An Indian in LA

Maruti Suzuki cars are exported to over 100 countries but the United States of America is not one of them. So it was quite an adventure when Yogendra Pratap got to drive a made-in-India Fronx around Los Angeles in California

-  Yogendra Pratap

When the Fronx was shipped from India to the Middle-East, Africa and Latin America in July this year, little did we know that we would perhaps be one of the very few to have driven an Indian car, that too a Maruti Suzuki, made only in India, in the US. And when the news came that the car was on sale in Mexico, just about 250km south of Los Angeles, wheels were put in motion and one of our Mexican colleagues drove the Suzuki Fronx up from Tijuana in Mexico to our hotel in Los Angeles.

The very first thing we did after setting eyes on the Fronx was to check the VIN plate in the car which I knew from having seen hundreds of Marutis over the years was located just inside of the front passenger door - and it was there, firm proof that the car had come all the way from India for us to explore the surroundings of Los Angeles in.

Our first stop on our Fronx adventure was the City Hall of Pasadena, a small city in Los Angeles County, 11 miles from downtown LA and one of the oldest suburbs of Los Angeles, with the historic Route 66 passing through it. The Fronx we were driving was absolutely identical to the ones we have in India except for the Mexican number-plates, the same steering wheel but on the left instead of on the right as we would in India and a 1.5-litre mild-hybrid engine instead of the 1.0-litre turbo or the 1.2-litre engine that the car gets in India. However the 1.5-litre engine is the K15C that also powers the Brezza and the Grand Vitara Smart Hybrid in India.