TOKYO, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Osamu Suzuki, an ingenious

pennypincher who led Japan's Suzuki Motor ( SZKMF ) for more than

four decades and played a key role in turning India into a

flourishing auto market, has died aged 94.

He died on Christmas Day of lymphoma, said the company,

which he steered ambitiously, during his time as either chief

executive or chairman, out of its primary market of

minivehicles.

The inexpensive, boxy, 660-cc cars specific to Japan

benefited from generous tax breaks, but demanded a stringent

reining-in of costs that proved to be a key part of the

automaker's DNA.

Even so, Suzuki's thriftiness was legendary: he would order

factory ceilings lowered to save on air-conditioning and fly

economy class on airplanes even at an advanced age.

"Forever," or "until the day I die," were signature humorous

responses with which he parried queries about how long he would

stay at the company, on which he retained a tight grip into his

70s and 80s.

Born Osamu Matsuda, Suzuki took his wife's family name

through adoption in a practice common among Japanese families

lacking a male heir.

The former banker joined the company founded by her

grandfather in 1958 and worked upwards through the ranks to

become president two decades later.

In the 1970s, he saved the company from the brink of

collapse by convincing Toyota Motor ( TM ) to supply engines

that met new emissions regulations, but which Suzuki Motor ( SZKMF ) had

yet to develop.

More success followed with the 1979 launch of the Alto

minivehicle, which became a massive hit, boosting the

automaker's bargaining power when it tied up with General Motors ( GM )

in 1981.

INDIA

Suzuki then took a big and risky decision to invest a year's

worth of the company's earnings to build a national car maker

for India.

His personal interest was motivated by a strong desire "to

be number one somewhere in the world", he would later recall.

At the time, India was an automotive backwater with annual

car sales below 40,000, mainly British knock-offs.

The government had just nationalised Maruti, set up in 1971

as a pet project of Sanjay Gandhi, son of then-Prime Minister

Indira Gandhi, to produce an affordable, "people's car" made in

India.

Maruti needed a foreign partner but early collaboration with

Renault fell through as the sedan being considered was deemed

too expensive and insufficiently fuel-efficient for domestic

needs.

The Maruti team knocked on many doors but was snubbed widely

by brands including Fiat and Subaru and - by accident -

Suzuki Motor ( SZKMF ).

The partnership only came about after a Suzuki Motor ( SZKMF )

director in India saw a newspaper article about a potential

Maruti deal with Japanese small-car rival Daihatsu.

He telephoned headquarters to learn that the Maruti team had

been turned away. Suzuki then telexed Maruti and hastily invited

the team back to Japan, asking for a second chance.

A letter of intent was signed within months.

The first car, the Maruti 800 hatchback based on the Alto,

was launched in 1983, becoming an instant success.

Today, Maruti Suzuki, majority-held by Suzuki

Motor ( SZKMF ), still commands roughly 40% of India's car market.

In class-conscious India, Suzuki also ushered in change,

insisting on equality in the workplace, ordering open-plan

offices, a single canteen and uniforms for executives and

assembly-line workers alike.

Not all endeavours were a success, however.

A month shy of his 80th birthday, Suzuki clinched a

multi-billion-dollar tie-up with giant Volkswagen in December

2009.

Touted as a match made in heaven, it soon faltered, with

Suzuki Motor ( SZKMF ) accusing its new top shareholder of trying to

control it, while VW objected to the Japanese firm's purchase of

diesel engines from Fiat.

Suzuki Motor ( SZKMF ) took VW to an international arbitration court

in less than two years, eventually succeeding in buying back the

stake of 19.9% it had sold to the German automaker.

Suzuki, who often cited golf and work as the keys to his

health, finally passed the baton as CEO to his son Toshihiro in

2016, and stayed on as chairman for another five years until age

91, keeping an advisory role until the end.