Maruti Suzuki Eeco Price in India
Back in 2002 when everyone was hooked on to “Kaun Banega Crorepati”
and superstar Amitabh Bachchan was the hype, Maruti launched the Versa
with endorsement from the star himself. According to Maruti, it was
India’s first true ‘Utility’ vehicle. However, it did not turn out to
be successful as it had a premium price tag. A few years later, just
like celebrities, it underwent some surgeries, a name change and most
importantly a drastic change in pricing. This vehicle sells today by
the name of Maruti Eeco. Mostly being used as a taxi or a goods
carrier, it is a high selling vehicle. Where else can you find a 7+
seater for a steal price like this. This was the replacement Maruti
was looking for the much applauded Omni or the Maruti Van as we all
know it. Let us see what the Eeco has to offer.
EXTERIORS
It is a tallboy design, not exactly a monobox but quite similar to
one, the car has new crystal clear headlights,taillights, front and
rear bumpers minus the high roof. Apart from that everything else is
the same, the styling is not appealing, its quite simple and bland.
Basically it was targeted for that class of people who didn’t have
much interest in the aesthetic look but craved for big storage space,
utility and good seating capacity. The Maruti Eeco a good alternative
as well as replacement to the ageing Maruti Omni.
INTERIORS
On the inside of the car, Major change is significantly visible in
form of beige color combo but the designing of dashboard remains
un-changed and looks plasticky. The steering wheel is same which was
found in earlier generation Wagon-R and is thin to hold but feels nice
to maneuver in city. In this era of electronically equipped cars, Eeco
is an exception. Maruti has not provided power windows and central
locking is missing as well even on the top-end variant. A bunch of
electrical wires is clearly noticeable under dashboard which looks
odd.
The storage on dashboard can manage to hold a regular size bottle and
decent sized glove box can swallow couple of diaries. Padding on the
inside of doors is absolutely plain and surprisingly doesn’t even
offer door pockets. Due to taller platform and wheels below front
seat, Entry & Exit is bit un-comfortable. The windshield is huge
enough to give a clean picture of the road in front but with such a
large room, Maruti offers only single roof lamp which could be
in-sufficient to light-up complete interiors during night time.
Second row bench is comparatively comfy and well reclined but lack of
head rests makes any drive more than an hour practically tiresome. The
7-Seater model accommodates a bench for two aligned to a corner in
middle and three can be seated in last row. Opening the rear slide
door from inside is somewhat a tricky task, First you need to slide
the handle & push it backwards, which rolls the door towards the rear,
but it’s not that easy also a lot of discomfort is felt, especially
when you are doing for first time. Eeco has an option of child locks
which is a welcome feature for this car.
In the Maruti Eeco, You won’t complaint much about the room though the third
row passengers could find shortage of leg space so it’s advisable to
hand-over that area to kids of your family.
PERFORMANCE
This car is derived from SUZUKI’s EVERY mini truck platform sold in
Japan and has a rear wheel drive layout. It comes with Maruti’s KB
series 1200cc, four cylinder 16 valves MPFI petrol Engine. Max power
delivered is 73 BHP at 6000 RPM and torque of 101 Nm at 3000 RPM.
Since the Maruti Eeco has a rear wheel drive layout, a differential is
provided for power transmission to the rear wheels. As its a city car,
performance is more than adequate to pull it cleanly in bumper to
bumper traffic with the air-conditioner on. The Engine is very smooth
and devoid of vibrations even at low rpm, gear changing is typical
Maruti style, slick and precise. The car features what Maruti calls
DSA (Diagonal Shift Assist) which allows for a smoother gear shift
action. In spite of the fact that the Engine is mounted just below the
front seats, the NVH (Noise, Vibration and Harshness) levels are
pretty low.
RIDING DYNAMICS
This is a people and goods carrier, and that is something it does
well. Because of the tall body taking sharp turns is a big no. Yes the
turning radius is a big improvement over the omni and the power
steering helps too. The clutch is light too. The vehicle is a bit
jumpy because of the stiff suspension, but then again it is made to
carry weight. It is a rarity that you can carry 7 people in a sub-4
metre car.
CONCLUSION
A great product for India’s car-aspirant folks . Safety is a question
but Maruti claims they have anti-roll and side impact beams. That’s an
improvement on the Omni . Probably carried over from the Versa. Most
of the G-series engines good points carried over but not very good at
high revs so the car really dosen’t encourage you to go beyond 100
kmph. Excellent VFM if the parts quality, particularly the seats,
improve. Not for those looking for any sort of class (in particular,
replace the ‘l’ after ‘c’ with ‘r’ and you will get what I mean). I
felt the Omni seats were better. Good engine and better-than-average
gearbox if the shift quality from 1-2 is worked upon. Good for quick
shifters and very good in the city. MILs will be happy riding in this
one.
Maruti Suzuki Eeco Ex Showroom Price in New Delhi ranges from 3,25,375/- (Eeco 5 Seater) to 4,31,785/- (Eeco Green 5 Seater AC) .Maruti Suzuki Eeco has 8 Variants of Petrol+CNG are available in India. Maruti Suzuki Eeco comes in 5 colours, namely Red,Blue,White,Gray,Silver.