The Hindu Business Line : Maruti SX4 — A sedan that can surprise

Maruti amazed premium hatch buyers with the Swift's refreshingly new and aggressive design and build quality. The company will be hoping to do the same with the Suzuki SX4 — exceed the expectations of the sedan buyer in the upper A3 segment.

The SX4: There's a lot packed into this Rs 7-lakh sedan.

Upmarket interiors and ample power.

It is not often that you get to see the champion of one game being the unseeded player in another. It is also not often that you will find the most dominant player in one segment being the small fry in another. But in the automotive industry there are a few examples and Maruti's attempts at selling a premium sedan has been the equivalent of Federer playing badminton.

But that may well be a thing of the past, when next week Maruti pulls the wraps off the new Suzuki SX4 sedan — its latest offering that has been especially groomed to take on the current segment leader, Honda City.

In the buyer's `mindspace' Maruti's predominant association with the small car has been the big reason for its relative inability to be a successful player in the premium sedan segment. Customers probably appreciated the presence of the same standards such as value-for-money, class leading fuel efficiency, and low- cost maintenance in Maruti's sedans, as they would have expected to see in the company's small cars. But they would have also felt that the Baleno, Maruti's only premium sedan of the past, seriously lacked oomph.

Big car conundrum

The Esteem has had its share of success, but it is frankly in a segment of its own, positioned in the cusp between the premium hatch and entry-level sedan segments. Moreover, the Esteem has clearly attracted small-car buyers or the extremely value conscious who want the feel of owning a sedan and who are willing to compromise on the interior space and performance compromise compared to the larger, more premium, but also more expensive sedans.

However, Maruti's experience with the Baleno in terms of sheer sales numbers had shown that prospective premium sedan buyers were still unwilling to accept it as a capable sedan maker, and this despite the fact that the Baleno was a very competent, extremely good VFM premium sedan. The other reasons for the Baleno's poor acceptance could have been its dated design and its price positioning at the time of launch.

But the Baleno was a car from the Maruti of yesteryear. The unexciting image of the company's products has changed over the past two years and the one car that has been singularly responsible for significantly boosting the image of Maruti has been the Swift. In fact, this smart, aggressive looking hatch has been the reason for a big boost to Suzuki's image worldwide.

Three world strategic models, as Suzuki calls them — the Swift, the new Grand Vitara and the new SX4 — have all contributed to the resurgence of Suzuki image as a competitive global manufacturer of attractive looking, quality cars in more segments than its traditional stronghold of small hatches.

For a company that has a stranglehold over nearly 55 per cent of the passenger car market in the country, Maruti has only a small 14.8 per cent market share in the A3 (sedan) segment. The Baleno, which was discontinued in 2006, was incapable of taking on the competition that was, in some cases, less feature rich and more expensive.

New name

So, to fight back its way into the segment, Suzuki and Maruti have now chosen to start from a clean slate, picking on all brand new car platform and design, engine and, of course, a internationally popular name.

In a way, it is good that Maruti decided not to carry forward the Baleno brand. Its experience with carrying forward the successful Zen brand for a completely different new model has not come up trumps, so it may not be a good idea to retain an unsuccessful name for an all-new model that has no connect with the discontinued model.

The Suzuki SX4 was launched as a hatchback in Europe last year and it has been extremely successful in many markets there. With many Indian car buyers now quite aware of global developments, it is a good idea to have retained this brand name for the sedan model too, though it does sound more like an alpha-numeric code for a concept car.

The SX4 hatch was originally designed by Italdesign and is sold as the Fiat Sedici and as the Suzuki SX4 in Europe.

A slightly elongated version of the same platform is being used for the sedan variant that will currently only be sold in China and India. The SX4 sedan carries forward most of the features from the European hatch and a little more that are India specific. To look at from the front, the sedan and the hatch SX4s are identical. Large, elongated wrap-around style, clear-lens headlamps, a muscular bonnet slab and a compact bumper that features matching design lines greet the onlooker at the front.

