Maruti halts Indian car that led to road revolution

NEW DELHI: India’s Maruti Suzuki said Saturday it had halted production of its iconic first small car, the Maruti 800, which revolutionised road transport for millions of Indians.
The boxy, four-seater hatchback—the first car ever owned by many Indian middle class families—was first manufactured in 1983 and more than 2.4 million have been sold since.
“We have stopped the M-800 (Maruti 800) production completely,” C.V. Raman, executive director Maruti Suzuki told reporters at India’s premier auto fair in the New Delhi suburb of Greater Noida that winds up Sunday.
The decision to phase out the Maruti 800, hailed as a triumph of small-car engineering at the time, was taken in 2010 to meet new auto emission standards aimed at cutting pollution on India’s increasingly congested roads.The no-frills car has been eclipsed by newer, fancier models.