Eeco monocab survived another upgrade and became safer
Maruti Suzuki has added a digital instrument cluster, a new engine and electronic systems to the 1999 Eeco van. In India, the model has no competitors due to the bargain price, but improvements are still needed due to tightening environmental and safety standards. Updated Maruti Suzuki Eeco has become a quarter more economical, but retained an attractive price of 513,200 rupees.
The history of the Eeco microvan with a length of less than 3.7 meters began in the late 1990s, and although Maruti Suzuki repeatedly upgraded the monocab, the appearance remained the same. This time, the engineers decided to replace the usual pointer “tidy” with a digital one, but the panel itself is by no means virtual – we are talking about the simplest monochrome system with an on-board computer screen.
Other improvements include an immobilizer, rear parking sensors, a child lock, brake force distribution and anti-lock brakes, a pair of airbags, and a new air conditioning control panel with swivel washers. As before, the cabin is designed for two, five or seven, and at the top of the range is a special version of the ambulance.
The main technical upgrade is the appearance of a 1.2-liter bi-fuel “aspirated” (81 horsepower, 104 Nm). Compared to its predecessor, efficiency has been improved by 25 percent: now Maruti Suzuki Ecco consumes only 5.1 liters of gasoline per 100 kilometers in the combined cycle. The gearbox is the same – 5-speed “mechanics”, the drive is on the rear axle.
In India, Maruti Suzuki Eeco’s share of the subcompact van segment is as high as 93 percent and the total circulation is close to one million. Government agencies also buy Eeco: they are addressed to the medical version for 813 thousand rupees.