Copyright © 2011 Jaideep Ranade

All Maruti Suzuki cars have two problems. First, they look bad, and they drive to match. Second, they are all in the same segment of hatchbacks, which means they are competing with themselves. So when they came out with the Swift Dezire, which was just a regular Swift with Jenifer Lopez’s* butt attached to it, I thought they were just trying something new. Then they came out with the SX4, which was their first proud sedan. All was well and dandy, but there were some obvious problems.

It was as tall as a hatch and as big as a SUV while it tried to look like a sedan. It failed at all three. This car is either a SUV that decided one day to wear the clothes of a sedan or the other way around, but lost heart midway and ended up the way it is: tall and large with wheels from a monster truck and the clearance of an airplane in flight.

Looks wise it is worse than the Hyundai Verna. It is taller, wider, and heavier with bigger, thicker wheels driven by a same size 1.6 litre engine.

When Suzuki came out with the concept of having a hatchback disguised as a sedan, I wasn’t too keen on seeing the result of that. They didn’t prove me wrong, and I am not happy. While from the front it is not bad looking except for its angry headlights, from the side it looks like it has stomach cramps and is tortured, as if under constant braking, maybe from all the constipation.

With its tall, bold body and the massive rear, this huge car makes a person sitting in it feel like he’s the driver of a Volvo B9R.

So, the car’s not that great to look at, but a person sitting at the wheel can’t see the outside of the car. In this case, however, it is not a good thing. There is no way to see or even guess where the bonnet of the car ends and the next car begins, and that is especially a problem when parking. The rear isn’t any easier either. The narrow backside and the boot the height of a Redwood Oak make seeing anything but the sky nearly impossible, and with the boot lid curving down, there’s no way to figure out how much of the car is jutting out behind you either. The solution to that is to buy parking sensors for the front and back which will cost around seven to eight thousand Rupees.

With a measly 1.6 litre 100 odd horsepower engine the acceleration isn’t that great either, especially since the car weighs the same as the Earth. The gear shifts are hard, but the transmission is much better than that of the old Suzuki cars. The steering is quite heavy and slow to respond. And while the fat car has side view mirrors the size of elephant ears, one can’t argue their effectiveness in providing good visibility and their possible use as air brakes.

The interior is a mixed bag of good and bad. No warts blemish the dash of the car like the A-Star. The steering wheel is small and sporty and feels good in my hands even though it has other problems. The seats are slightly better than the Hyundai, and there’s enough head room for the Great Khali, but only if you cut off his legs. And if a tall person is driving with the seat pushed back all the way, then you’re better off in another car. Also, three people will sit in the rear seat but they’ll be mighty uncomfortable, which makes it a four people car, like all new ones. The gear lever is uncomfortable and boring while the cheap plastic dashboard surface is curved and unusable.

All of the above can be forgiven if they make available this same car with its 2 litre 150 horsepower all wheel drive model, but that version is not available in India, with no prospects of it arriving anytime soon. Well, whoever makes Suzuki’s marketing decisions in India is quite the tool.

What we have here then is an over-sized, overweight, underpowered monster with nasty eyes, a grim face and a big butt- did I say butt, I meant boot- which is at the same time overpriced, unbalanced because of its height and clearance, and uncomfortable to ride in. As a result, my test drive wasn’t much fun. The acceleration in the first three gears was merely acceptable, while that in the last two really took all the fun out of driving the car. The mileage of this beast is understandably low, but I don’t care about mileage. If you do, the Sx4 claims a healthy mileage of almost 35 miles to the gallon, but it will rarely deliver that. It may have a boot that needs to go on a diet but for that size of rump it isn’t very spacious and that’s a bummer. The resonating cavity created by the tall roof allows for a noisy interior and listening to a small Suzuki engine’s whine is not a happy experience.

So then what do we have here? A cross-dresser trying to look like a sedan when in fact it is a huge hatchback is not a good look for the sucks 4- did I say sucks? I meant SX4. With the four-wheel-drive option it might be a sturdy off-roader, but it is nothing of that kind. If they lowered the clearance and the height of the car and reduced the wheels to normal sized ones it would look much better, but then, that’s not the concept behind this vehicle, because then it would look like the Verna. So, priced in the range of seven to eight and half hundred thousand Indian Rupees, would I recommend you buy it? Well, being almost as good as it is bad, I would say if you like it for some strange reason, if you prefer its thick looks over that of the slimmer Hyundai, go for it. But when people complain about an uncomfortable ride, especially in the backseats, don’t come to me, because I’ll only say: I told you so.

* Disclaimer: I am not talking about the singer/actor Jenifer Lopez you are thinking about. It’s someone else.

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Specifications:

Model: SX4

Company: Maruti Suzuki

Version: Zxi

On Road Price (Pune): INR 875,025

Kerb Weight: 1200 kg

Engine:

Displacement: 1586cc

Cylinders: 4

Valves: 16

Type: DOHC

Power (HP): 102

Torque (Nm): 145 @ 4100 rpm

HP/tonne: 85

Mileage (as claimed by sales person):

City: 9-10

Highway: 13-14

My Ratings (1-10):

[1-3: Poor; 4-5: Acceptable; 6-7: Good; 7+: Amazing]

Speed:

Acceleration: 4

Deceleration: 4

Comfort:

Driver: 3

Passenger: 3

Design:

Interior: 4

Exterior: 3

Cabin Space: 3

COOLNESS: 2

OVERALL RATING: 3.25

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