Suzuki Dzire – A Segment Attack

I just witnessed Suzuki’s master plan on how they are going to attack the motorings A segment and it’s a rather intelligent plan.  You see Suzuki, needed a cheap and affordable medium-sized car. Their cheapest, the Alto, is obviously a bit smaller than what your average small family required and their cheapest Swift started at nearly 190k. Good value, but great value has just stepped up to slap the likes of the Honda Brio, Renault Clio and the Toyota Etios right in the face.

The biggest news is that the Swift is now available in a sedan, which is called the Dzire. Strange name, but I like it. Both the Dzire and the hatch are only available with a 1.2l DOHC engine mated to either a 5speed manual or a 4spd auto.

We briefly got to drive the 2 models across some of the nicer roads the Cape had to offer and I can assure you that they perform the driving duty very well. The higher profile tires and the slightly raised ground clearance (170mm) soak up the bumps very well. The suspension has also been tuned to minimize road noise and even at 140kph, you hardly hear much of it. The electronic steering is light in tight spaces, but firms up as your speed increases. This makes the Swift nice and stable, even in gusting cross winds. The peppy little 1.2 engine is eager to rev with the VVT technology, but produces an healthy 5.5l/100km, too.

Both models are built in India and aimed at the 25-35 market who, at this point, would rather buy a used vehicle over a well specced new entry level model.

The hatch and sedan are available in two spec models; a GA and a GL, with the latter being the luxury model featuring a better specced interior with ABS, Fog lamps, Electric Power Windows and mirrors, steering wheel controls and even keyless entry.

We eagerly await our test unit.

Prices:

1.2 GA – R126 900

1.2 GL – R136 900

1.2 GL AT – R151 900

DZire 1.2 GA R128 900

DZire 1.2GL R138 900

DZire 1.2 GA AT R153 900