Maruti Suzuki CIAZ
Maruti aims to keep loyal customers within the family fold with the new Ciaz
MARUTI SUZUKI HAS millions of customers, most thoroughly happy with the great quality of their cars and the sterling after sales experience. Most grow within the family – start with an 800 or Alto (these days a Celerio), move to a Swift, a Dzire, maybe an Ertiga when the family expands, but then what? Sure, there was the SX4 and in the days when the City was only petrol-engined, it did quite well, but was it as good as the Honda? And thus were happy
customers lost to the competition until their kids started buying cars.
The Ciazis Maruti’s attemptto keep customers ‘in the family’. Aspiration is the key thing here and it starts with the styling. Just like Honda took a leaf out of Hyundai’s design book, so too has Suzuki – adorning the car with jewellery and chrome to give it that extra bit of bling. All variants get neatly done projector headlamps and while there is more than a passing resemblance to the City from the rear, it is a strikingly attractive car, complemented by big 16-inch wheels on the top ZXi+ variant. Long, low and sleek, the Ciaz is claimed to be Suzuki’s most aerodynamic car – a clear departure from the butch and upright ‘Men are back’ stance of the SX4.
Underneath the skin, the SX4 replacement is all–new. The wheelbase is 2650mm, overall length is 4490mm and width is 1730mm. The figure you should be most interested in though is the kerb weight: 1010kg for the petrol and 1105kg for the diesel. The weight of the body in white has gone down by 56kg to 307kg
despite the Ciaz being larger in every direction compared to the SX4.
The interiors, while being completely new, have very strong echoes of the rest of the Maruti range. You may not be able to pinpoint what but it does seem familiar, while taking things a bit more upmarket. The top of the dash has a nice soft touch feel to it though the rest of the plastics, particularly the cubby hole lid and infotainment surrounds are hard and, well, plasticky. Quality and fit-finish are absolutely top-notch though.
Equipment levels on the ZXi+ variant include leather seats, a properly integrated touchscreen infotainment system with navigation and reverse parking camera, single-zone climate control, key-less entry, rear air con vents and a manually operated rear sun blind. On some test cars the infotainment system crashed but we didn’t experience any problems and hope that it’s just pre-production worries.
A big deal with the Ciaz is space, which is significantly more than its rivals. With me sitting comfortably behind the ’wheel, a 5 foot 10 inch colleague could sit at the back and still have nearly 8 inches of clear air between his knees and the seat back. That’s impressive!
But I also have one criticism. The seats are set too high up. The rear seat back angle is good but you feel like you’re sitting on top of the car, not within it, and that also makes for just about adequate head room. Shoulder space is good and the transmission tunnel is almost flat so you can seat three at the back.
Though the driver’s seat is height adjustable, you still feel like you’re sitting too high up and the steering wheel adjusts only for height, not reach, so you never get a perfect driving position.
One more thing. The ZXi+ gets twin front airbags and ABS (no ESP). But in the base versions you don’t get either airbags or ABS (and the mid variant gets only a driver airbag). In my opinion this is a big miss. Sure, customers don’t ask for or demand safety features but – forgive my language – that’s being stupid. The one time airbags deploy, that’ll be the time they save your life. I feel that Maruti, as the undisputed market leader, needs to take a stand and at least for a premium car have airbags and ABS standard
A big deal with the Ciaz is space, which is significantly more than its rivals
on all variants. If Honda can do it, why can’t everybody else?
While the diesel engine is carried over from the SX4, the petrol isn’t the 1.6 but the 1.4 K14 from the Ertiga that makes 91.2bhp at 6000rpm and 130Nm of torque at 4000rpm. For a car of this size, the 1.4 engine does feel a little inadequate and has to be caned to make quick progress on the highway. Which is when it does get a bit too noisy. But that said, for a 1.4, the claimed 0-100kmph time of 11.7 seconds is actually decent – and that’s down to the 1010kg kerb weight giving the Ciaz a very competitive power-to-weight figure.
The diesel however is the pick of the range. The venerable 1.3-litre DDiS (essentially Fiat’s MultiJet) makes 88.8bhp at 4000rpm and 200Nm of torque at 1750rpm. You’d think a 1.3 will be hugely inadequate for the Ciaz (I thought so!) but this engine is a revelation. While the petrol is just about adequate, the diesel feels wonderful – the turbo kick at 2000rpm makes it feel far sportier, the claimed 0-100kmph time at 11.3 seconds is quicker than the petrol, the gearbox action is nicer and, when caned, the engine is not that much noisier than the petrol. I didn’t have high hopes but after driving it I have to say this is the star of the range.
And to top it all it has a claimed fuel efficiency of 26.21kmpl, making it the most fuel efficient diesel not just in its class but in
the country! For the record, the petrol has a claimed efficiency of 20.73kmpl that also makes it the most efficient petrol in its class. And the petrol gets the option of a 4-speed automatic; the diesel has only the 5-speed manual.
If you’re looking for the Swift’s fun-to-drive DNA in the Ciaz you will be disappointed. This car has been tuned for the guy sitting in the back seat and on that front Maruti’s engineers have done a very good job. The ride quality and stability are good and though we didn’t get any major potholes on our first drive, the Ciaz took the few bad sections of highway in its stride. Multiple bumps do see the Ciaz bounce about on its springs but overall top marks on the comfort front.
Behind the wheel though, the Ciaz lacks zing. The steering is far too vague and disconnected (though there is nothing wrong with the weighting), the soft suspension does lead to roll when pushed hard in corners (though grip is good thanks to 16-inch rubber), the brakes don’t have that sharp bite and the Ciaz keeps questioning your need to hustle it along.
Which brings us to the value proposition. All Maruti Suzuki test drives end with a long feedback sheet in which, apart from rating the car on 50 parameters, you’re invited to suggest the car’s price. We are told it is to give the management an indication of where the pricing should be though I have no doubt the pricing has long been decided.
Keeping with the spirit of things though, I suggested the range-topping Ciaz should be at ` 10 lakh for the petrol and ` 10.5 lakh for the diesel, undercutting the Honda City by roughly 80K. The range should start at ` 8 lakh (considering the base Ciaz is stripped of airbags and ABS) and I have no doubt that it will undercut the City by a fair margin.
By the look of things Maruti will make a better fist of keeping customers within the family after all.