Maruti Suzuki Ignis
Maruti already sells eight small cars, nine if you include the Brezza. What makes the Ignis special?
II THINK I'M GETTING old. No, scratch that, I'm definitely getting old. I haven't heard of DJ Axwell. I didn't know that millennials are now a market segment all by themselves with enough purchasing power (or leverage over their dads) for manufacturers to train their gun sights on. I walked off when a French-Jap duo hit us assembled journos with a supposedly worldrenowned, and very blistering, light and sound show. And EDM gives me a headache.
If ever there was a car to make the existing automotive journalist fraternity feel old it is the Ignis. And right there you have the unique selling point of Maruti's ninth small car, if you include the Vitara Brezza in the list. With this car it is all about the youth, kids who have not lacked for anything in their (short) lives; kids who poured into the national stadium in Delhi where DJ Axwell headlined (head banged?) the Ignis' launch with half an hour of Electronic Dance Music (at 12 in the afternoon… I'm way too old for this).
Time for some serious road testing then, so armed with an EDM playlist on Apple Music I set off to explore Chennai's roads at night. Does Suzuki have a design language?
Not by the look of things! Stand the old Swift against the Baleno and Ignis, throw in the Alto, Celerio and Brezza, even the Ciaz, and there's nothing cohesive about them; there's no family lineage coming through. I'm definitely not a fan of what Audi and now Merc and BMW are doing, making all their cars look identical, but this is the other extreme.
That said doesn't the Ignis look cool and funky? This is my personal opinion, you might hate it, but that again is a key USP of the Ignis – it's a car that you either love or hate, there's no in between. All cars today are very well styled but even in that lot the Ignis comes across as a breath of fresh air. It's unique. There's no need for the three slashes on the thick C-pillar but it's there all the same and it looks cool. It also harks back to the Cervo that Suzuki made in the seventies – the only family link I could find (and even has a name – Suzuki Progressive Triad!). The LED DRLs endow it with a unique, happy, and rather fetching visual signature, complimented by the LED projector lamps. Then there's the urban-SUV stance courtesy the high ground clearance, tall roof, flared wheel arches, blacked-out alloy
wheels and even the clamshell kind of design of the bonnet with a mock air vent. Many of my peers didn't like the rear styling but I find myself taken in by that also, even the gaping mouth carved into the rear bumper. Whatever you might think about the Ignis, you can't get away from the fact that it is funky as hell.
The insides
Maruti insisted we drive the Ignis at night to fully appreciate what they've done with the cabin. I'm here to tell you the cabin works as well in the day as it does at night, despite the fact that the EDM-inspired lighting of the speedo console can only be appreciated at night. It didn't give me a headache so I can't verify the EDM claims.
Anyway, it's on the inside that you will be able to trace the Suzuki lineage thanks to common switchgear but even then, by Maruti's usual standards, this is a very unique cabin. There is a completely new design for the dash with a unique black-andwhite two-tone scheme that looks really nice. On the top-end variant there are body colour-coded inserts around the gear lever and the door pulls. The infotainment (the same Baleno/Brezza touchscreen) is now mounted like an iPad in the same fashion as new Mercs and BMWs and there finally is Andriod Auto compatibility. And there's a new (for Maruti) climate control unit.
Space inside is also remarkable for a car that is only 3.7 metres long. There's enough and more room up front and because the driver's seat is high set, ingress/egress is very good, the visibility is pseudo-SUV and the driving position is so good I didn't complain too much about the lack of telescopic adjustability for the steering. Even back seat passengers have enough knee room with the seat adjusted to my driving position, only three abreast being a squeeze.
What's surprising is there's a noticeable transmission tunnel eating into the leg room of the middle passenger. It's there because the Ignis, in Europe, gets all-wheel drive as an option but all you Desert Storm rally enthusiasts need not hold your breath – it's very, very unlikely that Maruti will bring that variant to India.
Links to the Baleno
The Ignis is based on the same 5th generation platform as the Baleno but with all the dimensions and hard points being different what's common is only the design philosophy particularly on crash safety and the load paths. Another common trait is the light weight. The petrol Ignis weighs just 835kg and for a benchmark the equivalent Baleno is 865kg while the current Swift is 935kg. This means that despite running the same 1.2-litre K12 motor as in all other
Marutis, the Ignis feels particularly nippy and nimble.
Getting out of the ITC Chola in Chennai, the first time I floored it, I was startled. Okay this isn't a 200bhp hot hatch but for 82bhp the Ignis has a remarkably zippy nature with wheelspin easily available. The sprightly initial turn of speed and the super-slick gearbox lets it jump in front of traffic at the lights with ease. It is also a very refined petrol motor, inaudible at tick over, and with a nice note when revved. It suits the Ignis perfectly – silent so as not to drown out the EDM pumping out from the (rather good as standard) speakers and zippy enough to make it a genuinely fun city commuter.
