Maruti Alto

The Maruti Alto is the Indian-built version of the fifth generation Alto, manufactured by Maruti Suzuki. It was launched in the local Indian market on September 27, 2000  although the Alto nameplate was very successfully being used to export the Maruti Zen to Europe from India since around 1994  having captured over 40% market share in Belgium and 33% in Netherlands by 1998.  It is the best-selling hatchback in India.  Since 2006, It is India's largest selling car  and crossed the 1 million production figure in February 2008 becoming the 3rd Maruti model to cross the million mark in India after Maruti 800 and Maruti Omni and 4th overall joining Hyundai Santro.  Besides being exported to Europe from 1994 to 2004, it has also been exported to several other countries.


Specifications

Until the late 2010 introduction of the K10 Alto, it was powered by a three-cylinder 796 cc gasoline engine with 4 valves per cylinder, MPFI and a 32bit ECM. All models have a five-speed manual transmission. There also used to be a VX/VXi model with a 4-cylinder 1,061 cc engine (64 bhp/80 Nm torque) launched in April 2001. This has now been discontinued, although it is still sold in certain European countries. The VX model also featured a tachometer not found in lesser Altos.