Plan to recondition your old 800/Alto - Maruti does it in Rs.35k with new half engine

Yesterday, I went to get the coolant hose pipe replaced of the swift at DD Motors (Peera Garhi), and while paying the bill, I came across a poster that said, transplant your Maruti's heart for longer life for Rs.10,000. I was a little surprised as I never expected it to be this cheap at ASC and asked the service adviser for the details. I was told that Rs. 10k is the cost of new half engine of 800/Omni and including other costs such as valves, guides, gaskits, lathe machine cost for head face etc, and labour; the complete rebuit of your 800 will cost you around Rs.20k. Now, one any ways get to pay 10-12k for complete reconditioning of the old 800/omni engine and paying Rs.20k to ASC is not bad at all when you get warranty on parts (Adviser wasn't sure how much warranty we get, he wil check and let me know today). Since, we have the now almost 12 year old 5-Speed 800, which has mostly the same engine as Alto (apart from few minor modifications in Alto), I enquired about the cost of the rebuit of the 5 Speed 800/Alto engine. And again I was surprised to know that the total cost of reconditioning including a new half engine will be near Rs.35k. Now, I was expecting somewhere around 18-20k for complete overhaul of the engine and paying 35k for complete thing is not a bad idea.. We have done over 1.7 lac kms on our car in last 12 years (without an overhaul) and tell you what its still a delight to drive. We plan not to sell the car ever (after a small thought of trading it for used esteem CNG- now discarded) and hence, plan to bring the car back to its pristine condition sometime next year. So, whats the better way than getting an almost new heart which can run for the rest of the car's life easily as this car now runs only 5k kms a year. Just an effort to save the 800 - a CAR that put India on wheels..:)

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