New car Suzuki Celerio
 

I thought this might interest some, gets released in Australia this month and the dual jet model later this year.
I am seriously thinking of buying the Auto Dual jet version, the auto is a 5 speed manual with an automated changer and gets the same milage as the manual 3.6l/100km combined cycle :)

Suzuki Celerio's 'big' drive to beat city traffic - Independent.ie

Its been out in India for nearly a year but they improved the safety and added some extra features before bringing it to Oz.
I don't know if America gets the baby Suzuki's?

My dad wants a high seating car and test drove the Celerio. I was a passenger on that ride. It had the 3 cylinder 1 liter engine, manual tranny.

I'm sorry to say but I did not like it one bit.
High, narrow, stiff but independent suspension made for a harsh ride and still a lot of overhang in the corners.
The engine was noisy and underpowered. My dad misshifted several times (having almost 50 years of experience with manuals, some of them quite bad ones too).

To my amazement my dad praised the car for being quiet.
Turned out he had forgotten to put his hearing aids in...

The auto tranny was not available yet.
My sister has a Mazda 2 with a comparable tranny (computerized manual) but she hates it. It does everything right except it does not accelerate when you want to. You have to plan your acceleration well in advance, building it up slowly to prevent double kickdown with a waiting period in between...

We own a high seating Hyundai I10, a smaller and cheaper car than the Celerio but IMHO a much better car in all aspects - save boot space.

We test drove a Honda Jazz (=Fit) Hybrid too. The difference could hardly be bigger.
Not just the ride but the seats, trim, quality and all.
If you think about buying a Celerio then test drive a Jazz/Fit and compare.

My dad is on his way to buy a Jazz Hybrid now :)

Thanks for the feed back on the Celerio, I will take one for a test spin when they come into stock, it will be annoying if they are that bad as I love the idea of the ATM having driven a citreon version that was very nice (but I will give it a good test) and not to mention the fuel consumption.
A few reviews I read suggest it is silent below 3,500 rpm? the Oz one has auto stop/start for in traffic among a stack of other upgrades.

We dont get the I10 in Oz just I20 and upward.

I had a Honda Jazz a few years back, good motor and CVT the rest of it was cr.p to put it bluntly.

It never actually broke down but the amount of parts that failed was staggering, suspesion was hopeless and the brakes adequate, that was after the entire braking system was replaced due to intermittently losing 90% of its stopping ability without warning from new.
It took a lot of forceful discussion over months to get them to admit the fault even existed.
Sold it before the warranty ended as I would not have been able to afford the amount of parts that failed each year.
I will never buy a Honda again.

Hopefully the hybrid is much better, most owners love their Jazz's, I may have just got lemon.

Sorry to hear about your bad luck with the Jazz.
I'm amazed about the suspension troubles, but to be fair the Jazz isn't outback material, nor is any other smaller car.
Over here on brick roads and speed bumps it does well - at least the hybrid does, not unlike my Insight.

My dad has a Subaru Legacy Wagon, that's in a different league though.
It is well beaten up and he may get rid of it today if the deal with the Jazz works out, but it runs like a train.

The I20 is indeed another fine one, you get a lot of car for the money.
I had one with sport suspension as a courtesy car when the PS om my I10 went out for the second time - dealer said mine had the first, and second, PS failure in all the I10s they kept track of, so that was probably uncanningly bad luck too - and the only thing I disliked about it was the ride due to that sport suspension.

Since you Ozzies have the steering wheel on the right side this may be of concern to you:

Suzuki suspends UK sales of new Celerio due to braking problem - ITV News

They'll find and fix this issue soon no doubt. But for now, take care.

Thanks for that RedDevil.
Good thing the magazine test drivers found this instead of some random driving along and crashing.
There are thousands of them in india so it must be something to do with all the extra saftey devices as the Indian version has none, I just found the complete report and it appears that the Uk and Australian ones come from Tailand and the Indian ones (plus some others) are made in India, not good.

Did your dad go with the Jazz hybrid?
They dont even sell them in Australia :(

12 thousand Euros for a car intended for developing countries? I think they're dreaming. They'd have to be $12k landed here to stand even half a chance. VW couldn't make the Up! work at $14k.

I think they were talking $13,990 aud, but I don't know if that was the locked in price.
The second gen one should be cheaper than the first gen if you want auto due to the AMT.
The Alto has regular sales into the $12,000 area so maybe the Celerio will as well?

Why arent other manufacturers reaching this sort of fuel consumption without a stupid price tag?

It was a strange coincidence, the story broke shortly after you started the thread.

My dad did not buy a Jazz Hybrid - yet.
The dealer had a plain white and a champagne white metallic one, new, both priced about 4000 € below default catalog price.
They liked the latter but 'obviously' there had been a mistake in the ad, only the plain white could go for that after adding a hefty delivery fee.
Even that was more expensive than my dad was willing to spend.

They really disliked the plain white and on the way there (an hour and a half away) they saw many white cars and all of them looked dirty.
He dislikes washing his car ...

At the dealership they saw a fluorescent green one, and now they liked that color more. So they are going to look again at a Jazz in that color which they had skipped previously; an occasion, very well equipped and low mileage. I think they'd do right.

I have seen the Celerio in Uruguay, if it was available in my country I'd consider to get one.