It’s been 2+ years since we purchased the celerio AMT, replacing the 10 year old Maruti 800. I thought its about time for a long term ownership report. The celerio is our second car. The first being the FIAT Adventure which is on its way of completing 11 years soon. Majority of my post will be on the AMT transmission. I have also made comparisons with i10 and WagonR, both of which I have used in the past. Let’s get started with the rest of the likes and dislikes.
Here is what I like about the car
Exteriors:
- Great visibility (front and rear). No real blind spots
- Very effective headlamps. (No fogging inside for last 2 years, I hate this on my adventure). Its effective in 2 ways, the spread is good and it isn’t harsh on the people facing it.
Interiors:
- Seats are comfortable, even though a bit narrow. Long journeys are not tiring. I have done a few trips of 300+ kms in a day and don’t feel the fatigue. Driving position spot on, though I find the steering to be a bit low hampering ingress. (I am 6.1)
- Rear seat is very good, upright and comfy, seniors are happy due to the easy ingress/egress
- Boot space is decent. Boot latch gets 2 gas struts which feels good for the segment. (gets more than Wagon R) Infact the boot area is nice and clean with no wires/ugly bits shown.
The drive:- Good steering!. No dead zones at higher speeds. (I hear people complaining about it being hard. I guess Maruti is tweaking its steering setup)
- Very good ride quality. Having driven i10 and wagon-R, I find the ride better than both. One of the factors could be because of wider tyres with bigger profile.
- Rear seat bumpiness is minimal in comparison to the segment. On the same road in an i10, I would hear complaints from rear seat passengers to slow down.
- Decent handling at modest speeds. ( < 100kmph)
- Engine is surprisingly peppy. Easily the best part about the car, aside of the initial vibrations, it is very refined at city speeds. Sometimes barely audible. Among the best 1L engines.
- AC doesn’t hinder performance much (although i do find a slightly better AMT experience with the AC off). The AC compressor is constantly going on and off which I believe is for better fuel efficiency.
- Overall fuel efficiency 13.2 Km after 13000Kms. AC is ON most of the time. Mix of both long drives and peak city traffic.
Things I don’t like:
Safety:
- No rear wash and wipe or defogger! Maruti, this is unacceptable on a VXI
- No option for ABS/Airbags or no ZXI AMT either when we bought it.
Interiors:
- Flimsy build. Everything has a sense of hollowness. The dash area is decent and so is the speedo and steering. Doorpads/bonnet opening latch/center console and around the handbrake, the plastics are bad. Everything shakes with a minor push.
- Rattles are very few, but present.
The main reason I went for the celerio is the AMT and after 2 years, I conclude that it’s been a mixed bag. People considering the AMT should pay attention to the below points.
Claim: AMT is great for bumper to bumper traffic.
My take: AMT suites better for moderate traffic.
Reason: Unpredictable throttle response.
The lull before the storm.
There is a gap between when you press the throttle and when the car moves. And if you press the accelerator harder to compensate the gap, you are treated for a sudden surge in acceleration. Senior citizens need to take care of this. Their body response times are generally slower and they should be able to deal with the sudden bursts of acceleration. To add to the confusion, the gap times are not constant, sometimes response is immediate, sometimes very slow.
Lets take the following scenarios:
Leisurely driving with ‘I care a damn’ mindset
Celerio wins. If you can live with the slow throttle responses, you will be rewarded with good hassle free ownership. You can skip the rest of the scenarios [FONT=Wingdings][FONT=Wingdings]J[/FONT][/FONT]
Squeezing through traffic.
Celerio is terrible at this. The delay in throttle response means its harder to keep up with the person in front. And sudden burst of throttle when it happens means more braking and more annoyed passengers.
Getting out of road humps:
Depending on how slow you cross it, it can result in delay before it gets going. Solution: Accelerate while you exit the hump.
Parking Exit Ramp up:
Its better done in a relaxed manner. If you try going fast, it can upshift midway in the ramp and because of the throttle delay, it can cause judder as car fails to keep up the incline at higher gears. Again, manual mode advised
Parking Exit Ramp down:
Scary. It can downshift and increase speed suddenly just when you are about to make a turn on say an MLCP. Manual mode makes it work.
Reversing or parking through tight spots:
Hand brake is advised as it can control the throttle response a bit. Reversing in a hurry is a no-no as it can result in massive judder. Having said that reversing is extremely easy as the creep function gives enough throttle to use only brakes while reversing
Turning/Parking in areas of gravel or slippery surface:
Celerio is not at all comfortable with this kind of scenario. The judders persist and it just wants to get away from this place! On any slippery surface, the throttle is highly unpredictable.
Highway driving:
Surprisingly good and effortless to drive. Manual mode is fun and easy. Even the Auto mode, celerio makes for a relaxed mile cruncher. Quite a few of these we learn along the way and have our own tricks of dealing with them. Aside of the driving conditions, there are some issues with the AMT system itself.
Confused system:
Say you are driving at 3rd gear and you found the need to accelerate, floor the accelerator and it upshifts to 2D and keep it floored it will go to 1D and the problem starts after, it tries to upshift beyond 1D and keeps trying and as the revs are high its completely confused!. This can be dangerous as you are slowing down.
It doesn’t happen if you start off with 1D.
Flaw in lever design:
If you are the type who uses manual mode frequently, then you are bound to hit this issue. If you happen to forget you are in ‘D’ mode and thinking you are driving in M, and try to downshift, you may end up putting the car in neutral. I have also found that it is easy to engage to N without pressing the brake, than to engage from N to D. So if at all you end up in this stage, you will have to brake and put the pedal back to D. I believe the lever should have been R->N->D->M with lateral movements at M
Change in gearbox behavior
I have observed that the AMT judder increases as I drive more. Meaning the judder is more after 20-25 kms of city driving. Not sure if this is to do with gearbox heating up. I think frequent shifts in city traffic cause this issue. I don’t have any technical backing to this though. I am just quoting by experience.
Summary
After feeding all these considerations into my grey matter for corresponding reactions, I have been able to work through each issue and overall the experience is pleasant. But I can’t expect my dad to get used to so many custom scenarios to deal with. His experience has been 50:50. He has driven the good old premier padmini for 15 years and the Maruti 800 for 10 years and he doesn’t feel at home on the celerio yet. I have enjoyed the celerio more on my highway drives or relaxed Sunday drives than the office commutes.
I am reminded of this Kannada movie called first rank Raju, the Celerio is more like a second rank Raju as it gets everything done very well, but just that one zing missing to create an emotional connect.
Here is one pic of the car with the lovely forests of BR Hills in the backdrop.
![Maruti Celerio : Official Review-imgp0116-2.jpg](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attachments/official-new-car-reviews/1597468d1690489393t-maruti-celerio-official-review-imgp0116-2.jpg)