A Tall Order

It has been over ten years since Maruti launched the first of the tall boy’s in the Indian market and although the car has had an excellent run so far, it has become slightly long in the tooth. So in a couple of hours from now, Maruti will unveil the ALL-new WagonR which will be available across the country at your neighborhood Maruti Suzuki dealership almost immediately. We managed to get behind the wheel for a short stint and came away reasonably impressed with the new WagonR. The car is clearly more about evolution than revolution and they’ve managed to keep all the original WagonR virtues intact. That means you get plenty of space on the inside, large doors which make stepping in and out of the car a breeze and being a real tall-boy – plenty of headroom!

Since its launch in the Indian market over a decade ago, Maruti states that the car has had over 8Lakh satisfied customers and with so many of them on the road, of all generations, we really don’t doubt that fact! The first car was launched in 1999 followed by a facelift in 2003 and yet another facelift in 2006. So after a good ten year product life cycle for the first car, Maruti Suzuki India Limited, thought that it was about time they launched an all new car based on an all new platform. The new car is bigger, bolder and certainly smarter looking and they’ve got a marketing theme called the ‘blue eyed boy’ which essentially boils down to the fact that the car’s front parking lamps (in the headlamp cluster) sport a blue-white hue when switched on. The new car is far bolder in its looks, far more aggressive and spacious while now being far more sophisticated in its appearance both inside and out.

They have paid attention to a lot of smaller design elements – for example the way the bonnet and grille taper to a ‘V’ to a very similar design element in the rear tailgate. the inside of the car is fairly large and it can comfortable accomodate four large adults, three at the rear could be a bit cramped.

The car has been designed completely in house and it’s only the rear that does somewhat retain the current WagonR’s looks. The all new engraved WagonR chrome rear number-plate lip is absolutely a delight to look at and really reinforces pride in the brand. The ‘smiling’ front grille is in line with MSIL’s design philosophy and just a tad similar to the Estilo’s. But there’s no mistaking this car for the old one. View it side on, and you can tell how different the car now looks (see pictures for a comparision). Gone is the rear quarter-glass and the door size has grown considerably. The rear overhang is quite minimal but the front has more of a ‘nose’ than ever before and does give the car a slightly better look than the pictures of the snub-nosed Japanese WagonR that were floating around the Internet and in plenty of publications. The car has a larger glass area and it’s a good thing that they’ve worked on the HVAC to cool better and more efficiently.

The new WagonR is based on an all-new platform, which is substantially larger. If you compare it to the older VXi, the new car is 3,595mm long and the older on is 3,520mm. It’s grown in width too from 1,490mm to 1,495mm and is now taller than the older car by 10mm at 1700mm. The car also boasts best in class tandem-seating legroom, and best in class front seat travel (240mm). It has a 2400mm wheelbase and a turning radius of 4.6 meters which means its fairly manoverable in the city. Of course there’s the Electric Assist power steering across LXi and VXi variants. The wheel and tyre size on the VXi trim level has grown to 155/65 R14 while the LX and LXi come with 145/70 R13s. There’s also an all new wheel trim design on the car which is quite attractive but we’re sure that a set of alloys would really add even further to the car’s looks.

But the biggest change in the WagonR comes from what’s below the bonnet. The car is now powered by a new K10B series engine, which obviously is BS-IV spec to meet with current emission regulations. It’s a three cylinder 998cc powerplant that puts out all of 67Bhp at 6200rpm and 90Nm of torque at 3500rpm. This engine is not just BS-IV but is also E10 (Ethanol 10% mix) compliant, making it more environmentally friendly. The car does cruise comfortably at a 100kph but the engine does get quite noisy when pushed close to the rev limit. The older WagonR came with a four-cylinder 1061cc engine that put out a shade over 66Bhp but a lower 84Nm of torque. The higher torque does help as does the better shifting gearbox (with a new cable type mechanism), the light clutch and the more ergonomically shaped gear lever. All these add up to making driving in the city traffic a far more comfortable experience. MSIL also claim a fuel economy figure of 18.9 kmpl and we’ll know exactly how much it really does deliver when we do a proper road-test of the car.

What’s immediately noticeable about the new WagonR is how much quieter and refined it is than the last generation car. It also feels far more grown up and the way it rides and handles like a far more grown up car than ever before. The front suspension now boasts of a sub-frame which isolates and damps most of the road shock and the rear suspension is also new and really goes a long way in helping with ride quality and handling.

On the insides the car is really spacious and the new – but large dashboard (which is a fairly well-sized mass of plastic) feels decent to the touch, but truth be told, some newer cars in the segment do boast of better quality today. The car now has cupholders (which are a push type) just ahead of the front air-con vents so you can keep your cola’s cool. It’s also (for the first time!) got a rear parcel tray, a 60:40 split rear seat, a storage space hidden away below the front passenger seat (ala the Ford Fusion) and a console ahead of the gear lever that has a rubberized module to prevent any damage to your cellular phone when you place it there. However the new car interiors lack the sheet utility of the older car interiors. Gone are the large storage spaces above and below the glovebox and below the steering wheel. And talking of losing utility and space, the boot is smaller too and has shrunk to about 180litres.

The speedometer cluster is modern and racy looking and there’s a digital fuel readout for fuel level and the odometer. The integrated audio kit with an Aux-in feature on the VXi looks fairly good, but we do miss steering mounted controls. Maybe that’s been saved for a ZXi? The car also boasts of better safety and boasts of RCS or Rigid Cage Structure in MSIL speak. The VXi comes with an option pack which adds ABS and Airbags for driver and the front passenger. There are seven colours on offer with Breeze Blue being the launch colour for the new Wagon R. And it’s quite fitting with the Blue Eyed Boy marketing theme too! So as of today, you can bid farewell to the old WagonR since MSIL has stopped production of the old car, including the Duo which was very successful. A new alternative-fuel car is in the works and there are no plans for a diesel in the new car. With prices expected to be in the 3.5lakh range for the VXi (ex-showroom Delhi) the WagonR does have its work cut out in the face of competition but sporting the most reliable and trusted badge in the country with the largest sales and service network, MSIL knows that the new car will be a success and will take forward the WagonR brand well into the first-half of the next decade.