BHPian Leoshashi recently shared this with other enthusiasts: It was the summers of 1999 when we decided to get a new car, our first brand new car. Before that we had pre-owned Amby and Omni. Around June 1999, we decided to get a Maruti Zen, in Superior White shade. Our city didn’t even have a Maruti showroom, hence dad booked it at Ranchi( with Sushila Automobiles). Back then Indica, Matiz and Santro were all the rage. But we preferred the Maruti due to reliability and service reasons. We also booked a Maruti 800 STD at Mithila Motors Patna, just to switch to Zen if some allotment came. By January 2000, our Zen was in transit. But then MPFI engines had started coming in Maruti, and Maruti 800 was rumoured to get MPFI in 5 speed version. Our dealer at Patna said that they are getting a batch of 5 speed 800s, in Metallic Cyprus Blue and Metallic California Gold and we can have them if we wish. There was no confirmation of Zen coming in MPFI then as most of the supplies were prioritized for Metro cities, thus we switched to 800 EX which was the mid variant without AC. Infact it was much closer to the STD variant than DX. EX got radial tyres and rear coil springs over STD variant. But once the cars came in and PDI happened, the cars which passed dad’s PDI were both DX variants. Hence eventually we switched to DX model which was top of the 800s line back then. Price on road was almost 2.9Lac. Some pics of the brochure, pricelist and the car(clicked in May 2000) Pics of the car 25 years later: Buying a car in those days surely felt extra special and surreal. I never got to experience the same thrill and excitement later. May be it was the childhood carefree days, but I surely cherish the memories. Regards, Shashi Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.
