US cent. Their cars have a reputation of being reliable and their spares are cheap. Truly a remarkable success story in India.

tsjq 6y ago
In the maintenance cost list, are you accounting for battery replacement, tyres, engine oil, etc long-term big-items as well?
- kumarvvr 6y ago
  Except battery and tyres. So battery costs about 4000 and lasts around 4 years. So I drive 60km, 6 days a week, say 45 weeks. So thats about .06 Rs per km. Tyres last about 70k km, and cost 18k to change all 4, so thats another .25 Rupees per km. So total cost is about .8 Rupees per km, including battery and tyres. Or about 1 US cents per km.
ramraj07 6y ago
I'm in the market for a car in India, and the only thing making me queasy is the safety standards - as in I have no idea what they are. Somehow I can't really trust the Indian government to uphold standards given the level of corruption I've grown up accustomed to. Hence, a brand fully made in India, and hence without exposure to more reliable (European?) Safety standards makes me queasy. That doesn't mean a VW in India is made to the same standards as it is in Europe, either. What's the best out?
- kranner 6y ago
  VWs available in India are far safer than Japanese cars, if for no reason other than the all steel construction. VWs are heavy too; you'll need more than one person to push if the battery runs out and you have to push start it. You'll have seen plenty of wrecked Japanese cars on Indian roads; they collapse like empty aluminium cans. The post-crash VWs I've seen in India have at least had intact cabins.
  - ramraj07 6y ago
    I suppose all cars are supposed to crush like aluminum cans in their crumple zones, just the cabin needs to stay intact. But good point, I might try to find a scrap yard just to stroll around and see this pattern!
  - andi999 6y ago
    Fake news. Battery does not run out on VW.
  - kube-system 6y ago
    Cheap and unsafe cars are also made of steel. Steel is a cheap material and there are many different types of it, of varying strengths. A car being made entirely out of a strong material does not necessarily make it safe, either. Modern vehicles with good safety ratings are made out of many different types of material of various strengths in different locations. https://www.media.volvocars.com/global/en-gb/media/photos/34511 https://www.media.volvocars.com/global/en-gb/media/photos/34... Like any engineering project, design is more important than materials used.
- ffpip 6y ago
  There are some threads on r/india about brake issues with Kia Celtos and Creta. Make sure you read it in case you are considering them. https://old.reddit.com/r/india/comments/jd7x93/kia_seltos_and_hyundai_creta_owners_beware_there/ https://old.reddit.com/r/india/comments/jd7x93/kia_seltos_an...
  - known 6y ago
    https://archive.vn/kNxEm https://archive.vn/kNxEm
- Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
  >That doesn't mean a VW in India is made to the same standards as it is in Europe The discriminatory quality of International brands for their products in India has been the norm since globalisation started in the country, be it Colgate toothpaste or Ford Fiesta, most of it boils down to manufacturer building locally what the market is willing to pay. The opposite is true as well, our export products from fruits to vehicles are of superior quality than what is available for local consumers. Again , it's w.r.t what the market is willing to pay. I regret that the safety standards on vehicles in the country are appalling, at-least things started to change last year with Tata & Mahindra cars getting good ratings in GLOBAL NCAP[1] for the first time. I hope the COVID impact on the automobile sector, doesn't revert the progress. I presume this is the case with all the developing economies. [1]http://www.globalncap.org/results/ http://www.globalncap.org/results/
  - KorematsuFred 6y ago
    Well, I do think the companies discriminate. They sell whatever is feasibly in the market and within the limits of the law. India has pretty bad roads and average speed in cities are often slower than bikes speeds in Mountain view so many Indian cars do not really need airbags and various other safety mechanisms not to mention lower value of life itself. You do get top notch, safe vehicles as well, it is just that most Indians dont consider the marginal safety worth the price.
    - Alterlife 6y ago
      To add another perspective, I purchased a Maruti car in India about 4 years ago. On paper every variant from the lowest to the top has an 'optional' version with airbags. In practice, the waiting period for any variant with safety features other than the top speced would be "over 6 months, no gaurentees". ie: as a customer, I was forced to buy the top end variant -- with alloy wheels, chrome trim and all sorts of other crap which I did not care about because I wanted the safety features. I think that maruti is using safety features as a way to upsell customers who care about safety. The difference isn't a "marginal cost". For some models, the difference is 30% the cost of the car.
  - 6y ago
- manquer 6y ago
  Depends on your budget as are all things in India . Many car makers also do full imports and CKD units for some their lines in India. If safety is your primary concern I would recommend a fully imported Volvo, while they don't have the Honda, ford or Suzuki kind of service depth , most major cities do have one. Parts occasionally need to be imported. While it may cost a bit more money and time, there is no hassle of paperwork for you. If reliability is the primary decision point, there are plenty of choices depending on how much city/Highway/rural you want to do, also depends on size, power etc
