Maruti Suzuki Victoris Long Term Report: Month 3 - Honest-to-God

The Victoris is now among the top-10 highest-selling cars in the country. Maruti’s decision to retail it through the larger Arena network has clearly paid off. But after living with one for the past three months, I believe I have understood the real reason behind its strong run.

First and foremost, this is an honest-to-God product. It doesn’t overpromise and underdeliver. Instead, it plays to its core strengths: reliability, fuel efficiency, comfort, and that all-important peace of mind. It appeals to buyers who value fundamentals more than flashy features. Everything works like clockwork in the Victoris. The engine idles at the same RPM every morning, performance remains consistent, and every component behaves exactly as expected.
Secondly, I’ve realised that fuel efficiency matters to everyone – even to self-proclaimed petrolheads like myself. Sure, I miss the spiky punch of a turbo-petrol engine, but when you’re spending an hour a day crawling through traffic, that extra performance becomes irrelevant. Just some weeks ago, I was driving a 1.0-litre turbo-petrol automatic for a couple of days, and it delivered barely half the fuel efficiency of the Victoris hybrid. My wallet took a hit, and I couldn’t even enjoy the performance advantage in real-world conditions. That definitely stung.

Of course, the Victoris isn’t perfect. The grabby brakes in bumper-to-bumper traffic can be annoying, the sound system is underwhelming, and the absence of a spare tyre for long highway drives is a genuine concern. But when you look at the vehicle’s fitness for purpose, its strengths far outweigh these shortcomings. On a day-to-day basis, it feels tailor-made for the average middle-class family. The more I drive it, the more I realise this isn’t a car designed to drive social media engagement. It’s built to quietly make your daily life easier without adding more chaos to an already complicated life.