An airdam, twin fog lamps and a two-slatted grille in the middle with chrome lipping and chrome Suzuki logo round-off the front side of the new sedan.

The SX4 sedan, like the Fiat and Suzuki hatchback counterparts, clearly attempts at offering the sedan buyer the feel of premiumness and the performance of a bigger sedan, even as it is sharply focused at practicality. The SX4 (including the European hatch) sports an unconventional design and is built to offer the look and drive feel of a crossover vehicle.

The extended wheelbase, the short overhangs, the mildly cab-forward design, the raised ground clearance, the large glass area, the oversized tail-lamp cluster and the lower wedge in the A-pillar quarter glass are reminiscent of Maruti's focus on offering practical features that will be able to better handle Indian usage pattern and road conditions.

At the same time, the SX4 sedan's fit and finish quality has been benchmarked to European standards and so its design is unaltered, panel gaps and shut lines are tight and the paint job is superb. The good build quality story applies to the interior of the SX4 also.

Maruti surprised premium hatch buyers with the Swift's refreshingly new and aggressive design and build quality.

The company will be hoping to do the same with the SX4 — exceed the expectations of the sedan buyer in the upper A3 segment.

Similarly, the overall dimensions of the SX4 have again been chosen to offer more to the customer in this segment compared to the competition in this price class. So, the SX4's wheelbase and width will actually compare favourably to cars priced in the Rs 10 lakh plus price segment.

Accentuating the look and feel of the SX4's size is the strong raised shoulder line and the high ground clearance of 190mm. Flared wheel arches attempt to distract the onlooker's attention from the large gaps between body panels and tyres.

Roomy, high-quality interior

At the rear, the tail-lamps dominate the stubby, nearly notch-back style boot lid. Reflectors integrated into the rear bumper and a third stop lamp offer additional safety.

Large, electrically adjustable outside rear-view mirrors offer the driver a good perspective, but may be prone to damage in the crowded roads of Indian cities.

The SX4's cabin has an airy, roomy feel despite the high shoulder line, thanks to the large glass area.

The interior of the sedan has been a given dual-tone theme and though plastic panels abound, the quality of materials used and the finish is top-notch lending it a pleasing, user-friendly and premium feel.

Leather seats are optional in the top-end ZXi variant, but this trim-level comes with a neatly integrated in-dash music system as part of the standard package. Automatic air-conditioning with attractive matt-silver dials and steering-wheel-mounted controls for the music system are also part of standard fitment in the ZXi variant.

To arm itself better for the fight with the Honda City, Maruti has chosen a number of comfort and safety features that will not be available in sedans currently available in the Rs 6-7 lakh price range.

Safety plus

High-end safety features such as anti-lock brakes with electronic brake force distribution, seat belt pre-tensioners and load limiters, and dual front airbags will be available as standard only in the top-end ZXi variant.

But other features such as adjustable tilt steering, variable instrument cluster illumination, tubeless tyres, in-dash digital time and temperature display, and rear glass-integrated antenna are standard features in both the trim levels.

According to Maruti, its experience with the Swift has shown that there has been a consistent trend of buyer demand being bunched up only for the top-end variants of the premium hatch, which is also offered with an entry-level LXi trim.

Maruti believes that this will be the case with the SX4 too and is hence offering the Suzuki SX4 with only two trim levels. It will probably help Maruti to also price its new sedan more competitively when it is put head-to-head with the current segment leader.

We don't think Maruti will attempt to under-price the SX4, because clearly it is a premium sedan in terms of build, size and quality. But we do expect Maruti to price the car aggressively, to try and set a new benchmark in the segment.

The VXi and ZXi trim variants should, in our opinion, be priced between Rs 6.5 lakh and Rs 7.5 lakh.

Can Federer play badminton and win? Can the SX4 take on the Honda City? We'll have to wait for the post-launch finale to find out.

Meanwhile, the SX4 has enough to give the City the creeps and will possibly push Honda into reworking the package of features offered in the City, including perhaps, finally, offering anti-lock brakes (ABS), at least as an option, in their currently best-selling sedan.

(Pictures by S. Muralidhar)

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