  - ramraj07 6y ago
    Only issue is the insane price points of volvos and Audi's here due to the outrageous taxes. Double or triple the Indian makes (arguably not of same features, of course, but still) Is just too much
    - econcon 6y ago
      I have never seen any political party in India having "tax reduction" as their stated goal. I think if someone makes such party, people will vote for it as taxes affect them directly or indirectly.
      - ramraj07 6y ago
        I sincerely hope not. Excessive taxation on luxury goods is one of the few ways we can still milk the rich (me included), that's something I can stand behind. I just wish the economy cars were also rated with more reliable safety standards
        econcon 6y ago
        >Excessive taxation on luxury goods is one of the few ways we can still milk the rich You'll be able to milk rich if there are more mercedes on road, they'll need more repairmen or mechanics, you can be one and charge them for everything. Right now in India, ultra rich proportionally pay less taxes because of various instruments available to them which aren't feasible to be used by middle class people. We should shift our focus and let them spend their money, it will end up in one of the countrymen's pocket either way.
- naruvimama 6y ago
  European cars are made for Autobhans and American cars are made to share roads with hummers, icy roads. Most traffic in India is very speed limited, there is no snow or ice in most parts of India. Many of the safety concerns are perhaps overblown given the very different driving scenario. A bigger problem would be your actual driving skills, unless you take the national highways regularly travelling long distances.
  - howlgarnish 6y ago
    But there are cows, people on the road, overloaded trucks with drivers hopped up on drugs, etc. I agree you're unlikely to die in a traffic accident (as a driver/passenger, at least) during the day in any of the perennially clogged metros, but the highways and expressways sprouting up are another story. I once took a cab from DEL to Gurgaon. The driver drove up an offramp of the (then) NH-8, along the shoulder against the flow of incoming traffic, and then exited via an onramp. And then they were surprised that I didn't tip them despite this efficient shortcut.
  - OJFord 6y ago
    There's also that 'famous' story about a non-Indian manufacturer that under-tested horn cycles: scratching their heads wondering why so many were coming in with failed horns (or whatever specific piece), turns out they truly were getting used more than whatever number of activations they were spec'd to. (It may be apocryphal, but fun story/business lesson (think that's where I heard it) regardless. Edit if I find it.)
    - bluGill 6y ago
      I know in my last trip to India at least one of my drivers had a button on the dash for the horn - presumably because the original had broke
      - ISL 6y ago
        At least half of the Ghanaian taxis we rode in had re-wired the horn to the high-beam stalk-pull. That way, one need not take hands off the wheel to actuate the horn (and I suspect the steering-wheel-center horn switch had broken).
- rahoulb 6y ago
  As an aside, I once said to my uncle "there's no way I could drive in India, it's so chaotic". To which he replied "there's no way I could drive in England, there are too many rules"
  - mdpye 6y ago
    Hah, I had a similar conversation with a taxi driver in Bolivia. What is most important for road safety, IMO is predictability. Everyone sharing a common expectation of what will happen next. The crazy-chaotic driving in a lot of countries actually has a lot of patterns which emerge at the level that you experience from the driving seat. And a lot of accidents, sure, but fewer than someone used to highly regulated driving would expect. And fewer than they would probably cause themselves if transplanted directly in to the other system because of their mismatched expectations!
- known 6y ago
  "A woman will buy anything she thinks the store is losing money on" --Kin Hubbard (b. 1868) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_electric_cars_currently_available https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_electric_cars_currentl...
gopalv 6y ago
> Their cars have a reputation of being reliable and their spares are cheap. It is hard to quantify how big a leap Maruti was in the 80s and early 90s for the Indian middle class. The reliability jump from a Fiat rebadged as a Premier Padmini("If there's no oil under it, there's no oil in it") to a Maruti 800 was world changing. The Ambassador was reliable, but maintenance heavy & the Contessa was ridiculously expensive to maintain. Plus they were the first cars to come out with the "normal stick shift" with synchromesh instead of the steering shift bar which required way more delicate balancing of the throttle. Also the service center distribution along with the dead simple 3-cylinder configuration meant that every bike or truck mechanic had enough tools to "fix it up" to drive to the nearest service station. And the parts were cheap because everyone bought one (the monsoon season was different from a car, than a rain-coat on a bajaj). The entirety of the scenes playing around me those years was literally identical - went from Bajaj Chetak to a Maruti 800, then an additional Kinetic Honda for the wife and the kids buying a Scooty or a Pulsar.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
baybal2 6y ago
A stark contrast to what Suzuki sells in a country up north

tsjq 6y ago

In the maintenance cost list, are you accounting for battery replacement, tyres, engine oil, etc long-term big-items as well?

