Pleasures of owning a CIAZ

Well let me start by saying that I firmly believe CIAZ is the best offering from the Maruti Suzuki stables as yet! I was one of the very first customers of the CIAZ in Pune and am damn proud of it. I waited till I did a couple of drives down to Mumbai and stretched her legs properly before penning my thoughts abouts owning the car. Now a bit more detail!

Exterior - Elegantly styled the CIAZ captivates the onlooker immediately with it's presence. Projector Head Lamps included curvaceous headlights look stunning and compliment the Chrome front grille beautifully. The rear end though many may feel is similar to that of the new City (even copied some might add) I far better designed. Especially the fender and the cluster of lights in the tail lights. The 15" wheel caps (VXi+) looks so similar to the 16" Alloys on the higher end variants that it takes a keen eye to realise they are covers and not alloys.  The ORVMs with the indicators integrated on them add to the classy look.

 

Interior (Features, Space & Comfort) - What can I say? It beats the City hands down!! Styling, feature list, space you name it! City I'm sure hs many a loyal fan and not without reason till date but here is a car that challenges the till date segment leader and I dare say wins the battle. The entertainment system looks far better in the CIAZ and so does the overall Dashboard. The seats are super comfortable and provide excellent support all over for longer drives. Rear AC and charging points, arm rest and the leg room in the back is just unbelievable. My fiend infact seeing the space asked me to show him the boot to see if Maruti Suzuki designers played a trick here but BAM! The boot is huge too! The steering with audio and phone controls feels great and super convenient. The bluetooth took some time to for me to understand but maybe because I tried to experiment instead of reading the manual! (That's me!) Cruise Control would have been a nice rounding off to the feature list, but I dont see it as a deal breaker for sure!

 

Engine Performance, Fuel Economy and Gearbox - The engine is smooth and refined as expected from Maruti Suzuki. The K-Series engine gives a great balance of power and ecomony. Company claims 20+ average but I am getting around 15 in city conditions and Pune traffic sucks!! Highway average goes right up close to company claimed. Overall around 17KMPL is great I would say in the Real World. The gearbox is smooth altough initially I did find it a bit tough to select Reverse.

 

Ride Quality & Handling - The ride quality is lovely too! The bumps and ditches synonymous to indian roads are tackled well and the handling at speeds of 140+ km/h on the Express Highway didn't scare the wits out of me. The car handled the curves in the ghat sections brilliantly at 100 K's too! Ground clearance is also good ensuring the bottom isn't getting scraped on the hideous "speed breakers" around town.

 

Final Words - Overall I would say this is probably the best buy I have made in terms of cars bought as yet since even some Merc and BMW owners actually truned aroud to give a second look to my beauty when I passed them by in Pune and Mumbai. Now that's got to be a Compliment if there was one! Sorry McDonalds I'm stealing your line - I'm Loving It!

 

Areas of improvement - Today's customers are vowed by things like Sunroofs and Cruise Control! Try incorporating them maybe as "Optional" features for a reasonable price. Also please do launch the rear windscreen retractable curtain under the Maruti Genuine Spares (MGS) list. It makes huge sense to have one in our climatic conditions especially on long drives.

 

 

Styling, Features, Comfort, Space and EconomyUnable to master the Bluetooth features