Crisp performance from Suzuki Celerio
AS USUAL with Suzuki products — cars and motor cycles — the little Celerio, introduced last year, is beautifully engineered and built. It has a neat five-door body with adequate load space and comfortable seats. A three-cylinder engine of only 998cc powers the Celerio through a five-speed gearbox and it is remarkable for its quietness and smoothness.
Since the launch, automatic stop/ start at traffic halts has become available on a version called the dual-jet but it adds £500 to the price and although this model is more economical — claimed to give 78.4mpg on the misleading official test cycle — a lot of fuel would have to be saved to recover the extra cost.
Even without stop/start, the engine is silent while ticking over and its claimed overall economy is a still very impressive 65.7mpg.
Carbon dioxide emissions are only 84 g/km, meaning the Celerio driver has no annual tax to pay.
On the down side, though, the 68bhp power output is marginal and we were surprised to find how often we were on full throttle.
An indicator on the instrument panel encourages one to change up very early but we found it better to ignore this and hang on to the indirect gears to much higher revs.
Although so very quiet at idling speeds or when cruising, the Celerio produces a purposeful snarl when worked hard. The ride is comfortable within the constraints of a small car with short wheelbase and the rear suspension (by transverse torsion beam, if you like to know that kind of thing) absorbs poor roads effectively without too much thump and thud over bumps.
This is a very easy car to drive, with light power-assisted steering and easy clutch action and many drivers will appreciate the high seating position and good visibility.
An automatic transmission option is available, using electro-hydraulic control for the clutch and gear shift, costing £800 extra.
In standard form as the SZ3, the Celerio costs just under £8,000 but another £1,000 has to be added for the SZ4, which is the trim package required for the automatic (auto gear shift) option. This brings the total to £9,799.
There is also a base model, the SZ2. What you sacrifice with this is air conditioning but if you can manage without aircon — and who knows when it will ever again be as hot as it was this August — then the Celerio SZ2 is a tempting package, giving you a small, well-built five-door five-seater at only £6,999.
However, I would recommend the SZ3, on which the equipment is generous, with six airbags, alloy wheels, remote central locking and a DAB radio with CD player and USB connection. Quite the little charmer!