MOTORING
Suzuki Celerio
Suzuki has entered in to the very important city car market
place with the all-new Celerio, writes Bob Hickman.
Suzuki is well known as producers
of excellent small cars, and the
new Celerio will be available with
3 trim grades and priced very
reasonably from £6999 for the
entry SZ2 model, an additional
£1,000 then goes on the next 2 trim
grades badged SZ3, and SZ4.
A small city car should feel just as
safe as its larger siblings and the
Celerio range come equipped
with 6-air bags, and an ESP system.
Low emissions of 92g/km CO2 and
a low fuel consumption figures
are claimed by the manufacturer.
During my time with the Celerio
I achieved 58mpg on over 300
miles using A, B roads and on
the motorway, which I think is
excellent.
The Celerio really is an easy
car to drive, it has outstanding
manoeuvrability, a very tight turning
circle of just 9.4 metres suggests that
this will be a joy in and around town
and also on multi-storey or tight
car parks. Good all round visibility is
enhanced by small pillars and the
somewhat slightly higher seating
and driving position. I like the fact
that the front side doors open quite
widely to enable less able people to
access the vehicle with ease.
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The Celerio is a diminutive package
with quite angular design features,
externally small but internally the
designers have waved the magic
wand and created ample space
for 4 adults, luggage however will
be at a premium, but lets not forget
this is primarily a city car. There is
ample room in the interior for 2
adults at the front, it is pleasing to
note a huge amount of head and
shoulder room, and you never feel
claustrophobic in this particular
vehicle.
My test derivative for once was
the basic entry level vehicle and
it comes as quite a shock when
you have to manually adjust wing
mirrors, no blip per on a remote
control, you have to put the key
My particularly test derivative
had a 998cc 3-cylinder engine
allegedly putting out 68bhp but
in a small light body, power to
weight ratio is more important than
outright performance.
It complies with the new Euro C
emissions and with the low CO
figure, it is in excise band A and this
equates to a nil excise duty. Top
speed is given as 96mph and the
0 - 62 in a not too unexciting 13.5
seconds.
in to the lock and then you have to
remember to turn the key twice to
the left and it will open all the doors
for you. Also my test car was not
equipped with air conditioning and I
think this is one particular aspect that
I may have been tempted to pay
the extra £1,000 to go to the SZ3 that
had air conditioning and air pollen
filter. It is an extremely useful feature
on a vehicle. That having been said
I actually managed to live without
remote control, and electric windows
and surprisingly I managed without
Blue Tooth and a Satellite Navigational
System. Perhaps it is a case of the
more features you have on the car
the more you demand and then you
suddenly realise in actual fact you
don’t need a lot of the equipment
now found on certain vehicles.
From a driving perspective
the 5-speed manual gearbox
is notchy and positive,
instrumentation was extremely
minimal, just a speedometer,
rev counter and fuel gauge, in
addition there were a couple of
buttons for the trip mileage and
miles to the gallon.
It proves that less is more and we
do not really need a plethora of
dials and switches to make our
motoring any more enjoyable.