The Ignis can do 140 clicks on the highway but at that speed the engine is strained and approaching its limits. However the chassis has composure and the Ignis isn't all over the place, displaying quite competent road manners.
What is surprising – or maybe it shouldn't be considering the high ground clearance – is that the ride quality is quite good, a fair bit better than the Baleno that crashes into
The petrol Ignis weighs just 835kg and for a benchmark the equivalent Baleno is 865kg while the current Swift is 935kg
potholes and ruts. The better road manners along with the higher seating position and a cabin that feels more airy (though the Baleno is more spacious for rear seat passengers) makes the Ignis a much nicer car to drive on the daily commute; better than the Baleno which we rate quite highly.
What is a straight giveaway of the platform's Baleno roots is the steering that is the biggest let down in the dynamic repertoire with absolutely no feel through the vague helm and the lack of a strong self-centring. That lack of feedback ensures the Ignis is no corner carver and in any case, there is a higher centre of gravity pushing the Ignis by default to understeer quite early. All versions of the Ignis run 175/65 15-inch Bridgestone Ecopia tyres on blacked-out alloy rims.
And then there’s the AMT
Or AGS, Auto Gear System, as Maruti calls it. The principle is the same as any AMT, it's a manual gearbox with an electronic controller operating the clutch and the gear shifting – just the names are different. Up until now all AMT gearboxes overloaded you with head toss, that break in momentum as the 'box lazily shifted gears and your head rocked back and forth but the Ignis' gearbox is much better than what we've come to expect. C V Raman, Maruti's head of engineering, said this is because of the improved torque (compared to the Celerio's three-pot engine) and also an overall improvement and refinement of the shift action. Sure a regular automatic, or even a CVT operates far more smoothly but with the Ignis you can now recommend an AMT without a long list of buts. It, of course, works better if you learn to drive it – lifting off the gas slightly when you want an upshift to make it smooth, planning an overtake and going into a lower gear well in advance, using the manual mode when you are in a real rush. But on the upside there is fuel efficiency that is the same as the manual – a claimed 20.8kmpl for the petrol and 26.8kmpl for the diesel. And the auto blip function on downshifts does tickle the enthusiast in you – ask for an aggressive downshift and the electronic brain heel-toes to revmatch!
The diesel
It's the same tried, test and muchloved 1.3-litre DDiS (or Multijet as Fiat calls it) engine that makes 74bhp and 190Nm of torque like the Baleno (in the Brezza and S-Cross it makes 200Nm). And it works in the same fashion as we've come to expect in the Swift, Baleno, Brezza et al – peppy acceleration, good flexibility, enough
grunt to keep up a good pace on the highway. It is audibly a diesel but not too noisy as to be a bother and there's that excellent fuel economy to count on. Plus, with the Ignis, the diesel also gets the AMT (or AGS) gearbox making that another USP of the car. What other hatchback (not compact sedan) has a diesel automatic? Ummm… none!
Safety
Full marks to Maruti – the Ignis will be available with twin airbags as standard along with ABS. Isofix connectors for easy mounting of a child seat are also standard. And this fifth generation Suzuki platform is claimed to have been engineered to meet 2019's offset and side impact regulations as well as 2020's pedestrian impact norms. It has been tested at Maruti's Rohtak engineering centre since the government's NATRIP facility is not yet ready.
Buy, don’t buy?
Buy! The Ignis is not cheap and isn't being positioned as a cheap hatchback, being retailed through Maruti's upmarket Nexa network. Don't get me wrong, the Ignis isn't overpriced or anything like that – the reason why pricing isn't the main draw of the Ignis is because it does so many other things right. It looks awesome (to my eyes at least), has funky interiors, the ride is good, the engines are peppy and the automatic cures most of the ills of previous AMTs. I'd enthusiastically recommend the automatic if not for the fact that you cannot have it in the fully-loaded trim level – which means automatic buyers will have to do without the touchscreen, saddled instead with an ungainly infotainment system that has a forest of buttons sticking in your face. Worse, you don't get the LED DRLs that is a style signature you cannot do without. And the regular headlamps aren't powerful enough as we found out while driving around Chennai at night trying to avoid jallikattu protesters. Of course, there will be demand for it and of course Maruti will not be able to ignore that demand and will bring a fully-loaded automatic, but why not now?
That aside the Ignis really is lovely and if I were in the market for a city runabout I'd have a petrol manual Ignis. Despite the fact that I'm not an EDM enthusiast.
What other hatchback has a diesel automatic? Ummm… none!