Suzuki Alto Glovebox or God Optional Extras

When ordering a Suzuki Alto car I was asked about accessories. The car has no covered storage in the front, so I joked I would like an ashtray and a glove box as accessories, which the sales person found amusing. It turns out that Suzuki Alto Accessories include a glove box (Part Number: 990J0M68KP3-010) and an ash tray (Part Number: 99000-99012-83H).

Rather than just providing a lid for the storage slot in the dashboard, the glove box is a whole new replacement unit. In contrast the ash tray appears to be designed to simply drop into one of the slots on the centre console.

As a customer I would have preferred the glove box and ash tray as standard, in place of the tachometer, fog lights and alloy wheels, which came with the Alto GLX model.

The Alto is made in India, where it is sold as the Maruti Suzuki A-star (the Indian Maruti Alto is a different car). There are Maruti accessories for the A Star, including leather seat covers and an "Exquisite range of coloured images of Gods on 24 ct. gold plated foils". Gods available include Ganesha and Jesus of Nazareth (as featured in many Indian vehicles).

The Australian model Alto has an air bag fitted to the dashboard passenger side and no objects should be placed on it. The seats also contain air bags, making fitting seat covers more difficult. Some seat covers are designed to split along the side to release an air bag, but the Alto seats have a plastic panel on the side which covers the air bag and may be blocked by the seat cover. As an alternative I purchased $45 sheep skin seat covers, cut a cross at the location of each air bag and folded the cover back behind the air bag surround. This ensures the cover does not impeded the air bag and looks tidy.

The Alto has limited space for back seat passengers, so a useful accessory might be removal of the storage shelf under the dashboard (or glove box). This would provide about 100 mm more space for the front passenger. It may allow them to put their seat further forward, providing more room for the rear passenger. This layout is used in the Toyota iQ micro-car (and the Aston Martin Cygnet derived from it). In the Also covered storage space could be provided in the centre console and with a drawer under the front passenger seat.