BackFirst Look: Maruti S-Cross.
Maruti's S-Cross will rely on Nexa dealerships to provide customers with a quality experience
PremiumNEW DELHI :
Although it is India’s biggest car maker, Maruti Suzuki has been conspicuous by its absence in the SUV segment. While manufacturers like Mahindra, with its XUV 500, Renault, with its Duster, and Ford, with the EcoSport, have raked in the profits, Maruti is finally ready to play catch-up. The S-Cross, due for launch in August, is being called a “premium crossover" rather than an SUV by Maruti.
The S-Cross has black plastic body cladding, scuff plates and roof rails, but its overall shape and low bonnet are more akin to a large hatchback on a raised suspension than a traditional off-roader. At 180mm, the ground clearance is not what you would expect in a proper SUV.
There are a couple of nice touches, however—like the big projector headlamps with LED strips. The doors have a certain heft to them, the panel gaps are tight and consistent, and the cladding has a nice flush fit. Inside, there’s the Swift-like steering wheel, the familiar door pads and the touch-screen system from the Ciaz sedan; it’s a cabin that’s well put together. Yes, there’s plenty of plastic and the all-black interiors dull the ambience, but the design looks clean and smart.
Material quality is the best we’ve seen in a Maruti, with good fit and finish, well-damped buttons and generous use of soft-touch plastics, as on the textured dashboard top. Plastics in the glovebox, however, have a hard feel and shiny look. To save costs, Suzuki has borrowed window buttons and mirror adjusters from the Swift, which look downmarket.
Apart from these few foibles, there’s not much to complain about once you’ve sunk into the snug and supportive seats, which offer excellent thigh support and a good view out, thanks to the low dashboard. The top Alpha variant gets full leather seats with superbly executed contrast double stitching. The gear knob too is well-finished. Move to the rear, and you will find a generous amount of space, even for three. At 353 litres, the boot volume may not sound like a lot, but the luggage area is well-shaped, so it’s practical.
Given that the S-Cross is its most premium offering, Maruti has not skimped on the equipment list either. The top-specification S-Cross Alpha variant comes with keyless entry, a six-speaker infotainment system with a touch screen, satellite navigation, Bluetooth and automatic climate-control functions. Automatic headlamps, automatic wipers, projector headlamps and disc brakes all around are standard on the DDiS 320 Alpha variant.
The S-Cross comes with a choice of either a 1.3-litre or 1.6-litre diesel engine, both from Fiat. The 1.3-litre MultiJet delivers 89 bhp; the 1.6-litre, 118 bhp. The highlight of the latter is the massive 32.6 kgm of torque, and it also comes with a six-speed manual gearbox. Incidentally, there won’t be a petrol version at launch, nor will there be an automatic or four-wheel drive.
Start it up and you’ll find it’s decently refined, though not quite in the league of Hyundai’s 1.6-litre diesel engine. Gears slot in authoritatively on the six-speed gearbox, but shift quality feels more mushy than crisp. The clutch engages well though, to get you smartly off the line. But at low revolutions, there’s some delay between your pressing down on the accelerator and power delivery. On the highway, however, the S-Cross offers supremely relaxed cruising. Overtaking manoeuvres at a speed of 100 kilometres per hour are effortless, and it doesn’t take more than a dab of the right foot to scoot past traffic, thanks to the 1.6 diesel’s strong slug of torque in the mid-range. Post 4,500 revolutions per minute, the diesel engine gets noisy.
The S-Cross also rides impressively. The suspension is noticeably firm but it manages to smoothen out most of the road bumps, even at high speeds. Sharp bumps will register a solid thud in the cabin, for sure, but smaller irregularities get ironed out pretty easily.
The front-heavy S-Cross understeers a fair bit, and the tyres squeal without much provocation. With a better set of tyres, the S-Cross would have been nicer to drive.
The S-Cross is seen purely as a premium car, and ticks most of the right boxes. It is well equipped, has a strong engine, high-quality cabin, loads of space, and is pretty comfortable as well. No word on the pricing yet, but we expect Maruti to price it aggressively to compete with the Duster and EcoSport. Also, the car maker will be selling the S-Cross through a new set of swanky dealerships known as Nexa, and the purchase plus ownership experience is likely to get better still
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