Another area where the Celerio may have an edge over its competition is ride quality. The suspension is soft and absorbent enough at slow speeds yet does not make the car feel ‘floaty’ as you encounter mild dips at high speeds. Straight-line stability is good and the Celerio gives you a fair amount of confidence around corners too. The rear of the car does feel soft and soggy as you go faster, but for most buyers, it is the Celerio’s light steering and tight turning circle that will be the highlights.
Coming to equipment, the Celerio will be offered in three variants, each with varying levels of features. Air-conditioning and power steering are standard on the base LXi, while the VXi model gets a rear parcel shelf, power windows, central locking and internally adjustable rear view mirrors. The top-spec ZXi is visually distinguishable by its alloy wheels and body-coloured door handles. In its ZXi avatar, the Celerio also gets an integrated audio player with USB, aux-in and Bluetooth for telephone and audio streaming functions, steering controls for the audio system, electrically adjustable outside rear view mirrors, tilt-adjustable steering, a driver’s side airbag, rear wash/wipe and a rear defogger. Interestingly, ABS and a front passenger airbag are available only as an optional package on the ZXi and have to be purchased separately. Also disappointing to note is that these safety features will not be offered on the automatic version of the Celerio that will only be sold in LXi and VXi variants. Maruti’s logic for this is that a fully-loaded Celerio automatic would work out to be too costly and would find few takers.
That brings us to the price. We expect the Celerio range to start at Rs 3.9 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) for the base manual version and at Rs 4.9 lakh for the automatic. At these prices, the Celerio would go head to head with the Hyundai i10, which sound like a good fight. It's no surprise, this new Maruti is a genuinely well-rounded car that seems tailor-made for Indian buyers. It may not be wildly exciting to look at, but it is smart, easy to drive and efficient. It's also a car that gets the basics right. It's spacious, well put together and backed by Maruti’s fantastic after-sales network. Expect a long waiting list for this one.