Maruti Suzuki will take the wraps off the refreshed Vitara Brezza SUV on February 6 – the second day of the 2020 Auto Expo, which starts on February 5. The updated Vitara Brezza, as reported by us earlier, will see cosmetic tweaks, inside and out, as part of its mid-cycle facelift.
The big update for the Vitara Brezza SUV will be the BS6-compliant 1.5-litre petrol engine that will replace the 1.3-litre diesel powerplant. The 1.5-litre K15B petrol engine is the same unit seen in the Ertiga and the Ciaz in the brand’s India line-up. It delivers 105hp and 138Nm of torque. The Vitara Brezza facelift with 1.5-litre petrol mill will come with a standard 5-speed manual gearbox with a 4-speed torque convertor automatic as an option on higher variants.
In order to keep costs in check, the SHVS (Smart Hybrid) fuel-saving tech will be available only on the Vitara Brezza petrol automatic and not on the variants equipped with a manual gearbox.
The refreshed SUV will get minor styling changes up front, with a slightly wider chin – clearly split in two sections. It will get larger fog-lamp housings and the turn indicators have now been moved to the main headlamp unit. While the headlamp shape remains the same, the inserts are all-new with chrome bits and a large LED daytime running lamp positioned at the bottom. The refreshed SUV will also get faux skid plates for its front and rear bumpers, all-black alloy-wheels for mid-spec variants, and diamond-cut alloy wheels for the top-spec ZXI+ trim that will also come with LED fog lamps. At the back, the revised tail-lamp inserts will get LED bits, and there are talks of the turn-indicator bulb being an LED unit too, giving the SUV a more premium look.
The refreshed Vitara Brezza will get new exterior paint-shade combinations, some with black alloy wheels with higher trims getting diamond-cut alloys as standard. Inside, it will come with the new SmartPlay Studio infotainment system that will also double as a display for the reverse camera.
Expect Maruti Suzuki to price the Vitara Brezza 1.5-litre petrol at a slightly lower price band than the outgoing diesel version. The price difference is not expected to be substantial, thanks to the upgraded BS6-compliant 1.5-litre engine; though the SUV now missing out on excise duty benefits for petrol vehicles with an engine capacity of less than 1.2 litres.
The Maruti Vitara Brezza had its world premiere at Auto Expo 2016. The sub-four-metre SUV has driven past the half-a-million (5,00,000) units sales milestone in the domestic market. It is estimated that the Vitara Brezza sold a total of 13,658 units in December 2019, which is likely to make it the UV leader for the last month of 2019.
The updated petrol compact SUV will face some stiff competition when it hits showrooms sometime in late February. It will rival the likes of the heavily updated Tata Nexon, Mahindra XUV300, Hyundai Venue, Ford EcoSport and the upcoming Renault HBC compact SUV that will launch later this year.
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