Complete Buying Guide: Maruti Suzuki Celerio

When it comes to fuel-efficiency, the Maruti Suzuki Celerio stands out as a mileage champion, achieving its fuel efficiency without any hybrid assistance. This one fact is enough to attract a spate of buyers who wish to cope with high fuel prices. In addition to an extremely attractive mileage, the Maruti Celerio has a lot that makes it fit the bill in urban settings and it should be on the higher side of your list if you are looking for a capable hatchback. In this buying guide to Maruti Celerio, we explain its advantages and limitations, and its best variant for your use case.

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Maruti Suzuki Celerio Specifications

Maruti Suzuki Celerio Variants & Prices

The Maruti Celerio has six variants on offer: LXi, VXi, ZXi, and ZXi+. Among these variants, the base LXi variant is available with only manual transmission, while the other variants are available with both manual and automatic transmissions. The CNG option is available with only the VXi variant. As far as exterior paint is concerned, the Maruti Celerio is available in Pearl Caffeine Brown, Pearl Bluish Black, Metallic Glistening Grey, Metallic Silky Silver, Metallic Speedy Blue, Solid Fire Red, and Pearl Arctic White. Following is the list of Maruti Celerio variants and their prices.

Best Maruti Suzuki Celerio Variant to Buy

The base LXi variant of the Maruti Celerio is a barebone model. Available with only a manual transmission, the LXi variant features 14-inch steel wheels, ball-joint outside mirrors, Idle start/stop, and some other basic features. This variant is not recommended to even buyers with a tight budget.

The VXi variant adds a few important features such as hill start assist (AMT), rear parcel tray, front and rear power windows, manual central locking, day/night IRVM, and more. While the VXi variant adds some important features, it misses a few modern-day essentials such as a music system, steering-mounted controls, remote central locking, adjustable steering wheel, and more. You can own this variant if you are comfortable adding these features aftermarket.

In addition to the features of lower variants, the ZXi variant offers remote central locking, adjustable steering, steering-mounted controls, a music system, a rear defogger, a rear washer wiper, and more. While the ZXi variant misses a few features like adjustable headrests, power-folding mirrors, height-adjustable driver seat, and front armrest, it is a good option for those who want considerable value for their money.

The top ZXi+ variant adds a 7-inch touchscreen infotainment System with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, fog lamps, power folding wing mirrors, keyless entry and push button start/stop, 15-inch alloy wheels, height-adjustable driver seat, and more. All these features make the top ZXi variant the most value-for-money variant of the Maruti Celerio.

Maruti Suzuki Celerio Warranty and Service Cost

The Maruti Celerio comes with a standard warranty of 3 years/1,00,000 km. This warranty period can be extended up to 5 years at some additional cost. As far as service cost is concerned, the first and second services are done free of cost, and post that the service charges are around Rs 2,334 at 1 year/ 10,000 km, Rs 5,434 at 2 year/20,000 km, Rs 4,184 at 3 year/30,000 km, Rs 6,354 at 4 year/40,000 km, and Rs 4,184 at 5 year/50,000 km. For the CNG-powered Celerio, the service cost is approximately Rs 6,394 at 2 years/20,000 km and Rs 9,154 at 4 years/40,000 km.

Why you should consider the Maruti Suzuki Celerio

Since a lot of first-time car buyers opt for budget cars, these cars shoulder many expectations. Here are some qualities of Maruti Celerio that meet your expectations like no other in the segment.

Economic Character

When it comes to budget cars or cars used mainly in urban landscapes or cars used for daily commutes, mileage is extremely important. Even otherwise, no one wants to own a car which requires frequent refuelling, resulting in significant expenditure on fuel. Such requirements make cars like the Maruti Celerio stand out. With an ability to deliver a mileage of 24.97 – 26.68 km/l from petrol and 34.43 km/kg from CNG, the Maruti Celerio appeals to buyers stronger than most other cars in India. While CNG-powered cars are expected to deliver appealing mileage figures and are usually bought for low running costs, even the petrol mileage of the Maruti Celerio is as good as the mileage of some strong-hybrid cars in the market. Impeccable mileage has been one of the key draws of the Maruti Celerio since its launch in 2014 and it has always been one of the most fuel-efficient cars in India.

