Volkswagen Virtus vs Maruti Suzuki Ciaz [2014-2017]

In our best efforts to offer you an exclusive review, we took the time out with Maruti’s Ciaz in its petrol automatic disguise. Maruti Suzuki proposed to India with the Ciaz in October 2014 with a lot of apprehension. This was mainly due to their segment predecessors, the Baleno saloon and SX4, whose downfall does not really need any specific introduction. However, the Ciaz became a popular buy in the segment and even outsold the Honda City for some time.

The most fuel efficient car in India, at least on paper. A minor technology update to the Ciaz diesel sedan has bumped-up the ARAI fuel efficiency by about 10 per cent to 28.09kmpl. Maruti Suzuki calls it the SHVS (Smart Hybrid Vehicle by Suzuki) technology; a simple yet ingenious way of getting a little more from the car yet making it cheaper by the means of the FAME initiative subsidy on the hybrids.

The Ciaz is probably the most important car for Maruti Suzuki in the longest while. It is their gate pass to the premium segments that they have failed to make a foothold in so many years. While there is no question over Maruti’s dominance in the small car segment, it is in the higher price brackets that they have struggled to get the right product and wriggle away from the budget brand image. We are late in reviewing the Ciaz; it has been around for a while and everyone knows about its success story. The sedan has already established itself as the second highest selling car in an extremely competitive C-Segment. So our short spin in and around Mumbai then was to find out what has made this such a hit for the Indo-Japanese automaker.