kumarvvr 6y ago
Except battery and tyres. So battery costs about 4000 and lasts around 4 years. So I drive 60km, 6 days a week, say 45 weeks. So thats about .06 Rs per km. Tyres last about 70k km, and cost 18k to change all 4, so thats another .25 Rupees per km. So total cost is about .8 Rupees per km, including battery and tyres. Or about 1 US cents per km.

ramraj07 6y ago

I'm in the market for a car in India, and the only thing making me queasy is the safety standards - as in I have no idea what they are. Somehow I can't really trust the Indian government to uphold standards given the level of corruption I've grown up accustomed to. Hence, a brand fully made in India, and hence without exposure to more reliable (European?) Safety standards makes me queasy. That doesn't mean a VW in India is made to the same standards as it is in Europe, either. What's the best out?

kranner 6y ago
VWs available in India are far safer than Japanese cars, if for no reason other than the all steel construction. VWs are heavy too; you'll need more than one person to push if the battery runs out and you have to push start it. You'll have seen plenty of wrecked Japanese cars on Indian roads; they collapse like empty aluminium cans. The post-crash VWs I've seen in India have at least had intact cabins.
- ramraj07 6y ago
  I suppose all cars are supposed to crush like aluminum cans in their crumple zones, just the cabin needs to stay intact. But good point, I might try to find a scrap yard just to stroll around and see this pattern!
- andi999 6y ago
  Fake news. Battery does not run out on VW.
- kube-system 6y ago
  Cheap and unsafe cars are also made of steel. Steel is a cheap material and there are many different types of it, of varying strengths. A car being made entirely out of a strong material does not necessarily make it safe, either. Modern vehicles with good safety ratings are made out of many different types of material of various strengths in different locations. https://www.media.volvocars.com/global/en-gb/media/photos/34511 https://www.media.volvocars.com/global/en-gb/media/photos/34... Like any engineering project, design is more important than materials used.
ffpip 6y ago
There are some threads on r/india about brake issues with Kia Celtos and Creta. Make sure you read it in case you are considering them. https://old.reddit.com/r/india/comments/jd7x93/kia_seltos_and_hyundai_creta_owners_beware_there/ https://old.reddit.com/r/india/comments/jd7x93/kia_seltos_an...
- known 6y ago
  https://archive.vn/kNxEm https://archive.vn/kNxEm
Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
>That doesn't mean a VW in India is made to the same standards as it is in Europe The discriminatory quality of International brands for their products in India has been the norm since globalisation started in the country, be it Colgate toothpaste or Ford Fiesta, most of it boils down to manufacturer building locally what the market is willing to pay. The opposite is true as well, our export products from fruits to vehicles are of superior quality than what is available for local consumers. Again , it's w.r.t what the market is willing to pay. I regret that the safety standards on vehicles in the country are appalling, at-least things started to change last year with Tata & Mahindra cars getting good ratings in GLOBAL NCAP[1] for the first time. I hope the COVID impact on the automobile sector, doesn't revert the progress. I presume this is the case with all the developing economies. [1]http://www.globalncap.org/results/ http://www.globalncap.org/results/
- KorematsuFred 6y ago
  Well, I do think the companies discriminate. They sell whatever is feasibly in the market and within the limits of the law. India has pretty bad roads and average speed in cities are often slower than bikes speeds in Mountain view so many Indian cars do not really need airbags and various other safety mechanisms not to mention lower value of life itself. You do get top notch, safe vehicles as well, it is just that most Indians dont consider the marginal safety worth the price.
  - Alterlife 6y ago
    To add another perspective, I purchased a Maruti car in India about 4 years ago. On paper every variant from the lowest to the top has an 'optional' version with airbags. In practice, the waiting period for any variant with safety features other than the top speced would be "over 6 months, no gaurentees". ie: as a customer, I was forced to buy the top end variant -- with alloy wheels, chrome trim and all sorts of other crap which I did not care about because I wanted the safety features. I think that maruti is using safety features as a way to upsell customers who care about safety. The difference isn't a "marginal cost". For some models, the difference is 30% the cost of the car.
- 6y ago
manquer 6y ago
Depends on your budget as are all things in India . Many car makers also do full imports and CKD units for some their lines in India. If safety is your primary concern I would recommend a fully imported Volvo, while they don't have the Honda, ford or Suzuki kind of service depth , most major cities do have one. Parts occasionally need to be imported. While it may cost a bit more money and time, there is no hassle of paperwork for you. If reliability is the primary decision point, there are plenty of choices depending on how much city/Highway/rural you want to do, also depends on size, power etc
- ramraj07 6y ago
