The infamous kidnapping van, Maruti Omni will be discontinued starting October 2020. It cannot be made ready to meet the upcoming crash test norms. Here goes one of the oldest manufactured car in India.
An era has ended with Maruti Omni being discontinued. Owing to the upcoming Bharat New Vehicle Safety Assessment Program (BNVSAP) safety norms, Omni will be discontinued from October 2020. The main reason is that Omni cannot be made ready for these upcoming norms. At the same time, Maruti Eeco and Alto 800 are under the scanner and will be developed for the norms. The first Omni was manufactured back in 1985 and has been running strong since then. Now, it is mainly used for commercial or taxi purposes.
Talking to Carandbike, RC Bhargava, Chairman, Maruti Suzuki India said, “There are certain models that cannot be made ready to meet the upcoming safety norms and we will have to discontinue them, Maruti Omni being one of them. The Maruti 800 was a very important model for us but we had to discontinue it, in a similar manner we will also discontinue the Omni.”
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Maruti Omni has a bump on its front portion, lacking structural integrity. It cannot be fitted with any equipment which will help in absorbing the impact of a collision. With Omni, Eeco and Alto 800 are under the scanner. For Maruti, all these three products are important. But it plans to develop the Eeco and Alto only.
Maruti Omni was launched in 1985. After that, it received its first facelift in 1998 where square lamps instead of round ones were introduced. In 2005, it received another facelift with a new dashboard design and a new design of wheels.
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Omni came in total 4 variants. One is a 5-seater variant, an 8-seater variant, an ambulance version and as a cargo van. The cargo came with ample space, storage options and only two front seats. The ambulance came with every equipment required.
Maruti Omni is powered by a 796cc engine that puts out 33 BHP and 59 Nm of torque. The engines pair up with a 5-speed manual transmission. The same engine came with the Maruti 800.
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The prices of Omni start from Rs 2.72 Lakhs up to Rs 3.05 Lakhs, which is very cheap.
