Suzuki Celerio - Know the cheap yet feature loaded hatch

‘Expensive doesn’t always mean better.’ A perfect example of this is the Suzuki Celerio. It’s a small hatchback that comes at a very affordable price and brings along with it necessary features that you will actually use in the day-to-day life. It’s been manufactured keeping simplicity in mind. Yet it is no less than any other of its competitors when it comes to practicality. The Celerio is one of the many hatchbacks available in the country, and it stands out from the rest of them for many reasons. Let’s find out.

1- Exterior and styling

Like we mentioned before, the Celerio has been designed keeping simplicity in mind. But simple doesn’t mean boring. The Celerio is a handsome-looking car. Yes, it does miss out on some of the high-end features like projector headlamps, all-around exterior LED lighting, and so on, but in reality, it just works fine without them. It’s got a different purpose to serve in its lifetime.

The front of the Celerio looks like a happy face. Its halogen headlights curve up a little towards the rear. The front grille has two horizontal chrome lines that are the home to the Suzuki logo. There are a couple of character-lines on the side of the car that actually helps in the aerodynamics, and also eliminates the boredom of the otherwise plain side view.

2- Interior and space

Even after being a small hatchback, the Celerio has got a ton of space inside its cabin. There is ample room for all passengers. The legroom for the rear two passengers is commendable for this kind of a car. Four people can comfortably fit here, five would be a little cramped. The boot space is a well 254 litres which can be increased by folding the rear seats.

The interior of the Celerio reflects the objective of the car - simple yet practical. Obviously, you won’t find high-quality materials here. It has got an analog instrument cluster which is highly legible in every lighting condition. We also have a sufficient number of storage compartments/pockets. The 7-inch multimedia touchscreen sits in the center of the dashboard. It comes with an inbuilt navigation system. Then we've got the manual air conditioning, like the old times, which does a great job in maintaining the cabin temperature.

You sit higher in the Celerio which gives you a better view of what’s ahead and also boosts up your confidence. All the buttons and switches are ergonomically placed and are within the reach of the driver.

3- Engine and transmission

Powering the Celerio is Suzuki’s K10B engine. It’s a 1.0-liter 3-cylinder petrol engine that churns out 67 hp at 6,000 rpm and 90 Nm of peak torque at 3,500 rpm. Suzuki has done a whole lot of research to make this engine as lightweight as possible. It’s more than sufficient to successfully cater to the daily commuting and long weekend trips. The best feature of Celerio is that it comes with a Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) that just makes things so much easier for our congested cities. Suzuki has found the perfect balance between performance and fuel efficiency with this one. And for those enthusiastic drivers or car lovers, there’s also an option for a 5-speed manual gearbox. The Celerio would give a mileage of around 23 km/l.

4- Safety features

Suzuki wanted to the Celerio to be a go-to car for everyone without compromising on the safety of its occupants. You won’t find high-tech safety features like vehicle stability control, a plethora of sensors to keep you in the right direction, hill-climb and descent assist, etc.. But you do get a couple of airbags at the front - one for the driver and the other for the co-passenger.

Suzuki has also implemented its Total Effective Control Technology (TECT) which reduces the overall weight of the car and provides high structural rigidity. Suzuki has also used high-tensile materials in constructing this practical car. With ventilated discs at the front wheels, and an ABS as standard, the Celerio will make sure that you stop as and when you desire.

You have to pick from the 8 different available color options - Snow White Pearl, Mineral Grey Metallic, Super Black Pearl, Ablaze Red Pearl, Cerulean Blue, Raspberry Pink, Star Silver Metallic and Sunshine Yellow. The manual variant of the Celerio is priced at PHP 558,000 whereas the CVT variant is a bit dearer at PHP 598,000.

We all have different demands from our lives. The same concept follows when it comes to picking up a car. The Celerio is not a perfect car. No car is a perfect car. It’s our demands, and requirements based on which we select a car, and it’s how that car fulfills those requirements and ticks the right checkboxes that makes it perfect. For us, the Celerio ticks many checkboxes.