Maruti Suzuki Brezza

After 8 months, we find out that the 2022 Maruti Suzuki Brezza stands out with comfort and practicality as its strong suit, in the overcrowded compact SUV space

IT’S TIME TO BID ADIEU TO MY LONG term Maruti Suzuki Brezza, a car that has proved to be a wonderful city companion to me over the past five months. To say that I am bummed is a huge understatement because I am surely going to miss it.

For me, the Brezza turned out to be unlike any other car in the evo India fleet. I’ve had my share of fun with it but not in the same way that we do with our other long termers. I didn’t take it on any leisurely drives, or those spirited mountain sessions that help me clear my head. Instead, it was primarily used as my office commuter and did a splendid job as a tracking car on our shoots. In the very first week, it was strictly a two-seater as it was shuttling around with the rear seats folded, helping me to move house. At 328 litres, the boot is dimensionally smaller than a few of its rivals, but it’s nicely shaped to accommodate tall items that I had plenty of. With both seats folded flat, it swallows a surprising amount of stuff.

Post that, I started getting familiar with the car. The 1.5-litre nat-asp engine only gets going when you’re heavy on the throttle, i.e. after the 4000rpm mark. Out on the highway, the Brezza is a car that doesn’t enjoy being driven too hard. The engine becomes vocal higher up in the rev range, so it’s better driven at a leisurely pace. At 100kmph the Brezza settles into a nice cruise and delivers over 20+kmpl fuel efficiency but that is subject to the sort of throttle inputs you’re giving it. The best I managed to eke out was 23kmpl which, at 100kmph with four passengers aboard, is excellent. But it is a completely different story in the city. Because its engine lacks low-end torque, you have to keep it on a boil for quick overtakes. That hampers fuel efficiency. Over the 5000km that I’ve driven it, 90 per cent of which was in the city, I never saw the reading crossing the 15kmpl mark.

I’ve become a huge fan of the Brezza’s smooth engine and supple suspension though. A couple of months ago, we were super lucky to spend a full day with the country’s first