[racer_ash]

18 months waiting, blistering barnacles!! For a moment, I could not beleive my eyes. Looks like the little Celerio will put the Ferraris and the Bentleys to shame. Is Maruti hand-building their tin cans? That means the owners of Celerios in my office parking lots must be damn lucky to get their hands on their machines

Absolutely great review. You have sugar coated the negatives so beautifully that if Maruti were to read this review, they would hire you as their official spokesperson.

Given such a marginal price difference, it is a no-brainer to go for the Ritz. But ofcourse who has the valour to go against their better halves.

[ank.nsit]

Having a Ritz Zxi in the house, I can definitely say that the car is simply great.
As you rightly said, its the rear of the Ritz that people can't accept, but the inside space/interiors/ride quality/high speed characteristics is really great at this price point.
But it's definitely not a go-kart & not that easy to maneuver in traffic situations (in comparison with the likes of santro, wagonR & the new celerio).
So I can somehow relate to your wife not having that "grin", as my wife too doesn't like to drive our Ritz that much.

Celerio MT being over priced, you can have a look at Brio as well, cz Brio seems to be every girl's favourite.

[autonarr]

Great review, thedragonreborn. For a first post this has raised the bar for the rest of us

The car itself is a promising new entrant for Maruti and hopefully future variants will feature the AMT along with much needed features like ABS and airbags, at least as an option.

[humyum]

OH MY DAYS. 18 MONTHS, A kid is born in half the time than that. Maruti has hit the biggest master stroke of their life if this continues for a couple of years.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by racer_ash

Is Maruti hand-building their tin cans?

Current supply constraints are due to the imported Magneti Mareli AMT box. As Maruti has already confirmed - local production of the box will start within a year, and this should help reduce the waiting period drastically.

[misquitas]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Current supply constraints are due to the imported Magneti Mareli AMT box. As Maruti has already confirmed - local production of the box will start within a year, and this should help reduce the waiting period drastically.

Somehow, the general impression is that "imported" is considered superior, while "local" is considered inferior, especially when corners are cut and quality is compromised. There could well be a scramble to obtain those Celerios with the "imported" Magneti Mareli AMT box.

That said, the AMT technology has multiple benefits (good FE, not as expensive as AT, manual/auto mode) and it is a win-win situation for everyone. Now, I wonder why this technology took so long to arrive in India?

Anyway, now that AMT is here, I can envisage other manufacturers (Tata it all set to release the AMT on the Nano) adopting AMT thick and fast.

With the arrival of the AMT and its successful reception, the days of the MT box could well be numbered.

[thedragonreborn]

Whoa! This was rather overwhelming! Thank you for all the kind words sent along my way.

Originally Posted by GTO

Outstanding review and superbly detailed there

By the by, the attention to detail slipped when I listed the door pulls on the inside to be plated with chromium. Faux silver is what it should have been. My sincere apologies.

Originally Posted by From pretty much everyone who replied

Oi!!! Be not an idiot!!! Buy the Ritz instead!!!

A rather largish majority of the replies and the authors of these replies did hand out rather sensible advice about the Ritz. Which happens to be sounder than both the waiting period and the price for the manual version of the Celerio. It is indeed hard to ferret out the logic behind opting for a manual Celerio. No one seems to want one except for my wife and well, me. Not to mention the fact that most people still wouldn’t want anything to do with a fully loaded manual Celerio a few Bombay monsoons later.

Which is why, after much soul searching and peeping into the porcine proportioned receptacle that holds the family savings, we changed the booking to a Ritz Zxi. When the need for a set of wheels is based on the cold, dispassionate logic of practicality and incomprehensible waiting periods, one of course wants to buy an auto which doesn’t depreciate like a brick slipped into water. Again, like the most observations here, for not much more money, my wife ends up with a fantastic engine, gearbox and solid build quality (as compared to the Celerio) with the Ritz ZXi.

But the faces of this couple lost their grins. The Ritz is good to drive. The ride and handling are mature. But no grin (not to mention the fact that MS has hardly sold any Ritz cars at all over the last year. Come to think of it, the car is almost about to hand in its dinner pail as far as the design philosophy goes, a good five years from its launch). And no, the wife finds the idea of my not grinning like a monkey at Elephanta who has just pinched your bottle of Mazza, when it comes to the Swift, refuses to nip about in the car while I drive myself round in the more mundane Ritz. Which, ultimately brought about the decision to curse it all to the domain of Satan and buy another Swift. And today, finally, we did. There are now, or will be in a couple of weeks from now, two Swifts in the family. That idea alone got the grins back pronto!

