Category: City Cars 
Price Range: £5,999 to £8,750
Good fuel economy and low emissions, low insurance and tax, should be tough and durable, good headroom, no-frills ethos
Poor refinement, dated feel, dull and cheaply-finished cabin, slow performance.
Cheap, and feels it; verve-free and devoid of any charisma, the Alto is outclassed and there are better choices out there.
Suzuki tends to trail its fellow Japanese car-makers in reliability and customer satisfaction surveys; it came 19th out of 28 in last year's JD Power survey, and the last-generation Alto was marked 57th out of 100.
General mechanical durability should be good, not least because the Alto is relatively low-tech and packs in little by way of complex electronica or sophisticated devices. It's all very old-school; built in India by Suzuki's local partners Maruti, it is designed to be robust and low-maintenance.
The Alto falls down on its finishing touches, however. No doubts that the Maruti factory can turn out a decently screwed-together product, but it hasn't been given high-quality materials to furnish and attractively finish off the interior. The grey plastics inside the doors are particularly nasty, and it's all very drab and dreary in the cabin.
