Maruti Celerio diesel review, test drive

What’s it like to drive?

Now as expected, this two-cylinder diesel vibrates and makes a bit of noise when you start it up. Turn the key and it coughs, wheezes and then settles into a lumpy idle. Sure, you can tell it’s a diesel right away, but the slightly off-beat tone and the mild vibration give it away as something a bit different too. It’s not as silent as Hyundai’s Grand i10 and it isn’t as smooth either when revved, but all things considered, refinement levels are quite acceptable. And while engine noise increases as you spin it faster, it doesn’t get excessively gruff either.

Performance is less impressive; clearly, this car is tuned more for gentle cruising and success at the pumps. If you adopt a relaxed driving style, the Celerio diesel will pull you along cheerfully and it is pretty good at that. It takes off quite smartly from rest and there’s very little delay before the small turbo gives it a bit of a boost, so driving at city speeds isn’t too much of a bother. Try to press on, however, and the Celerio diesel runs out of breath. Yes, there is some amount of grunt in the mid-range and you can make use of this in the higher gears, but effective powerband is so narrow that power soon tails off. We did manage to get some indicative acceleration numbers on our brief drive around Goa, but those didn’t prove to be too impressive; expect a 0-100kph time somewhere in the region of 19 or 20 seconds, which isn’t too far from the Chevrolet Beat diesel. And while the clutch is light, the gearbox did need a bit of effort to slot in occasionally. So, expect enough performance to drive around in a relaxed manner, but not much beyond that.