When I could muster Rs 30,000 together some ten years back, I bought myself a Fiat. A Premier President, to be more precise. It had bucket seats, floor shift, a nice music system and a coolant system for the radiator. I spent far more money over the next two years before my company gave me a Maruti 800 and I decided to send my beautiful Fiat to my uncle. The next time I visited him, I saw the car running on LPG. As in, it had a cooking gas cylinder secured in its boot and an Italian conversion kit under its bonnet. When my uncle wanted to run it on petrol, he could do it by simply tapping a switch on the dashboard. Every time he wanted to do a 120 km round trip, he would take the gas cylinder from the kitchen (and at times, from the neighbours too) and then hit the road. As for questions on safety, as most authoritative uncles do, he waved me off.
Welcome to 14 July 2006. Here I am at Manesar, near the Maruti Suzuki plant at Gurgaon, driving a dripping wet, facelifted Wagon R which runs on petrol and LPG. So what took so long for car companies to launch an LPG version? My uncle knew that it was roughly 30 per cent cheaper than running on petrol and that is exactly why he spent Rs 20,000 on a conversion kit in a car that was by then worth much less than that. Well, to begin using cooking gas cylinders on cars was not the most legal or safe way to go about doing things, but pumps dispensing LPG were a rare phenomenon. Today, 32 cities in India are blessed with fuel stations that can supply LPG and hence the Wagon R Duo.
As for the Wagon R facelift, I have a mixed response. I sincerely believe in the minimalist school when it comes to small cars, and the original Wagon R, in my eyes, was a smashing looking machine. Even the first facelift managed not to dilute the simple lines but provided a bit of glamour to a tiring workhorse. But what we have now is a little monster with a gaping grille and one that is all set to feed on all the dragonflies the neighbourhood fields can produce. Seriously, the new grille could give the Chevrolet Silverado a complex. The new airdam and bumper emphasise the mini-SUV theme further. The new taillamps are certainly inspired by the Mercedes-Benz A-Class, which is not a negative in any way. Also changed is the rear windscreen – which improves rear visibility. To be fair on the young designers at Maruti who did this job, they have certainly succeeded in stirring some interest in the car but they should also be prepared to take some criticism.
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