Maruti Suzuki Dzire, India’s lone three-box sedan, is laughing in the face of the SUV invasion. While hulking SUVs flex their muscles, this compact car zoomed to the top, selling 18,084 units in May, 1,944 more than its runner-up sibling, the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga. In a world obsessed with high-riding beasts, the Dzire’s like that chill friend who shows up to a party in sneakers and still steals the show. Let’s dive into why this wallet-friendly sedan keeps schooling those popular SUVs with its unbeatable charm.
Maruti Suzuki Dzire: Real-world fuel economy
The Dzire is available in two powertrains, petrol and CNG, and our test car is the former version with a 5-speed manual transmission. The 1.2-litre 3-cylinder naturally aspirated petrol makes 80.4 bhp at 5,700 rpm and 111.7 Nm at 4,300 rpm. According to Maruti Suzuki, the Dzire manual returns a total average of 24.79 kmpl, including highway and city.
We, on the other hand, stuck to the urban jungle and drove an average of around 90 km a day over and got a mindboggling average of 16.9 kmpl. Some days, we smashed past 17 kmpl, and trust us, we weren’t crawling at a snail’s pace or hypnotized by the fuel gauge instead of the road.
Last year, Maruti Suzuki caught some flak for rolling out the new-gen Dzire with a 1.2-litre 3-cylinder engine with lesser horsepower than the older model. Maruti explained that their customers wanted fuel economy and safety. So, we decided to put this sippy sedan to the test in real-world rush-hour chaos. We cranked up the air conditioner to combat the heat and humidity.
Our game plan was no flooring the gas like a wannabe F1 driver, no brake-slamming drama, and shifting gears at a 2,000 rpm, traffic permitting. We kept speeds under 60 kmph in the city crawl and nudged 100 kmph where the roads and the law permitted. The Dzire sipped fuel like a hipster at a coffee shop, delivering wallet-friendly mileage. The moral of the story is to keep your throttle game smooth, avoid pedal-to-the-metal antics, and this sedan will ghost the petrol pump like a pro.
Maruti Suzuki Dzire: Safest sedan that will make SUVs jealous
The Maruti Suzuki Dzire is the only sedan to receive top honours of a 5-star safety rating from both Global NCAP and Bharat NCAP. In Global NCAP tests, it scored 28.79/34 for adult occupant protection and 38.78/49 for child occupant protection, while Bharat NCAP awarded it 31.15/34 for adults and 42.26/49 for children. It comes loaded with six airbags, 3-point seat belts for all, Electronic Stability Program (ESP), Hill Hold Assist, ABS with EBD, rear parking sensors, and ISOFIX child seat anchorages as standard.
