All you need to know about the new Maruti Alto 800

New Delhi, Oct 15: Maruti Suzuki India, the king of small cars in India, is all set to launch an upgraded Alto, in the form of the Alto 800. As true with any new product launch by Maruti, there has been a lot of excitement among the consumers regarding the price and features of the new model.The new Alto 800 will replace the existing Alto as the company seeks to overcome tough market conditions, especially high fuel prices and rising interest rates that have pulled down the sales of its best selling model. The company reported a decline in sales of Alto by 34.83 per cent in the April-August period to 89,000 units as compared to 1.22 lakh units in the year-ago period. For the MSI, the Alto 800 matter a lot as the company wants the new model to take off from where the current Alto stands today. The company hopes that improved styling, better fuel economy and new features will make it stand out of the competition. "We want to do what we were doing and even better with the Alto 800 coming in," Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Vice President Market Manohar Bhat had said.The MSI has already started pre-launch bookings for the new Alto 800 in order to stoke consumer interest in the upcoming festive period. Here's a look at some of the features that the new Alto 800 has to offer.In terms of outer styling, the new Alto 800 looks a lot similar to the A-Star and the Japanese Alto. To make it attractive and appealing, the company has made few changes to the outer structure of the model. The new model comes with increased height and high ground clearance. The full wheel caps are attractive and the wheel arches are flared. In all, the styling is conservative and there's no match between the well styled Hyundai Eon and the Alto 800.The new Alto 800 has the same wheelbase as the earlier model. In order to make the structure lighter, the roof, is now being built of thinner steel, but it has corrugations for added rigidity.On the inside, the dashboard has been widely improved. It now has small doses of silver particularly on side AC vents, center console and steering wheel. Also, the Alto 800 now has scoops on the rear of the front seats that gives slightly better legroom.Although the seats are now slimmer, but still it is tough to get comfortable in. The moulded roof lining and fully clad pillars adds to the ambience of the cabin.The Alto 800 has some changes under the bonnet as well. The model continues to be powered by the 796cc petrol engine. Maruti engineers have made changes to the hardware of the F8D engine, resulting in a power output of 47.5 BHP at 6000 RPM (3.5 BHP increase) and 69 Nm of torque at 3500 RPM (7 Nm increase). Steady progress at low speed has been the hallmark of this engine, and now it's better. Overtaking will not be challenge as now you don't need to rev hard to swift quickly.As per the reports, Alto 800 is being projected as a highly fuel efficient vehicle offering a good 22.74 kmpl which is 15 per cent higher in comparison to older Alto. At the same time, the CNG powered gives 30.46 km/l as per ARAI.The car will be available in three variants, viz. LX, LXi, VXi. Finally, media reports predict the base model to be somewhere around Rs 2.6 lakh ex-showroom while the top-spec VXi with front power windows, audio system, could be priced at Rs. 3.4-3.5 lakh ex-showroom.