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By MURRAY
HUBBARD
27 July 2009
Suzuki
describe it as a car 'for these times' and let's face it, times
are tough. A five-door, four-seat hatch with six airbags and a
chronic distaste for petrol, the new Alto doesn't sip fuel, it
licks it as a cat licks its fur. At the car's Brisbane launch we
drove 130 kilometres of city, suburban and a small amount of
highway driving using just 4.7 litres of E10 95 Ron petrol. That's
3.5 litres per 100 kilometres or, in the old money, a mind-blowing
80 miles to the gallon.
Which means on a full tank of fuel - that's a miserly 35-litre
fuel tank - you could drive between Brisbane and Sydney without a
fuel break with the cost of filling up at $1.17 a litre just under
$42. "Alto gets around the same fuel consumption as a hybrid
or one of the new diesels," said Suzuki Auto Queensland's
general manager, Keith Carroll.
Despite our road test economy figures Suzuki quote a combined
economy of 4.8 L/100 km. We have to admit our test run did not
include any significant hills such as a climb up Mt Dandenong or
the Blue Mountains.
The new baby Suzuki has funky looks which Suzuki say will give it
appeal not only to young buyers, but families and those looking
for affordable running-costs, without sacrificing aesthetics.
Alto is designed as a city dweller. It has a turning circle of
just nine metres and is just 3.5 metres long. So trips to the
shopping centre or school will not only be cheap, but
driver-friendly. The car's length means the boot size is limited.
With the rear seat raised capacity is 345 litres and with the
seats folded space expands to a more than usable 754 litres.
Suzuki Alto features a floating style dash, ABS brakes, power
steering, electric front windows, remote door locks, air
conditioning and an AM/FM/CD tuner with an MP3 playback function
and auxiliary
input socket. However, the external mirrors are manually operated.
The Australian Alto has higher safety specifications than its
European counterpart. In other markets the Alto is known a A-Class
or Celerio. The airbag system features dual front airbags, side
airbags and head-protecting curtain airbags. The ABS brakes also
feature electronic brake force distribution with emergency brake
assist. Alto has a four-star ANCAP safety rating. Only the
upmarket Alto GLX has stability control.
The rear seats have two child seat ISO-Fix anchorages and two
tether anchorages. The Alto GLX adds ESP, front fog lamps, colour
coded exterior mirrors, tachometer, six speaker sound system, seat
height adjustment on the driver’s seat and alloy wheels.
The car was designed in Japan where it is built, but assembled in
India, in a plant expected to turn out 750,000 Alto units a year.
Suzuki is downplaying the engine size - it's a one-litre,
three-cylinder 12-valve powerplant - in the belief buyers may
baulk at the small size. Instead it wants potential buyers to
drive the car and make up their own mind when it comes to
performance. The engine produces 50 kW of power at 6000 rpm and 90
Nm of torque at 3400 rpm.
With the car's weight at just 880 kg for the GL and 905 kg for the
GLX, it is not being asked to carry the weight of the world. We
found the driving position comfortable, steering light and the
clutch also on the light side.
Suzuki Alto is hardly a sprinter; try 0-100 in 14 seconds in the
manual and 17 seconds in the auto. Given most people will use the
car in the 'burbs this is not an issue. We found the car had
adequate poke off the line and it cruised easily at 110 km/h on
the highway. With four adults on board obviously the performance
would be compromised, particularly on hills.
We liked the size and comfort of the front seats. For a car this
size Suzuki has obviously decided that most times only the front
seats will be in use and therefore they get the lion’s share of
space. As a result the rear pew is a little cramped, but it is
certainly OK for little Tom and Anne for local short trips and the
odd longer journey.
Alto GL manual will go on sale at the start of August at $12,490
plus on-road costs, which are expected to increase the driveaway
price to around $14,990. The GLX variant will be around $16,990. A
four-speed automatics adds a hefty $2000 to both variants.
© Copyright
Marque Publishing Company
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