With a rate of close to a thousand bookings per day, the Celerio has emerged as a trump card for India’s mass production leader, Maruti Suzuki Limited. With demand for the product going up the waiting period for the Celerio has reached up to six months and even eight months in some regions.
The Maruti Suzuki Celerio is powered by a 1.0 liter K-Next petrol engine that churns out 67bhp and 90 Nm of torque. The car offers 23 kmpl (ARAI Certified) fuel economy. Celerio is the first car in India to offer a Semi-Automatic transmission, “EZ drive” called by Maruti Suzuki which is the huge reason for its popularity. All the variants of the Celerio offer Semi-Automatic transmission as well as manual transmission.
Semi-automatic transmission is a unique attempt by Maruti Suzuki to win back a lot of lost customers. The semi automatic transmission is a regular manual transmission without a clutch, where an electronic unit transmits information to the gear box regarding gear shifts. There are neither any torque converters nor planetary gear box like typical automatic transmission systems.
The gear changes take place precisely as per the car’s ECU commands and there is less wear-and-tear of mechanical elements due to correct shifts. The automated manual transmission has an automatic clutch controlled by the ECU that helps to reduce clutching and de-clutching effort in bumper to bumper traffic .
The vehicle is marketed in six variants, where AMT gearbox is optional with all variants.
LXi Manual = Rs. 3.76 lakhs.
VXi Manual = Rs. 4.06 lakhs.
ZXi Manual = Rs. 4.34 lakhs.
LXi Auto Gear Shift = Rs. 4.14 lakhs.
VXi Auto Gear Shift = Rs. 4.44 lakhs.
ZXi Auto Gear Shift = Rs. 4.79 lakhs.
Following is a list of all important features Celerio will come with:
Integrated (on ORVM) turn indicators
Fog Lamps
Day night IRVM
Alloy Wheels
Driver seat height adjust
Driver seat belt warning light
Audio player with Bluetooth
Keyless entry system
Tilt adjustable steering
ABS
Rear window demister
Power windows
Maruti Suzuki seems to have pulled out another rabbit from the hat and struck a sixer with the Celerio. Only time will tell whether this boom will sustain over time or whether something else comes up in the market to pose a serious challenge to the Celerio. Keep watching this space for more.