  Only issue is the insane price points of volvos and Audi's here due to the outrageous taxes. Double or triple the Indian makes (arguably not of same features, of course, but still) Is just too much
  - econcon 6y ago
    I have never seen any political party in India having "tax reduction" as their stated goal. I think if someone makes such party, people will vote for it as taxes affect them directly or indirectly.
    - ramraj07 6y ago
      I sincerely hope not. Excessive taxation on luxury goods is one of the few ways we can still milk the rich (me included), that's something I can stand behind. I just wish the economy cars were also rated with more reliable safety standards
      - econcon 6y ago
        >Excessive taxation on luxury goods is one of the few ways we can still milk the rich You'll be able to milk rich if there are more mercedes on road, they'll need more repairmen or mechanics, you can be one and charge them for everything. Right now in India, ultra rich proportionally pay less taxes because of various instruments available to them which aren't feasible to be used by middle class people. We should shift our focus and let them spend their money, it will end up in one of the countrymen's pocket either way.
naruvimama 6y ago
European cars are made for Autobhans and American cars are made to share roads with hummers, icy roads. Most traffic in India is very speed limited, there is no snow or ice in most parts of India. Many of the safety concerns are perhaps overblown given the very different driving scenario. A bigger problem would be your actual driving skills, unless you take the national highways regularly travelling long distances.
- howlgarnish 6y ago
  But there are cows, people on the road, overloaded trucks with drivers hopped up on drugs, etc. I agree you're unlikely to die in a traffic accident (as a driver/passenger, at least) during the day in any of the perennially clogged metros, but the highways and expressways sprouting up are another story. I once took a cab from DEL to Gurgaon. The driver drove up an offramp of the (then) NH-8, along the shoulder against the flow of incoming traffic, and then exited via an onramp. And then they were surprised that I didn't tip them despite this efficient shortcut.
- OJFord 6y ago
  There's also that 'famous' story about a non-Indian manufacturer that under-tested horn cycles: scratching their heads wondering why so many were coming in with failed horns (or whatever specific piece), turns out they truly were getting used more than whatever number of activations they were spec'd to. (It may be apocryphal, but fun story/business lesson (think that's where I heard it) regardless. Edit if I find it.)
  - bluGill 6y ago
    I know in my last trip to India at least one of my drivers had a button on the dash for the horn - presumably because the original had broke
    - ISL 6y ago
      At least half of the Ghanaian taxis we rode in had re-wired the horn to the high-beam stalk-pull. That way, one need not take hands off the wheel to actuate the horn (and I suspect the steering-wheel-center horn switch had broken).
rahoulb 6y ago
As an aside, I once said to my uncle "there's no way I could drive in India, it's so chaotic". To which he replied "there's no way I could drive in England, there are too many rules"
- mdpye 6y ago
  Hah, I had a similar conversation with a taxi driver in Bolivia. What is most important for road safety, IMO is predictability. Everyone sharing a common expectation of what will happen next. The crazy-chaotic driving in a lot of countries actually has a lot of patterns which emerge at the level that you experience from the driving seat. And a lot of accidents, sure, but fewer than someone used to highly regulated driving would expect. And fewer than they would probably cause themselves if transplanted directly in to the other system because of their mismatched expectations!
known 6y ago
"A woman will buy anything she thinks the store is losing money on" --Kin Hubbard (b. 1868) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_electric_cars_currently_available https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_electric_cars_currentl...

gopalv 6y ago

> Their cars have a reputation of being reliable and their spares are cheap. It is hard to quantify how big a leap Maruti was in the 80s and early 90s for the Indian middle class. The reliability jump from a Fiat rebadged as a Premier Padmini("If there's no oil under it, there's no oil in it") to a Maruti 800 was world changing. The Ambassador was reliable, but maintenance heavy & the Contessa was ridiculously expensive to maintain. Plus they were the first cars to come out with the "normal stick shift" with synchromesh instead of the steering shift bar which required way more delicate balancing of the throttle. Also the service center distribution along with the dead simple 3-cylinder configuration meant that every bike or truck mechanic had enough tools to "fix it up" to drive to the nearest service station. And the parts were cheap because everyone bought one (the monsoon season was different from a car, than a rain-coat on a bajaj). The entirety of the scenes playing around me those years was literally identical - went from Bajaj Chetak to a Maruti 800, then an additional Kinetic Honda for the wife and the kids buying a Scooty or a Pulsar.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

baybal2 6y ago

A stark contrast to what Suzuki sells in a country up north