Maruti Suzuki Alto K10 AMT Long Term Report 2:

I’m writing this report after a hectic day at work which involved back to back motorcycle shoots. In fact, I wouldn’t have been writing anything if the Maruti Suzuki Alto K10 AMT wasn’t my accomplice for the day.

In the last report, I introduced this compact hatchback and it was quite difficult to stop writing about it. Because, I thought I had found my perfect daily car. If I didn’t have my word count limit, I would have probably made you abuse your mouse scroll function.

Automated manual transmission or AMTs have been developed to make two things easy – to make your drive comfortable and do that in a fuel efficient manner. The Alto K10 AMT checks both the boxes for me. I’ve been using this car for almost a month now, and each time I drive it, the better I feel. The gearbox isn’t the slickest one around but does a very good job, considering the fact that the car costs under Rs 5 lakh on-road. And, other than the R- Reverse, N- Neutral, D- Drive mode, you also have the option to slide the gear level to the left and change the gears as per your need. I usually play with D and M mode because I don’t see the requirement of shifting neutrally.

When it comes to overall performance, the Alto K10 didn’t disappoint at all. This 1.0-litre engine helped me reach office on time, almost every day. Its 67bhp and 90Nm and its impressive power-to-weight ratio of 91bhp per ton, helped me swirl around the Mumbai traffic. This tiny little car is fast enough to stun the fellow B-segment car drivers. I’ve to take the famous Thane-Belapur road during peak hours and that means, I’ve to sit at the first two gears most of the time. While I do that, there are sometimes chances of quick overtakes, which the Alto does. But if you are in second gear, make sure you are on the higher revs. And, because the gearbox takes time to go down to first gear when you pin down the throttle it means, you lost that precious overtake of yours.

Things do get little uncomfortable with this car, especially above 100kmph. Firstly, the handling of the car becomes little difficult due to its weight and the suspension setup. The car is agile and compact but will make you little uncomfortable at high speed as the car moves a lot.

Let’s talk about fuel efficiency. I’m a sane driver but sometimes, we have to speed up to check the performance of the car. Over the last one month, the Alto K10 AMT gave me 15.31kmpl, this is after almost 1000kms of driving. So basically little more than two tanks full.

My mom refuses to get into this car. Not because she doesn’t like it. It’s because there is limited leg room for anyone at the rear and my family is tall, like me. So when I set the driver seat as per my comfort, which basically means to the rear most, chances people at the back can do nothing but open and close the door.. Make sure to take your entire family for a good test drive, if in case, you are considering this car (one of the things which I did when I was car hunting). So did I take my mom for grocery shopping in this car? The answer to this is a no. Did my mom feel bad about it? The answer is yes.