All-new 2017 Suzuki WagonR, Stingray revealed

Suzuki has revealed the all-new 2017 Suzuki WagonR and WagonR Stingray in Japan. The all-new car sees a dramatic change in styling though it retains certain styling cues from its predecessor such as the tall boy design and, on the standard model, a passing resemblance to the older model up front.

Up front, the new WagonR features an upright two-piece grille flanked by either a set of square headlamps on the standard model or by two-piece units separated by a body-coloured panel on the hybrid. The hybrid further gets a thick band of chrome across the grille, along with a more prominent lower grille as well. The front bumper is not shared between the two models with the standard model featuring a rather plain unit as compared to the hybrid’s unit.

The Stingray on the other hand gets a prominent single-piece front grille flanked by sleek, vertical LED headlamps. As with the other models, the front bumper here too, is unique to the Stingray. From the nose, the all-new Stingray seems to have borrowed design inspiration of American automaker Cadillac’s Escalade SUV.

From the sides, all three variants look identical to each other. All the three models feature a stubby nose along with a prominent body-coloured B pillar that stylistically divides the car into distinct front and rear passenger sections. The pillar is thicker, especially at the base, and this is achieved by cutting into the rear-side glass at the bottom. The wing mirror is now placed on the door and not on the pillar. The cars also feature mild fender flares and a prominent body line that runs across the length towards the lower edge.

Moving on to the back, the new Suzuki WagonR gets rear styling similar to the Japanese Alto with a clean tailgate and with the tail-lamps sunken low down just above the rear bumper.

Inside, the dashboard is a new floating horizontally-laid unit with the centre console not meeting the floor. The dials now sit atop the centre console with the certain models featuring a colour display for the MID. Some variants additionally feature a heads-up display in front of the driver. Some styling aspects on the dashboard seem to be borrowed from the Ignis such as the four rectangular air-con vents resting in a horizontal strip, the steering and the tablet-like touchscreen infotainment display. The Stingray additionally gets an all-black interior with red inserts across the cabin.

Under the hood, the standard car is powered by a 660cc three-cylinder petrol engine developing 52hp and 60Nm of torque. The hybrid additionally features Suzuki’s SHVS mild hybrid technology for improved fuel economy. The Stingray model is also available in standard and hybrid form, though the engine is tweaked to develop 66hp and 98Nm of torque. A CVT gearbox is standard and all variants get the option of two- or four-wheel drive.

There is no word on the India launch. But if the car does make its way to our shores, expect Maruti to tweak the styling as the typically quirky small Japanese car styling would not go down well in our market. A lengthened front-end could also be needed for a larger bay to house the 1.0-litre engine.