Maruti Alto 800 facelift rendered

The Maruti Alto 800 is barely a couple of years old in the Indian car market and Maruti Suzuki has already begun testing a facelifted version of the entry-level hatchback. The advent of the facelifted Alto 800 could mainly have to do with the hotting competition in the entry level hatchback segment what with Tata Motors readying up a slew of Nano variants with attractive features, Nissan launching the Datsun Go budget hatchback and Hyundai coming up with a new, 1 liter petrol engined Eon variant. Based on a recent crop of spyshots, CarToq has out together renders of the Alto 800 Facelift.

The facelifted car will have a tweaked front end with minor changes to the rear as well. The design tweaks seem inspired by the Celerio hatchback’s front end, with a flat-ter and a more raked front design. These changes could also make it to the front end of the Alto K10 as the car faces extra competition now, from the likes of the Datsun Go and the Hyundai Eon 1.0. The Alto 800 and K10 facelifts are expected to be mechanically unchanged. The 796cc, F8D-3 cylinder motor on the Alto 800 and the 1 liter-3 cylinder K-Series motor on the K10 are expected to be retained without any changes.

On the gearbox front, a 5 speed manual gearbox will be standard with Maruti Suzuki planning an automated manual transmission for the Alto K10 by the end of this year. Expect the facelifted version of the cars to be launched by the end of this year considering that the AMT equipped K10 is expected to be launched in a similar time frame. It remains to be seen whether Maruti Suzuki adds more features to the facelifted versions of the Alto 800 and the K10. Additional spyshots revealing the interiors of the Alto 800 and K10 facelifts could throw more light on this. Watch this space.