Maruti Suzuki Omni

Maruti Suzuki Omni Ownership Review – a Carpooling Partnership!

We had recently published a review regarding the ownership experience of a Ford Fiesta. Since we got a very strong positive response, this week we are continuing the series with an ownership review of the Maruti Suzuki Omni. The Maruti Suzuki Omni today remains the vehicle of choice for large families with a smaller budget as well as for transporters with a smaller budget.

We interviewed some of our friends owning Maruti Suzuki Omni under partnership. They had purchased this Omni with the help of our auto engineer, Shiva Shankar. Read on for their experiences.

Maruti Suzuki Omni Specifications

The car in question is a White color Maruti Suzuki Omni 8-seater, 2003 model. It carries a 796cc, 3 cylinder engine with a power output of 35 bhp and torque of 60NM. The car comes with a 4 Speed manual gear and has ground clearance of 165mm. Till now, the car has run a total of 52,000 KM.

Question: Since when do you own the car, and what motivated to Go for the brand and model?

Answer: It’s a 2003 model which we bought in March 2010. It all started with us, a group of 8 colleagues, chatting about the topic of car pooling. We decided to implement the same in practice as a means of transport from house to office and back. With detailed analysis, we found that the Maruti Suzuki Omni is the best choice as it comes with 8 seater version, is cost effective, easy to maintain etc. After deciding on the car model, we used all means of search options like personal contacts, magazines etc. but we didn’t get satisfactory options.

We then came across Mr Shiva Shankar of Cartrade.com who within one day got us the contact of a person who had advertised his used Maruti Suzuki Omni car on Cartrade.com. We went and met the person accompanied by Mr Shiva, who inspected the vehicle, and after negotiations finalized it for Rs 1.35 Lakh. The car had run only 31,000KM and was in very good condition and a music system was also available. So we were pretty satisfied with the deal and bought the Maruti Suzuki Omni under partnership of the eight of us.

Question: Tell us something about the present status of car?

Answer: Since March, 2010 we have used our Maruti Suzuki Omni for 20,000 KM and the vehicle is in good condition. Very recently clutch overhauling was done and also we replaced the worn-out tyres with new tubeless tyres.

Question: What has been the cost per service?

The cost per service cost till now has been about 700 Rs and has varied depending upon parts replaced. If you take a look at our last service done, the total cost was Rs 5,347/-, in which the spares cost 2813/-, labour was Rs 1940/- and the remaining went for taxes. In this service, the clutch plate, cover assembly, and flywheel were replaced.

Question: Have any accident repairs been done, insurance claimed?

Answer: We always give top priority for safety and only then for speed. We have agreed to be very disciplined with respect to driving, and most of our driving is in the city limits. We follow all traffic rules and make it a point not to jump signals. Though jumping signals gives a sense of adventure, it can always turn out to be a misadventure. With God’s blessings, so far there have been no accidents and no body repairs.

Question: How has your Maruti Suzuki Omni’s mileage been?

Answer: So far we are getting around 16KMPL in city and on the highway we get around 18 KMPL average. Hence, we are quite satisfied with the fuel efficiency

Question: Can you tell us about your experience in long drives?

Answer: We had taken the vehicle to long drives such as to Mysore and surrounding places, driving around 400KM in single day. One can ride to around 100KM at a stretch after which, since the engine is positioned under the seat, one feels excessive heating.

The Maruti Suzuki Omni does give pretty satisfactory performance and ride quality, and there is good enough space for both passengers and luggage. Though it has a manual steering, using the steering while one the move is not difficult, though we have to put extra effort while taking out the car from narrow places.

Question: Any breakdown faced and how was the problem solved?

Answer: We have not had any breakdown except that of tyres getting punctured. We take care of maintenance as per schedule and always keep track of the usage of car and possible parts to be replaced in near future as mentioned by the mechanics at service station.
Question: Any good and bad experience at the service station?

Answer: Service back up is excellent with availability of authorized service centers all over. However, the labour cost has gone up a lot at the authorized service centers due to which one tends to go to local mechanics for maintenance.

Question: Could you tell us about LPG kit fitment to your car?

Answer: Till now we have been satisfied with the performance of our car with petrol fuel as it gives pretty good mileage. The fact that it is owned by a group of people and that we share the expenses, makes it economical for us. While searching for a used car, we have come across many Omni cars fitted with LPG kit which were in bad condition and need overhauling of the engine. Perhaps this is due to excessive usage after fitment of Kit or otherwise.

Also, the fact that our car is being run under partnership, we have to consider the opinion of each person which can vary a lot hence we have not yet opted for LPG kit

Question: Please tell us something about experience of owning car under partnership.

Answer: It’s a pretty tough question to answer as we do have both good and bad experience. Good experience is that it does provide economic and faster transport. Bad experience is that some people may tend to overuse it for personal gains which can lead to excessive wear and tear and all will have to share the repair costs and hence it’s quite a difficult task to manage.

Since all of us work at the same place, the car is only used for work to home commute. If anyone wants to use the car for private use, he needs to take approval from the Group.

Question: What’s your suggestion for people opting for similar ventures?

Answer: Encouraging mass transport is the need of the hour considering the always rising cost of fuel which is in turn a national burden. Ventures like this would not only reduce cost of individual transportation but also helps to save fuel. However, the major difficulty is the management of people rather than that of the car. All it takes is few like minded people coming together for a cause.

Question: How do you rate the overall ownership, would you recommend the same to others?

Answer: We are satisfied with the performance of the car. The Maruti Suzuki Omni is an excellent choice for car pooling. However, one has to take proper care in driving as the safety standard is very low compared with cars with separate compartment in front for engine. Omni is well known for utility and it still has good resale value. It is worth the investment made.

Question: If going for new car which brand and make would you choose and why?

Answer: As we are using as a home to office transport vehicle, we do not have plans selling it in near future. However in case of going for a change, first priority would be for Maruti Suzuki Eeco 7 seater which has the advantage of higher power, updated styling, features etc., but retains the functionality of the Omni.

Conclusion

In this article we have dealt with not only the ownership of a Maruti Suzuki Omni but also of owning a car under partnership. We hope that it gives good insight of owning a car under partnership and of course of owning Omni.

As mentioned above, the Maruti  Suzuki Omni described is being used collectively by few people and we have not mentioned the names. We on behalf of Cartrade.com extend warm regards for sharing the experience.

Do you have a car which you would like to share your experiences about? Fill in the form below and we will contact you. You can also use the contact us option to contact us.