So many of our hatchbacks are labelled SUVs
The buzz around SUVs never seems to stop and in this issue we have driven three new ones and another one that looks much like an SUV and but for a change being sold as a hatchback. And that’s a change because so many of our hatchbacks are labelled SUVs somewhere in their lifetimes. Yes the case of the Citroen C3 is a curious one. It is one of the better looking hatches in the market both from the exteriors as well as the interiors. It is very spacious with great leg room even in the rear, has one of the best rides of any car in its segment and perhaps even the one above, is mechanically very sorted but has some very glaring deficiencies. On the inside, the focus was the infotainment screen with the IP being left a generation or two behind. Glass on the rear windows is electrically raised or lowered but the switches are found to be between the legs of the middle rear passenger. Equipment list is more or less non-existent (I may be exaggerating a bit here) but many of the things that one takes for granted in a car of that size are found as optional extras. I haven’t seen such a Jekyll & Hyde split personality on a car since another French car many years back.
But the talk of the town and most certainly of our office is that of the first vehicle that will be produced at the Toyota Kirloskar India plant as a result of collaboration between the two Japanese companies – one a global giant and the other an Indian giant. Yes, the SUV will be a Maruti Suzuki vehicle and it will be made over a thousand and five hundred kilometers away from the nearest Maruti Suzuki plant in Karnataka. It will be sold both as a Maruti Suzuki and as well as a Toyota. This is getting to be a very intricate collaboration and could only have been pulled off by the two Japanese companies and after the first couple of badge-engineered offerings.
Till the next issue of Auto Today, stay safe, always wear seatbelts no matter where you are seated in a four-wheeler and a helmet no matter where you are seated on a two wheeler!
Yogendra Pratap
Editor yogendra.pratap@intoday.com
@YogenPratap