The original people's car, which had once become synonymous with the great Indian dream, turned into a footnote in India's automobile history on Friday, with Maruti Suzuki announcing it had stopped production of the Maruti 800.
The car, once the dream project of Sanjay Gandhi, was launched in 1983 by then prime minister Indira Gandhi.
Mr RC Bhargava chairman of Maruti Suzuki said that "We have stopped production of the M800. There were issues related to saleability and acceptability of the product because of safety and emission regulations that are to come in soon."
The company had completely stopped production of the model on January 18th this year.
Now, the Alto 800 would be the company's entry-level model.
MSIL said that though production of the car had been stopped last month, spare parts would be made available to customers for the next eight-10 years, according to rules. It had already discontinued sale of the M800 in 13 cities, including the 4 metros, in April 2010, as the product did not meet BS-IV emission norms.
Mr Bhargava said that "It is a dated model and has been selling for a long time. We had already decided we would not invest to upgrade the M800 to meet BS-IV emission norms. We, therefore, decided to discontinue the product."
Between April 2013 and December, sales of the M800 rose 21% to 17,000 units. In comparison, sales of the Chevrolet Spark stood at only 2,448 units in the same period.
In the first year of production, the M800 sold about 850 units in an overall passenger vehicle market of about 40,000 units. Through the 80s and the 90s, sales of the model grew steadily to touch a peak of 20,701 units in March 2003.
Till 2004, the M800 was India's best-selling car till 2004 when it was overtaken by the then newly launched Alt
The car, once the dream project of Sanjay Gandhi, was launched in 1983 by then prime minister Indira Gandhi.
Mr RC Bhargava chairman of Maruti Suzuki said that "We have stopped production of the M800. There were issues related to saleability and acceptability of the product because of safety and emission regulations that are to come in soon."
The company had completely stopped production of the model on January 18th this year.
Now, the Alto 800 would be the company's entry-level model.
MSIL said that though production of the car had been stopped last month, spare parts would be made available to customers for the next eight-10 years, according to rules. It had already discontinued sale of the M800 in 13 cities, including the 4 metros, in April 2010, as the product did not meet BS-IV emission norms.
Mr Bhargava said that "It is a dated model and has been selling for a long time. We had already decided we would not invest to upgrade the M800 to meet BS-IV emission norms. We, therefore, decided to discontinue the product."
Between April 2013 and December, sales of the M800 rose 21% to 17,000 units. In comparison, sales of the Chevrolet Spark stood at only 2,448 units in the same period.
In the first year of production, the M800 sold about 850 units in an overall passenger vehicle market of about 40,000 units. Through the 80s and the 90s, sales of the model grew steadily to touch a peak of 20,701 units in March 2003.
Till 2004, the M800 was India's best-selling car till 2004 when it was overtaken by the then newly launched Alt
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