Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza
Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza
One of the fastest growing, the compact SUV segment, is no longer new to India. Ford sells the EcoSport, Mahindra, the TUV300, Hyundai, the Creta; while Renault Nissan have their Duster and the Terrano here. Maruti Suzuki, the biggest car maker of India, has taken its time studying the market before getting its model, the Vitara Brezza to take on the segment rivals by storm.
By turning concept into reality, the brains at Maruti -Suzuki should be complimented for getting the Vitara Brezza out as the final model. The Brezza is one model that was in the news right since it was unveiled at the 2016 Auto Expo for being the first sub compact SUV from India’s numero uno carmaker, Maruti-Suzuki India. This also happens to be the first car model project from an MNC to be headed by an Indian.
Food for thought – The total investment gone into the Vitara Brezza project is close to Rs.980 crores. CV Raman, an Indian, headed the entire project as Chief Engineer with localization of 98% in it from day one.
Exteriors-
The biggest USP for a compact SUV is its compact exterior dimensions. These help when it’s being driven around or to be parked in busy traffic conditions. The Vitara Brezza stands at 3995mm in length, has a width of 1790mm and a height of 1640mm, with a wheelbase of 2500mm. The Brezza has an impressive ground clearance of 198mm to add to its off-road capabilities.
The design language is simple and in synergy with Maruti Suzuki . Upfront you have the thick chrome single slat grill with prominent Suzuki badging on it. The headlights are flushed in body with angular design and soft edges. These are projector headlights with LED day time running lights in them. The bumper has neat styling with good proportions of design lines and houses the fog lamps along with turn indicators that are placed between the headlights and the fog lamps. There also is the honeycomb design grill in the middle on the face. The lower section gets a skid plate in silver. The lower section of the bumper is left unpainted in black, adding to the sporty-looking dual tone effect. The bonnet is of adequate size and has two design lines running on the either sides that softly mate with the front chrome grill. The sides of the Brezza are highlighted by the shoulder line that runs across and joins the tail lamp. The Brezza is available in dual tone color options, which is best noticeable from the sides. The car we drove came with a white top and a yellow lower section. The A, B & C pillars get the glossy black masking adding to the color effect. Wheel arches are big and flat, coming with a special unpainted plastic cladding to give that off-road character look. The wheels come with 215/60 R16 Apollo Alnac 4Gs tubeless tyres mounted on 5-multi spoke silver alloys. The wing mirrors get the body color from the roof, white on our car, and also come with LED turn indicators on them. You get keyless entry-exit buttons on the driver door handle. The top also gets set of roof rails in silver finish. The lower section of the sides gets fiber cladding. Coming to the rear profile… the Brezza’s SUV styling on the rear is very impressive having an extended rear spoiler with stop light, rear windshield placed at an angle and the faux skid plate on the rear bumper. The tail gate gets a thick chrome garnish strip with the bold `BREZZA’ badging on it. Tail lights are flushed in the body and match up to the overall styling. The rear bumper, like the front one, comes with the lower section left unpainted along with the skid plate in silver as mentioned. You also have a rear defogger and washer/wiper on the rear windshield.
The overall design and look of the Vitara Brezza is that of a full grown SUV, build quality is good and the dual tone paint option makes it stand out.
Interiors
Step inside the Brezza and you will like the ease of ingress and egress that it has to offer. You can step in and step out of this Mini SUV very simply. The cabin looks very sporty with a dark theme in place along with brushed aluminum inserts all over the cabin. The three spoke steering gets manual adjust for height and comes with the multi-function control buttons on it that includes multimedia control, telephony and cruise control. Thin lines of chrome insert on the steering give a very neat and rich touch to it. The instrument cluster gets flat top-bottom dials, you can change 6 glow pattern (white, orange, blue, red, yellow, blue) colors on it as per your mood. The center console gets the Apple CarPlay connectivity along with MirrorLink using the touch screen color display the same as seen on the Ciaz, Baleno and the S-Cross. You can effortless use this system also for GPS navigation, wireless music streaming, mobile connectivity etc. When in the reverse gear, this screen doubles up as the reverse camera too. Audio quality is excellent and this is one of the easiest and best touch screen unit currently in the segment. There are a lot of cubby holes and storage bins spread all across the cabin area. You get a dual glove box on the dashboard, upper one being the cooled one and which is very handy. You also get the center armrest closable storage space, storage space under the front passenger seat, lots of bottle holders in the door pads, foldable coat holder behind the driver’s seat, map pockets and sunglasses holder etc. The front seats are more than adequate in size, the driver’s seat gets manual adjust for height. There is ample head room and leg room for the front seats. The rear seats are of 60-40 split fold type and also get manual adjustable headrests. The rear seats too have good contouring and are well-supportive. There is good overall head room, shoulder room and leg room at the rear too. What we missed though, are AC vents for the rear seats. But the AC blower on the Brezza is strong enough to take the flow to the rear too. The Brezza has an overall boot storage capacity of 328liters which can be further extended by folding down the rear row seats when needed. Noteworthy here is that the Brezza come with features like Keyless push button start/stop, keyless entry, auto headlights, rain sensing wipers, cruise control, auto fold mirrors with electric adjust, reverse camera to name a few.
