The new Maruti Suzuki Ciaz is fuel-efficient. How fuel-efficient? So much that if you exactly do what the car asks you to do, you can get a fuel-efficiency of about 20kpl even in petrol. The car, indeed, communicates—it tells you when to change gears, it tells you how much throttle you should apply, it even shuts down the engine when the wheels come to a complete stop.
What is the Ciaz?
It’s Maruti Suzuki’s flagship vehicle, first launched in 2014 to replace the forgettable SX4. Last week the company launched the all-new Ciaz, with a new 1.5-litre petrol engine equipped with smart hybrid technology and a lithium-ion battery.
What are the design changes?
There is a new grille and bumper, LED projector auto headlamps with DRLs (first in segment), LED fog-lamps and chrome garnish, rear LED combination lamps, and chrome bezels on front and rear fascia. The chrome used, however, is a bit too much.
The cabin has been refreshed. Changes include blonde wood grain accents with a low-gloss finish, satin chrome highlights on dashboard and door trims, a new 4.2-inch multi-information TFT screen in colour, and a speedometer that changes colour based on the driving pattern. The luxury quotient has been upped, but the blonde wood grain treatment looks out of place.
Does it get new engines?
The diesel engine is the same—the 1.3-litre DDiS smart hybrid that delivers a claimed mileage of 28.09kpl. The petrol engine is new—the 1.5-litre K15 that develops 13% more power (103bhp) and 6% more torque (138Nm) than the previous engine. It gets smart hybrid technology and a lithium-ion battery, and delivers a claimed mileage of 21.56kpl, in manual.
How does it drive?
We drove both petrol manual (5-speed) and automatic (4-speed). The cabin is quiet and even on bad roads the drive is smooth. Pick-up and top-end performance isn’t great, but adequate. On highways, the car feels planted and minimal vibrations enter the cabin.
Why is the Ciaz so fuel-efficient?
The Ciaz is not a parallel hybrid vehicle like Toyota Prius (which uses both an electric motor and petrol engine to power the wheels). The Ciaz smart hybrid is equipped with features such as engine power assist (using energy stored in lithium-ion battery), brake energy regeneration, idle engine start-stop and gear-shift indicator. So, even though the cost and complexity of the technology added to the car is minor, the fuel-efficiency benefits for the customer are very real. In a mix of highway and Bangalore city driving, I got an unbelievable 20kpl on petrol!
Should you buy one?
The ex-showroom price of petrol manual starts at Rs 8.19 lakh, to Rs 9.97 lakh. The petrol automatic is available at a starting price of Rs 9.8 lakh, while the diesel starts at Rs 9.19 lakh. The alternatives to the Ciaz are Hyundai Verna and Honda City.
Is the Ciaz better? As compared to the Verna, the Ciaz has considerably more cabin space (but the Verna is more fun to drive). As compared to the City, the Ciaz has better road presence (but the City still looks more elegant). As compared to both, the Ciaz is far more fuel-efficient and thus, in the long run, is cheaper to run and own.
