New & Improved: Maruti Suzuki Ciaz 2018 Review

Maruti Suzuki Ciaz just went under the knife. Is thefacelift worth your time and money? FHM reviews.

Maruti Suzuki launched the Ciaz in 2014 as a replacement for the outgoing SX4, and boy were we impressed by the car. It was adependable, mid-sized, easy-to-drive sedan with more than adequate performance, decent handling, and enough zest to keep the inner child in all of us gleaming. It was a great formula for a rampaging success, although there were a few misses here and there. Maruti realised it and addressed them. They have come up witha cracker of a car.

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The exterior looks great and sports a mean and more aggressive look. There are sharp lines all across the car that give it a sculpted look. Instead of regular horizontal chrome bars that composed the grill, there is a black grill with the Suzuki emblem sitting at the centre. The fog light ornament has a nice chrome line around it, as does the rear reflector ornaments. Our test unit, the Alpha Automatic, came with Nexa’s new dual toned, precision cut alloys and it looked great on the car. (We wished our unit was the Metallic Magma Gray or the Pearl Sangria Red as they are particularly great looking colours and helps accentuate the lines better than the Nexa Blue.)

Our test unit came with Suzuki’s new K15 petrol engine. The 1.5 litre engine is capable of producing 103 bhp which when combined with the four speed automatic torque convertor engine is simply perfect for city driving. The engine is buttery smooth and so are the gear changes most of the times. The car is zippy and picks up speed in a composed and gradual manner which is not to say that it is a slouch, and in any way a slow car. Prod your right foot and you will be breaking the speed limit far more quickly than you can call your lawyer to get out of the speeding ticket. On top of that, the smart hybrid system and the auto cut-off feature ensure that fuel consumption is economical, even in an automatic. The Ciaz claims an economy of 20.3 kmpl, but we never reached the figure during our testing, thanks to Delhi’s traffic. One complain we had with the car is that the engine note is really dulled out and you can barely hear it, unless you bury the accelerator deep into the carpets. This is a shame as the naturally aspirated engine surely would have sounded great. But then how often does one drive on the redline, that too in a city?

The ride experience is smooth and comfortable, as always with a Maruti car. The driver gets a height adjustable seat, along with a tilt steering. The thigh and back support on all the seats are more than decent, which means it is more than adequate when compared to most other cars in this segment.

The leather upholstery all around the car is great as well. You also get adjustable rear head rests, something the old Ciaz lacked. Overall, the seats are quite comfortable for long drives, as well as those pesky traffic jams of the city. The McPherson and Torsion Beam suspension are more than adequate to take care of the horrendous condition of our roads.What you don’t get is a sun roof, which most of Ciaz’s rivals offer. You also don’t get side airbags. For comforts, you get a cruise control option which because of our scepticism combined with India’s brilliantly trained drivers, we did not test out much, and an automatic climate control which is capable of keeping the car cool and chilled out even in June’s fiery heat.The only flaw that we could think of with the cabin is the tire noisewhich leaks in.

There are plenty of safety features, wherein the crucial and important ones come as standard equipment. These include the reverse parking sensors, seat belt reminder and the speed alert systems, which, apparently, from next year will be mandatory for all cars sold in India. Our unit additionally had the reverse parking camera, auto levelling headlamps and Electronic Stability Control, which could not be turned off, even though there was a switch on the dash board for it. This practise of keeping dummy or fake switch which does not do anything really sets a bee in our bonnet, and we wish all manufacturers stopped this practise.

Verdict

Maruti Suzuki has a great car to offer in the Ciaz. And thanks to the hybrid system, it is a smart offering as well. Sure, like always, there are a few hits and misses here and there, but they are so minute that it is easy to forget them. And the latest sales figures seem to suggest that as well. The Ciaz is easily outselling all its direct competitors by a significant margin, despite lacking a few creature comforts like the sun roof, and rain sensing wipers. This just goes on to show how well made this car actually is.

From the November 2018 issue of FHM India.