Diamonds come in small packages

By Matt Kimberley

March 11 2015, 8:01 am

Suzuki's new Celerio city car

It’s small, it’s affordable and it’s Japanese. Suzuki, the small car market leader in its home country, has revealed its latest city car for Europe

Take the Alto platform, improve the rear suspension, give it much more space and lift the driving position and you’ll end up with something a lot like the Celerio.

But hold your horses because the new small Suzuki is worth a good deal more than the sum of its parts.

What’s with the name, you ask? Well, we’re told it hints at a celestial river of stars in the sky. Obviously. Either way, the Celerio replaces both the Alto and the Splash.

It’s just about wider than it is tall, but thanks to the new, more advanced rear suspension it’s much more stable than it might be. The roof height allows a raised set of seats, and higher seats mean more legroom – and that’s the key to the Celerio’s image. It’s a practical five-seat car, not a feather boa-wearing flouncer.

It’s certainly not as pretty as the new Renault Twingo, for example, and it doesn’t have the mature air of the Volkswagen Up, but its inoffensive styling hides a tight little bundle of character.

The boot is the biggest in the class; two litres bigger than the Hyundai i10’s even though the Hyundai is 6cm longer overall. It’s nice and evenly shaped, too; not too deep or at all hard to access.

Four adults will wonder what witchcraft is at work, but the fact is that four average-height men can slot into the Celerio with no problem. Three children can fit across the rear bench at a squeeze, but many of the little Suzuki’s rivals can’t seat five at all.

There are two engines; a standard 1.0-litre that has no trouble hustling the mere 835kg car along if you keep it above 3,000rpm, or an upgraded unit with a whisker more torque that should be a little stronger at low revs. This SZ4-spec car is powered by the former.

The composure in the chassis is pretty impressive, but what’s even more so is the ride quality, which for a sub-£9,000 car riding on 14in alloy wheels is brilliant – testament to Suzuki’s insistence on testing prototypes on UK roads.

The interior, while it makes a good first impression, feels increasingly dated the longer you sit in it. But it’s by no means the worst in class and just check out the level of equipment you get as standard: Bluetooth, air conditioning, DAB radio, remote central locking, a trip computer and mpg meter, USB and 12-volt sockets… the list goes on.

Then check out the super-tight turning circle. You’ll be laughing all the way to the high street when you park nimbly in gaps that other cars have to give up on.

Arguably, if you can stomach the manually-adjustable door mirrors and their unpainted housings, the £7,999 SZ3 model is the real bargain. It shares most of the SZ4’s mighty kit list for a £1,000 saving. That’s also a huge chunk less than an equivalently-equipped competitor can cost.

Buyers are likely to be sensible types who know that what they need is more important than what they might want. City cars like the Fiat 500 and Smart ForFour have the Celerio beaten for style, but the Suzuki can hold its head high in the knowledge that it’s just about the most spacious, most practical city car out there with a wedge of its own character to boot.