Maruti Suzuki Ignis: Petrol Manual & Diesel AMT Review

If there was one person in the entire Maruti Suzuki family who was extremely excited about the Maruti Suzuki Ignis during its media drive, it was RS Kalsi, Executive Director (Marketing & Sales) who, at dinner time, actually sang a one line song “Ignis, I love you” before a large gathering of journalists. And if you thought that was not good enough, CV Raman, Executive Director (Engineering) went ahead and did a short jig to some very upbeat music. No one was making a song and dance about the Ignis, rather it was all about fuelling a passion in the hearts of the hundreds and thousands of millennials, for whom the Ignis has been built.

Millennials are supposed to have a few things in common. They love all kinds of gizmos that are offered in its digital form, they are cost conscious and they care for the environment. So, when I got my hands on the top end Alpha petrol model (manual) I was pleasantly surprised by what it had to offer in terms of a “gizmo effect”. Or should I say, the Gee-zmo effect! More of that later!

The top end model has a smart dash with toggle switches to control the climate in the cabin while there is a tablet like touch screen that comes with loads of functions. This infotainment system offers smartphone connectivity experience with Andriod Auto, Apple CarPlay and Mirror Link.

The top end variant of the Ignis also comes with LED projector headlamps and DRLs. These simply add to the good looks of the car which has been designed as a smart compact urban vehicle. The front grille with chrome accents in the top end variant gives the car a sporty look. The black alloys accentuate this style quotient. The prominent wheel arches and the smart rear with the three lines etched on the C pillar of the car, bring out the oomph factor in the car

When it comes to cabin space, the car has more than enough of it. With its slightly tall boy design, head room in the car is more than average, while leg room too is impressive. The car comes with a large boot space of 265 litres, which can be further increased with 60:40 rear split seats at the rear. The 1.2 litre petrol engine, mated to a five speed manual transmission is packed with adequate power and decent torque. Touching speeds of 100kmph and above come quite easy to this petrol car.

And when it comes to ride and handling, I will say the car has been technically tweaked brilliantly to ensure your ride is not rocky and unstable. It handles well even on tight corners. But in the 1.3 litre diesel automatic mill I found the automatic shifting of gears not too seamless, as though the engine is pausing to take a deep breath after every gear. But then automatics score big time over manuals in some of the toughest road conditions, especially when one has to drive through thick traffic. 

The company has also emphasised a lot on the safety aspect with this car. It comes with dual air bags, seatbelts with pre-tensioner force limiter, ABS with ABD. These all come as standard fitment.  The car is compliant for pedestrian safety, side impact and off set crash regulations ahead of the regulation time. It also has the ISOFIX anchorage which is basically a child seat restraint system, a feature which is meaningless in a country like India. But then kudos to Maruti Suzuki to set a new benchmark in safety standards!

While the car performs well overall, what could really set the millennials thinking would be the car’s shape and styling. The Ignis is a car one could blindly fall in love with or could dislike it out rightly. On a personal note, I liked the Ignis and found it a very practical car. But I was a tad disappointed with the fact that several of its interesting features like tab like touch screen, LED projector headlamps, toggle switches for the climate control, etc are missing in all models except the top variants of the petrol and diesel cars with manual transmission. Now this is something which may not go down too well with the millennials. But then, I really do not want to make a song and dance about this!