Team-BHP - Maruti Celerio Diesel : Official Review

Super review, GTO.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrammarNazi (Post 3738097)

IMHO the car is not even worthy of the time of such brilliant reviewers.

Just because you don't like Maruti or Celerio or this Diesel engine doesn't mean that all others are like that, or it should not be reviewed. There are many who are keen on knowing the details.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiku007 (Post 3738378)

Nowhere else in the world would people buy this diesel car over it's petrol sibling by paying a premium. It can happen only in India.

If Indians buy it, what's the problem in selling it? Maruti is not here for just social service.

After decades of market leadership and tons of cash reserve they had the audacity to build a 2 Cylinder Diesel Engine that sounds much like an Share Auto, stick the DDiS badge to it and price it at a considerable premium over an petrol engine?

Well done Maruti, very well done. Nowhere else in the world would people buy this diesel car over it's petrol sibling by paying a premium. It can happen only in India.

Whatever our members say about the NVH, I feel it will be mostly bye bye to the Beat Diesel. The Beat sells 1300 nos a month.

People are just looking forward for the cheapest diesel and that too coming from the omnipresent Maruti stables. But those who have made their decision on a petrol is not going to change to a diesel wasting a premium of 80k, I believe seeing the current trend against diesel cars.

Great review! Must give credit to how Maruti packages the car to appeal to mass market. Their engines are always peppy and with good ride, NVH and comfortable interiors, it will be another hit.

Personally, I stopped the video of the engine noise midway. Yikes!

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 3737643)

The diesel gets an insulation sheet under the hood (Celerio petrol doesn't have one):

Interesting. I am curious if this can be retrofitted for the celerio for better noise isolation.

A 2-cylinder diesel engine. Hmm. Given how folks here are crazy about anything with a diesel heart, this will find buyers. And it does not help that the current dispensation is adding to that craze by widening the gap between petrol and diesel prices, which a year or so ago had been brought close enough for folks to shift back to petrol cars.

Regarding the engine note, it does sound bad. But then even the supposedly more advanced diesels sound loud / jarring to someone used to the silent notes of a petrol car. So it is relative I guess.

I could still not figure out the target customer base for this car, just like the target audience of remake of Himmatwala movie.
So my guess is that MSIL developed this engine when sales for Petrol cars was falling like anything and MSIL responded to the crisis and can't be blamed for that.
Now as the Petrol prices have eased up and the sentiment is back towards the Petrol engine, this car is looking like an unwanted baby. I am sure after few rounds of increase in Petrol prices, this car would be hot favourite again.
At the same time our market is very unpredictable and many Maruti products have performed as duds too, so we can't really be sure about the success of this car and going by the opinions on this thread most people are criticising, very few are praising but nobody seems to be interested in buying it, that says a lot.
This car surely has a potential to wipe off by 100% or increase by 100% i.e. double the sales numbers of Beat D, but what it turns out to be, will be known in few months.

The review by GTO is simply top-notch, gold standard especially the manner in which it's written.:)

I personally found the engine note atleast better sounding than Nano, but let's see when I hear it in real.

Won't it be nightmarish if this car becomes success and as it was mentioned that due to pollution by small Diesel cars, the quality of Air in Delhi NCR became very very dangerous it will only add to that.
All in all we can say that MSIL has played a yet another gamble, especially with its image.

P.S. GTO has mentioned that this 0.8L engine is daddy for the upcoming 1.2 & 1.6 L engines, I think this is the infant and 1.2 would be grown-up teenager and 1.6 would be a fully grown adult version of this baby.stupid:

Buy a Nano for half the price, travel in twice the comfort, arrive in a dignified manner without sounding like a Piaggio Ape, and have enough money in hand to pay for about 5 years of Petrol @ 20,000 km per year.

Refinement and NVH were the reasons given by TML for not releasing the diesel Nano. Suzuki obviously think they can get away with it because the public will lap up anything they sell, no matter how crude.

Come to think of it, the Diesel Bullet and the Suraj Diesel motorcycle sound similar. While the following contraptions seem only slightly worse for less than 1/3rd the price:

I hope that this car bombs in a big way and teaches MSIL a lesson for its smugness. This vehicle is not only overpriced but is crude to say the least. Moreover an investment of Rs 900 Crores is something the MSIL Shareholders should question. It seems the product planners and developers were doped out when they were conceptualising this vehicle.

The Ritz is so much better, and with generous discounts on offer the difference between the Celerio Diesel and Ritz Diesel is hardly any thing. This has given a golden opportunity to Tata Motors. If they produce a decent car ( Kite) and price it well, they may have a market willing to accept it in large numbers.

Fantastic review!
On the whole, the celerio comes across as an overpriced car even in its petrol version. I had checked out the celerio as a possible replacement for my wife's alto and I found the car to be very flimsy on build quality and had hardly any features. The LXi costed nearly 5 lakh a OTR Bangalore and it has absolutely nothing in terms of features. I feel that cars like Beat, the older i10 and even the wagon R offer much better build quality.
Now that Maruti has made this car even more expensive by plonking in a 2 cylinder engine, it just makes it all the more compelling not to buy one.Why couldn't Maruti have attempted to develop a 3 or 4 cylinder Diesel engine in house which could have potentially replaced the MJD and saved them a huge amount of money? They very well know that this 2 cylinder diesel cannot be used in many cars apart from the celerio or the Alto at best. With a diminishing diesel car market, the entry level hatch back segment would not have so many buyers queuing up for diesels. It's sad that the no:1 car maker in India does not want to invest in proper diesel engines.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 3737745)

Listen to the Celerio's 2-cylinder diesel engine in this video:
https://youtu.be/xP5Utp9yxZs

The definitive forum, the definitive video - from the man who defined it all !

Thank you so much for this one!

Not only is this an absolutely lovely review. Fair, unbiased, positive and negatives all listed.

Thank you.

Thank you once again for this video - I can show this video to all those people who turned up their noses (or ears) when I started my Nano (2012 - which cost 2.5 lakhs BTW)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steeroid (Post 3738530)

Precisely !!!

Or maybe invest the (remainder) money wisely and you will have more than enough to pay for a new better car in 3 years time when the Nano AMC gets over.

The Multiplex seems like a better option !

Huge gamble by Maruti to launch such a crude sounding and under powered vehicle at this price point. If this car was launched by any other manufacturer there would have been an avalanche of criticism. By underplaying the publicity Maruti seems to be playing a wait and watch game to see how the market reacts to the Celerio.They must have anticipated such a response and are probably hoping that there will be positive word of mouth publicity from the initial owners to keep the sales moving.