Best Ever from Maruthi

Exterior The style grows on you, when you see it first, you feel it's very understated but eventually you fall in love. It's bigger than any other competition in the segment and has good road presence.

Interior (Features, Space & Comfort) Best interior ever by Maruthi. Hide the badge and you will mistake it for any other European rival. Clean. Nicely laid out dash, feature loaded - wood like trims on dash and doors - everything is put together nicely and quality is good.

Engine Performance, Fuel Economy and Gearbox Clearly not a car for driving enthusiast - won't lie here. But, in today's road and traffic conditions, you don't need a car which only scores high on engine response and acceleration, you need an all rounder - that's Ciaz. Ciaz definitely isn't underpowered but takes it time to come around.

Turbo kicks on after 2000 RpM only. Will require downshifts if you need an irgeny move around. Gearbox is nice and works without any hesitation. Not the best in the segment though. 

Ride Quality & Handling Better than any other Maruthi or other European rivals. Tyres are good and soaks up all bumps easily. Good balance between stiff and flaoty and you don't feel unsettled at any point.

Honda has skinny tyres and if you compare it with Honda, it's way ahead in comfort and ride quality.

Steering feedback is poorer when compared to its main rival Honda. But not a deal killer. Good to hold and feels premium though. (At par with Honda)

Final Words Maruthi is able to sell Ciaz Hybrid almost at 1 lac lower cost than Honda City Diesel. VXO variant. Peoeple usually argue saying that Honda sells for premium and Maruthi sells with cheaper parts and quality.

What we don't realise forget conveniently is that Maruthi has 100% localization and passes cost benefit to consumers. No other manufacturers has 100 % localization and cost on imports, duty cess etc gets billed to you as final cost.

Ciaz is a great product, superb value for money, well built and good lookin car. Put the price in the equation and it's clearly beats all others. (Remember its the only Hybrid in the segment too).

Resale and Service network again gets more points to Maruthi and whether you love it hate it - Ciaz offers more bang for every buck and it's Top rival in this segment - the Honda is losing the battle with much higher cost, arrogant sales staff, poor interiors, skinny tyres and no basic features like projector headlights. 

Areas of improvement Ciaz needs to launch slightly more powerful engine at 100 bhp. Nothing else to improve or complain about.

Perhaps it can also introduce a cruise control and a sunroof at a little extra cost in top variant. People who enjoy it will have an option.

Space, comfort, Fuel economy, feature loadedLenear power (not a con) , No cruise control. no sunroof, Steering feedback