As a matter of fact, the first generation Maruti Celerio delivers a mileage of 23.1 km/l petrol mileage, which is a better mileage figure than that of most current rivals of the Maruti Celerio. However, with the second-generation Maruti Celerio, the Indo-Japanese carmaker took the game to the next level, equipping it with Suzuki’s K10C Dualjet engine and idle start/stop technology that enables it to deliver the maximum mileage of 26.68 km/l. The Dueljet arrangement has two injectors per cylinder (one injector for each intake port), which results in a better air-fuel mixture, leading to higher efficiency. What further increases the fuel efficiency is the idle start/stop system that shuts the engine down when the car idles such as in heavy traffic or waiting for traffic lights to change. The engine restarts immediately when you need to move.

In addition to great mileage, the Maruti Celerio offers an affordable maintenance cost as expected of Maruti cars. The combination of fuel efficiency and low maintenance cost gives the Maruti Celerio an economic character, which is one of the strongest attractions of a car that is supposed to be used daily.

Refined Drive

Maruti Suzuki is known for equipping its cars with refined engines, and the Maruti Celerio is no exception. Even though Maruti Celerio’s 1-litre petrol engine is a 3-cylinder unit which is known to cause a lot of vibration and noise, this engine is surprisingly refined, smoothly delivers power, and propels the Celerio with minimum NVH levels. Meanwhile, the suspension setup, which is neither too hard nor too soft, and absorbs jerks aptly and keeps the ride hassle-free. These are essential when you consider the Celerio as a city car that must navigate a variety of stretches.

Compact Dimensions

Small cars like Maruti Celerio are meant to be driven frequently in the cities and thus are engineered purposefully. For starters, while the size of a car does not make much difference on broad highways, it is the residential roads and narrow streets where you thank the compact dimensions of the Maruti Celerio. In addition to the compact size, the small turning radius as well as the light steering make life easy in city traffic. In addition to that, for its astonishing fuel economy, you do not think twice while taking the Celerio out to run errands.

As far as space is concerned, the compact dimensions do translate into limited space in the Celerio’s cabin, however, it is not much different from what is offered in other cars in the segment. Speaking of space, it is worth mentioning that as compared to the segment-leader Maruti Wagon R, the Maruti Celerio has the same wheelbase but is wider and therefore offers more shoulder room.

Why you should not consider the Maruti Suzuki Celerio

As we have covered the best qualities of the Maruti Celerio, it is time to shed some light on its flaws that may deter you from buying it. 

Only One CNG-Powered Variant

A lot of consumers go for budget cars for low running costs and CNG-powered models are very attractive propositions in such cases. However, most buyers like to have options even in the CNG-powered variants of a car and this is where the Maruti Celerio is not as appealing, because it has only one CNG-powered variant, VXi. In comparison, the Tata Tiago offers CNG-powered counterparts of all its variants, the Maruti Alto K10 offers CNG-powered options with LXi and VXi variants, and the Maruti Wagon R offers CNG-powered models with LXi and VXi variants.

Better value for money Rivals

Every buyer wants maximum value for their money and this is one of the key forces which make buyers explore multiple options in the market. As far as the Maruti Celerio is concerned, it does not offer as much value for its asking price as its rivals do for their asking prices. For example, The Tata Tiago brings a 4-star G-NCAP safety rating exhibiting the segment-best safety, the Maruti Wagon R offers a more powerful engine, and the Citroen C3 is slightly bigger as compared to the Maruti Celerio. And given the price difference from the Maruti Celerio, all these cars come across as better deals than the Celerio. As a matter of fact, even the younger sibling of the Maruti Celerio, the Maruti Alto K10 comes in as a better value-for-money offering, because it is more affordable, packs the same engine, and offers almost the same mileage. At the same time, the feature package of the Maruti Celerio is not too different from that of the Maruti Alto K10.

Summary

The Maruti Celerio has seen substantial success and for all that it offers, it indeed is a capable city car. If you are looking to own a Maruti Celerio, this buying guide will help you know this car better and explain its advantages and shortcomings and the best variant for you to ease your buying process. With fabulous mileage figures and low maintenance costs, the Maruti Celerio is a car you want to own if you want to keep your car expenditure in check. Moreover, its compact dimensions and refined engine further make it an appealing city car. All the same, while considering the Maruti Celerio, you might find its rivals better value-for-money options and if you want a CNG-powered car, then VXi is the only variant the Maruti Celerio has to offer you.

FAQs about Maruti Suzuki Celerio