Maruti Suzuki Dzire

The front fascia of the Dzire features a large blacked-out grille, which has a minor resemblance to that on Ford Aspire, and is surrounded by a thin chrome strip. It features a new swept-back headlamp unit housing the projector headlamp, which gives a premium feel. The bumper sports large air in-take. The design is more curvaceous with a new clamshell bonnet and thick chrome garnishing around the grille and fog lamp housing.
The side profile of the car is where two things catch your attention ? first, the 15-inch diamond-cut alloy wheels that get some fantastic design and secondly, the curvy and the flowing lines on the body shell which makes the Dzire look proportionate.
The wide hips and wheel arches make the rear of the Dzire looks mature. The large horizontal chrome strip at the rear and LED tail-light flows well with the overall design.

Maruti has fiddled a lot with the interiors to offer maximum pleasure, comfort and space. The overall layout is pleasant and more driver focused.
The steering wheel is new and gets a flat bottom with faux wood. The instrument cluster looks good and appropriate fonts have been used to make it reading-friendly. The combination of black and beige in the interiors, gives a better sense of space.
The most important design change for this Dzire, is the new driver-centric center console – which is slightly tilted towards the driver (like Volvos), so that the controls can be operated with ease. Maruti has used generous amount of faux wood on the dashboard and on the front doors. The wood does improve the overall look and feel and because of its matte finish, the wood doesn’t feel cheap. The seats are quite comfortable and supportive.
This new Dzire has a longer wheel base, and as a result, leg-room has improved at the back, but the head-room is still tight for taller occupants. There are AC vents and a 12V power socket at the back. The boot has also grown in size and is practically shaped too. Also there are 6 cup holders and 4 bottle holders, which is really good for a car if this size.

ENGINE

The new Dzire gets the 1.2L 4-cylinder (petrol) engine, which offers 83bhp of power and a peak torque of 113Nm, and a 1.3L 4-cylinder (diesel) engine, producing 75bhp of power and 190Nm of torque. Both these engines come mated with either a 5-speed manual transmission or AMT option.

On the diesel front, the company’s tried-and-trusted 1.3L 4-cylinder DDiS 190 engine is at the helm of affairs. It belts out top power of 74bhp at 4000rpm and highest torque of 190Nm at 2000rpm. Both the engines are linked to a 5-speed manual transmission as standard, while the 5-speed AMT gearbox is also on offer from V trim

PERFORMANCE, RIDE & HANDLING

The ride quality is on the softer side and the setup soaks up all the bumps and undulations brilliantly. The straight-line stability is brilliant, and the longer wheel-base gives an opportunity to stay in triple-digit speeds. However, at low speeds, there is noticeable stiffness. The steering wheel, being light, is a benefit for city driving.

The new Dzire is built on Suzuki’s Heartect platform which is more rigid than the one on which it was based before. Apart from it passing the crash tests, it also improves the stability. As far as braking is concerned, the new Dzire still lacks the initial bite, and the speed sheds only when you press the brake pedal hard.

MILEAGE

All-New Maruti DZire is more fuel efficient than the preceding model due to the use of ‘HEARTEC’ platform as it makes the sedan lighter by 70-80 kgs than before. The petrol variants deliver a mileage of 22kmpl with both manual and AMT variants, while the diesel variants return 28.40kmpl in both manual and AMT models. Both the mileage figures are ARAI Specified.

SAFETY

All-new Maruti Suzuki DZire gets disc brake at the front and drum brake at the rear. It can be termed as the best sedan in the segment as Maruti has paid utmost importance to the safety aspect by offering Anti-lock Braking System (ABS), Electronic Brake-force Distribution (EBD), Brake Assist (BA), dual front airbags, ISOFix Child Seat Anchorages, and Front seatbelts with pre-tensioner and load limiters as standard fitments across the entire variant range.

The new Dzire has got everything right – space, practicality, comfort, good equipment on top variants, fuel-efficient engines and, above everything, the backing of Maruti’s extensive sales and support network. Also, the inclusion of ABS with EBD, and dual airbags as standard across the range is an excellent move that?s sure to go down well with increasingly safety-conscious Indians.