[2] Produced for 31 years, the Maruti Suzuki 800 remains the second longest production car in India, next only to Hindustan Ambassador.

His mother Indira Gandhi wanted to fulfill Sanjay's dream of an indigenous people's car and formed Maruti Udyog Ltd a year later.

It was also exported to a number of countries in South Asia including Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and was also available in Morocco and selected European markets, often sold as the Suzuki Maruti.

The original 800 was based on the Suzuki Fronte SS80, but a modernized aerodynamic version using the body of the second-generation Alto (SB308) was presented in late 1986.

From its inception, it was considered as the first affordable people's car, the first modern era front wheel drive and high speed small contemporary vehicle, and the only reasonably modern car available in India, the incumbent mainstay Hindustan Ambassador and Premier Padmini being based on long-obsolete 1950s designs.

Such extended waiting times gave rise to some people indulging into black marketing and earning premiums as much as 40%.

Cars produced during the early years were essentially Suzuki OEM components imported from Japan and merely assembled by Maruti Udyog Limited at the Gurgaon plant.

Starting in April 2010, Maruti halted sales of the car in 13 major cities: the four metros of Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and 9 other cities including Kanpur, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Agra and Surat, where the law made it mandatory for the vehicles sold to be Euro IV compliant.

Several new colours were also introduced, such as Maruti Green, St Germaine Red, Pearl White, and Neptune Blue.

As of September 2009, the company has yet to reach a decision regarding the manufacture of a Euro IV-compliant version of the vehicle because it would increase the retail price.

However even stricter emissions regulations which came into effect by April 2010, would mandate Euro IV compliance in major Indian cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore and 2015–2016 for the remainder of the country.

[13][14] Its main competitor is the less expensive Tata Nano (123,000 compared to 184,641 rupees) which has an 8 percent smaller exterior size and a noisier engine with less torque.

The updated 4 valve per cylinder F8D MPFI was introduced concurrently with the Alto in 2000 to comply with BSES and was able to achieve up to the BSIII standard.