Of course, through all this, the poor soul who sold (hypothetically) three cars to us over the last week, before we settled for one, was harassed. I cannot thank him enough for his patience. Apart from the stiff upper sales-lip, we also get some accessories thrown in (mud flaps, mats), Rs5,000 consumer discount and Rs.15000 in exchange bonus. We are happy people!

Originally Posted by Urban_Nomad

Arrey; why? My budget santro did have one. 5 odd lakhs is no chump change (not to me at least). Demand more; and you shall receive*

Chump change it is not. But I have no expectations of a dead pedal from the MS hatchbacks. It might force them to incur a few hundred rupees more on each car! The thought!

Originally Posted by misquitas

I don't think your wife will be unhappy with the Swift. With the Swift, I trust it will "bring about a huge grin" on her face. What say?

Prophetic, I must say!

Originally Posted by VinodDevil81

I think maruti bookings are transferable between models.So there is still time for you to do a re-thinking.

They do! We did!

Originally Posted by sureshkishore

I loved was how well it drove, really reminded me how I felt when I first drove the Zen back in 1996. Nice responsive engine, sharp steering and Excellent ride.

My wife and I might not agree about the Zen ever having an excellent ride, but the rest of it, absolutely!!!

Originally Posted by MaddyCrew

for most of us on this forum I guess the "grin" matters more.

Well, what can I say?

Originally Posted by S@andy

To what sort of clientèle does this MT guise propose to?

Now that we cancelled our booking for the Celerio MT, I am most perplexed as well. Today, while finalising the Swift, the kind lady who gave us a the order form, giggled at the fact we wanted an MT in the first place.

Originally Posted by racer_ash

it is a no-brainer to go for the Ritz. But ofcourse who has the valour to go against their better halves.

Ahem! It proved to be a no-brainer when it came to upgrading to another Swift to yet another potential Ritz purchase. The better half agreed!!! Hurray!

Originally Posted by misquitas

Somehow, the general impression is that "imported" is considered superior, while "local" is considered inferior, especially when corners are cut and quality is compromised. There could well be a scramble to obtain those Celerios with the "imported" Magneti Mareli AMT box.

Even for boxes manufactured in Thailand? Adamant are the sales staff about the cogs being imported from the land of the Wok.

As much as we are chuffed about a second Swift coming home, I flirted quite a bit about putting down a deposit for the Thar. At 6.8 lakhs on road in Bombay, the Swift is not far away from the Thar. And I grew up with a faded cut-out of the Classic stuck to the wall, to drool over. There were coconut trees swaying in the background, white sand for the terra and a Classic in white, wearing spokes, black seats and bars done up in black. Sigh!

The only thing that keeps me away is the prospect of burning up a little more from the stack to build around the stock Thar, to make it easier to live with on a daily basis, when the only place that I can park is on the lane that leads up to my block of flats. Someday!

By the by, still no Bluetooth for the Swift as an OEM. Why?!

[knockout]

A great write-up. Thanks for sharing your experience; except that I was to book the Celerio MT this morning for my wife and now its on hold with my head spinning !!!

[ani_meher]

Congrats on a very sensible decision

What's the additional cost for Swift zxi over celerio zxi? For ritz you mentioned it to be 50 k more.

[thedragonreborn]

Originally Posted by knockout

A great write-up. Thanks for sharing your experience; except that I was to book the Celerio MT this morning for my wife and now its on hold with my head spinning !!!

Welcome to my last week! I can empathise. I would still recommend the Celerio if you are prepared to wait and are planning to use the car for a few years to come. It is an excellent little run-about, and most importantly properly fun to drive

Originally Posted by ani_meher

Congrats on a very sensible decision

What's the additional cost for Swift zxi over celerio zxi? For ritz you mentioned it to be 50 k more.

Well, for a Mumbai registered car, the Swift ZXi will clean out an extra lakh if you consider the Celerio. The Celerio is for 5.76 lakhs on road and the Swift, 6.8 lakhs.

[Rakkum13]

Great post - review+humour

Originally Posted by thedragonreborn

a dead pedal from a budget Maruti

How much would a dead pedal cost? Is it the cost cutting or limited importance accorded by the prospective customers to the feature (as perceived by the manufacturers). Is the dead pedal really high on the list of features customers look for in a car?

Originally Posted by thedragonreborn

Hand brake turns were a hoot though!

Originally Posted by thedragonreborn

The upshifts are rapid, in the interests of fuel economy and the gap between gear changes is long enough

Could you please explain in greater detail for the benefit of people like me (low automotive quotient)

Originally Posted by thedragonreborn

... only 50k away from the ZXi Ritz.

This will always remain a dilemma. With increasing proliferation of models and manufacturers, a 'better' model will always be available at a tempting price point.

