Maruti Ciaz stands for zeal and attitude but pricing needs to be right

Jaipur: The Ciaz is an acronym for various attributes this mid-sized sedan from Maruti Suzuki India could hold for customers, not really a proper name. It stands for Comfort, Intelligence, Attitude and Zeal.

Maruti has made attempts earlier as well at chasing mid-sized sedan customers through SX4 and Baleno before that. And chasing premium customers with Kizashi, imported as a CBU from Japan. It was moderately successful with the SX4 but sales tapered off soon and even at its peak, the SX4 sold just about 3000 units a month. But with Kizashi, Maruti had to face customer apathy due to pricing issues as import duties and wild fluctuation in the Japanese Yen forced it to raise prices and it had to eventually stop selling the car.

Let us hope it is wiser now and gets the pricing right for the Ciaz, which already has a formidable competitor in the Honda City. All inidcations point to the base petrol variant coming somewhere close to Rs 7 lakh and the base diesel variant at close to Rs 8 lakh but Maruti could still surprise us. Not just Honda City, Maruti needs to wean away customers from other cars like Hyundai Verna, Volkswagen Vento and Nissan Sunny as well. Maruti usually goes for smart pricing and may just pull off the coup with Ciaz.

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The A3+ segment is about 16,000 cars a month with the market leader averaging between 5000-6000 a month. Maruti aspires to not just beat the market leader but also expand the segment size to 20,000 units a month. This means it must at least aim to sell 5,000 units of the Ciaz to meet its own targets.

Ciaz bookings have already begun but the car will be launched in early October. This is a wise move for many reasons - it will give Maruti enough time to stock up dealerships, it will also help the company avoid the inauspicious 15-day Shraddh period this month when buyers across north India do not buy new vehicles. Besides, by postponing launch to next month, Maruti may also be able to cash in on a market where the sentiment has already turned and further festival pick up is a near certainty.

We drove the diesel and petrol variants of the Ciaz in Jaipur and here’s what we think:

Outside and within

This is a good looking car which immediately gives the feel of a spacious and big vehicle, specially when viewed from the sides. It is almost four-and-a-half meters long and 1.73 meters wide. The wheelbase of 2.650 meters is much wider than competitors.

Even the ground clearance at 170 mm is ahead of competition and particularly well suited for Indian roads where speed bumps come in all shapes and sizes. Boot space of 510 litres is also a winner. Not just from the outside, the feeling of spaciousness and comfort increases once you sit inside the car. Leg and shoulder room in both front and rear seats is a delight.

The car is feature loaded, with rear AC vents, illuminated front console box and a neat space for keeping shades, light switches which double up as reading lights etc. The rear passenger comfort is also adequate with a central arm rest with cup holders, twin reading lamps and rear accessory socket. But what left us a little cold was the interior furnishing. Though made of good material, the colour combination (beige and black) and finishing lacked taste somewhat and could do with some improvement. Specially since Maruti now really wants to be seen as a maker of premium cars as well, not just a company which sells small cars.

Drive

We drove the 1.3 litre diesel Ciaz first. The engine delivers 90ps at 4000 rpm and the pickup is quite good. Ciaz is about 25 kg lighter than the segment leader and the diesel one weighs 1105 kg. The engine is carried over from the Ertiga but with several modifications and we found the handling was quite easy on high speeds, with very little turbo lag.

But the petrol engine seemed a little dull, with some effort needed at higher speeds and the steering also seemed a bit shaky in the petrol drive. This car has a 1.4 litre engine, again carried over from Ertiga with modifications.

It will come with two options: 4-speed automatic and 5-speed manual when the diesel one is available only in 5-speed manual. In both cars, the suspension and gear box were well suited and the car drove well over bumps though the petrol cabin became noisy at higher speeds. Of the two, we prefer the diesel Ciaz. As always, Maruti has managed to gain maximum possible fuel efficiency from the two engines and this might be enough to tilt the scales in its favour, leaving competition to fret. Maruti claims 26.21 kmpl for the diesel and 20.73 kmpl for the petrol variant.

Ciaz will have ABS and driver-side airbag in all but the base trim; the top two trims get passenger side airbags too.