The Suzuki Celerio: Small car, big heart and value

The cherry red colour makes the Celerio a real stand out and looks handsome with the black rims. The Celerio has DualJet engine technology and is an ideal five-door hatch for a first-time buyer looking for that affordable option in this segment.

It just goes to show that even if it's small, you can still have it all. And with it, Suzuki is setting a new standard for safety, fuel efficiency and luxury.

“That is why we pay so much attention to the design and specification of this model, to ensure that it perfectly exemplifies our ethos of efficiency, durability and value-for-money in a compact package,” says Brendon Carpenter, brand marketing manager of Suzuki Auto South Africa.

An organic design

The 2022 Suzuki Celerio is a brand-new model and as such it features a newly fledged exterior and interior design, a new platform and a new DualJet engine. Suzuki’s designers have replaced the bold and angular style of the previous Celerio with a new, more rounded and more deeply sculpted body.

The new Celerio has a deep oval grill with a large S-emblem and chrome highlights that stretch beyond the grille to the teardrop headlamps. This brightwork also disguises the fit lines of the lower moulded bumper, which help to create a bold and unified look.

The lower black and body colour bumper houses the fog lights. From the side, the Celerio has a more accentuated hip line and at the rear, the droplet tail lamps and high-level third brake light round off the picture.

From the outside, the GL specification – the highest in this range – is distinguished from the GA specification by its 15” darkened alloy wheels and body-coloured door handles and side mirrors.

Heartect platform

This platform does duty in modern Suzuki models such as the Swift and Baleno, and it is well-regarded for its high structural rigidity, innovative energy dispersion channels for greater impact protection and low weight.

Small car, big cabin

Nope, the interior space is not small. The cabin features new, integrated front- and rear seats that optimise space while remaining comfortable.

Suzuki has also added a 60:40 split rear seat and reshaped the luggage bay with a flush-fitting parcel shelf, luggage hooks and a deeper base (despite housing a full-sized spare) to increase loading space to 295ls.

In the front, the dashboard has been redesigned for visibility, a sense of space, and to integrate the new 7” touchscreen infotainment system (standard on the GL specification level).

Touch me

As mentioned, the Celerio GL is fitted with a new-generation version of its touch-screen infotainment system. This system is equipped with a USB port, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as standard.

It also features a host of smart vehicle notifications, alerts and information, such as instantaneous and average fuel consumption, fuel range and information from its integrated rear parking sensors.

In the GL model, Suzuki has splashed out with silver detailing on the centre and side air vent bezels, silver door handles, front and rear electric windows, remote-controlled door locks and front- and rear-mounted speakers connected to the infotainment system.

Hello DualJet!

As the name suggests, the engine offers multi-point fuel injection from two injectors per cylinder, which allowed Suzuki engineers to offer more efficient combustion with the main focus being optimum fuel efficiency.

Together, all these new technologies combine to give the Celerio an average fuel consumption figure of 4.2ls per 100km. This makes the Celerio South Africa’s most fuel-efficient five-door petrol hatchback.

Verdict

It’s not a little red Corvette by any means. The Celerio is in a league of its own. Value for money and brilliant fuel efficiency.

Price

• 1.0 GA MT R178,900
• 1.0 GL MT R198,900
• 1.0 GL AMT R213,900

Includes a five-year/200,000km warranty and a two-year/30,000km service plan.