[thedragonreborn]

Originally Posted by Rakkum13

How much would a dead pedal cost? Is it the cost cutting or limited importance accorded by the prospective customers to the feature (as perceived by the manufacturers). Is the dead pedal really high on the list of features customers look for in a car?

Most first time car buyers will not bother about a dead pedal. Not unless they have had to drive long distances in a car equipped with a dead pedal. Keeping that in mind, I do not believe that a dead pedal would figure anywhere on the list of the droves who have succumbed to the AMT equipped Celerio. That being said, for an automatic (which doesn't have a clutch pedal) you will be hard pressed to tire your left appendages on long drives and thus, can stretch your left leg out into the foot well as you munch up the miles.

As for the cost of a dead pedal, I have not the faintest. However, given the amount of material that goes into a standard dead-pedal, I can't see it being prohibitively expensive to mount.

But car manufacturers over the years have used plenty of advice from Uncle Scrooge, pinch the pennies and soon the pounds will turn up to roost. Mercedes, in the mid 90s, sometime before their ridiculous wedding with Chrysler, decided not to spring load the ash-trays in the dash. So, if you pushed it back, it wouldn't help itself along like an efficient German. You literally had to put it in its place. It saved Merc millions (I am too lazy to go dig up the figures now). A dead pedal would be, I believe, much more expensive than itty-bitty springs.

Originally Posted by Rakkum13

Could you please explain in greater detail for the benefit of people like me (low automotive quotient)

This will always remain a dilemma. With increasing proliferation of models and manufacturers, a 'better' model will always be available at a tempting price point.

Hand brake turns are, when you preferably have a car that is rather fun to drive, 180 degree turns performed by yanking the hand brake with appropriate steering input, which locks up the wheels, spinning the car round and when done properly, on a dime. You must have seen plenty of car chases (my absolute favourite being the one in Ronin) in movies where the positions of the headlights and rear-lights are swapped, accompanied by squealing rubber. Not recommended on cobbled surfaces or public roads. It can have disastrous effects on a car's tyres, suspension, wheel alignment and the parking brake mechanism in itself.

As for the gear changes, you would try shifting up to the higher gears without revving the engine all the way to the red-line when you want your car to sip as little of the black stuff as possible. Which also means that you would have shifted into the highest gear available within minutes of having weighed your anchors. In case of the AMT Celerio, the gearbox does it for you. Which means it is impossible for you to get a move on in a lower gear, as you would like to, for example during a sudden overtake or trying to accelerate hard.

The gear changes in the auto mode for the AMT Celerio are not quick either. Which renders them rather jerky as the car coasts along on inertia before the new cog in the gear box mates the drive-train with the engine and a fresh spasm of power is sent along to the wheels.

Car models and their pricing these days remind me of "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" from Tolstoy. It is well neigh impossible not to be tempted by the next best option, unless you have your heart set on a particular automobile

[desertfox]

Originally Posted by GTO

Outstanding review and superbly detailed there For a minute, I thought I'm reading an official write-up. You have an enviably witty style of writing man.

Maruti has hit the bull's eye with the AMT. Without this gearbox, the Celerio would have sank and no one would have noticed. It's styled like a conventional Maruti hatchback, has the same 3-cylinder 1.0L engine and no diesel. The AMT however gave it a strong differentiator. This is perhaps the only sub-15 lakh car whose automatic bookings are higher than that for the MT.

Is there no official team bhp review for Celerio ?

Tried looking for it couldn't find one.

Does this car have a comfortable seating / getting in / out position like a Wagon R ?

[thedragonreborn]

Originally Posted by desertfox

Does this car have a comfortable seating / getting in / out position like a Wagon R ?

The getting in-and-out workout is far easier in the Wagon R, when compared to the Celerio.

The little Celerio is no slouch though. When it comes to allowing people board it comfortably, the doors open wide, the roof line is high, as are the door sills. I, at 6ft and proportions of a portly dragon, found the provisioning for ingress and egress more than adequate.

Hope that helps.

[Rakkum13]

Originally Posted by thedragonreborn

It saved Merc millions (I am too lazy to go dig up the figures now). A dead pedal would be, I believe, much more expensive than itty-bitty springs.

I get the point!

Originally Posted by thedragonreborn

Hand brake turns are, ...

The poor sales guy may lose his job if the management were to find out that stunts were performed on the test drive vehicle. I sincerely hope that you at least chose a safe place to pull them off, others were not at risk and adequate safety precautions were observed!

Originally Posted by thedragonreborn

As for the gear changes, ...

Thanks. That was helpful.

Originally Posted by thedragonreborn

Car models and their pricing ...

Couldn't agree more! Thanks once again.