Engine – Drive – Suspension
The Vitara Brezza comes powered by the tried and trusted 1.3 DDiS Diesel engine. There’s no Petrol engine option for now. The 1.3 DDiS which is the Fiat derived Multijet engine makes 95Ps of power at 4000RPM and belts out an overall torque of 200Nmat as low as 1750RPM. Now this is one engine that has been loved and admired in India. This being one of the best units that’s been doing rounds on Maruti Suzuki cars since long. On the Brezza, this engine is fine tuned for a strong mid-range power delivery and a very easy city drive. You start off in the Brezza and can feel the different tune that the engine has got, power delivery is good and the vehicle pulls effortlessly. The Brezza does not feel out of breath at any point, overtaking is easy and the torque is available across the power bands at all speeds. The 5 speed manual gear box is a pleasure to use with perfectly synchronized shifts in place. The clutch feels light and the steering feedback is on the lighter side which makes you feel at times that you are driving a sedan. The Brezza can cruise all day effortlessly at 120-140kmph, which is what we exactly did during our test run. Maruti claims a fuel efficiency of 24.3kmpl but we can expect an overall fuel efficiency of close to 18-19kmpl in the real world driving conditions. The cabin is silent and kudos to Maruti Suzuki engineers for getting the cabin to super NVH levels. Ride quality is excellent too, and so is the braking that comes with ABS and EBD.
Safety
The Brezza is available with driver side airbags as standard, right from the base LDi trim levels. The buyer can also choose on the safety pack that includes passenger airbags and ABS on the base trim too. The fully loaded ZDi trim that we drove comes loaded with front dual airbag and ABS as standard. Maruti Suzuki is offering the Vitara Brezza through its regular dealerships and not via the Nexa outlets.
Verdict.
Maruti Suzuki has taken its time, studied the segment and has also allowed the Mini SUV segment to mature and stabilize before launching its first Mini SUV – the Brezza. This is undoubtedly one of the best out there, comes with the best and renowned diesel engine that has been around for long. Localization is high, so both these points will go a long way in keeping the maintenance, running and spares cost low for the owner. The Brezza is a well-made car, looks trendy too and surely catches the eye wherever it goes. Backed by the massive sales and service network that Maruti Suzuki is known for, this surely is a big winner from India’s largest carmaker, appealing to a lot of buyers.
Maruti Vitara Brezza Specifications
* Engine: 1248cc, DDiS 200, 4-cylinder, Turbocharged, DOHC
* Power: 89 HP @ 4000 RPM
* Torque: 200 Nm @ 1750 RPM
* Transmission: 5-speed manual
* 0-100 km/hr: 13.3 seconds
* Fuel Consumption: 18 km/l
* Fuel Type: Diesel
* Suspension: McPherson Strut (Front), Torsion Beam (Rear)
* Tyres: 215/60/16 (ZDi & ZDi+), 205/60/16 (LDi & VDi)
* Brakes: Ventilated discs (front), drum brakes (rear), ABS
* Safety: Dual Airbags, ABS, EBD
Maruti Vitara Brezza Dimensions
* Overall length x width x height: 3995 mm X 1790 mm X 1640 mm
* Wheelbase: 2500 mm
* Ground clearance: 198 mm
* Turning radius: 5.2-metres
* Fuel Tank Capacity: 48-litres
* Kerb Weight: 1195 kgs
