Maruti Suzuki Ignis long term review

The perfect city car from Maruti Suzuki

The Ignis was launched in the grandest manner possible, with DJ Axwell of Sweden getting a stadium full of people grooving to his beats. Now, the EDM that was being belted out isn’t exactly to our taste, but the car that was launched? Well, let’s just put it this way, we thought the Ignis was an interesting idea. That was the thought at the time. Having lived with it for half a year plus a few days here and there, we are sold on this wonderful new idea from India’s largest passenger car manufacturer. Completely sold on it.

During its time with us, we have kept the car confined to the environment it was supposed to be comfortable in. We didn’t take it for our usual weekend drives to nowhere. Nearby Lavasa or Lonavala, at just 60-70km away, doesn’t really qualify in our books as a longish drive. We kept this baby Maruti Suzuki in its comfort zone, and boy is it comfortable in that zone.

What about interior space?

For a car that is built to be directly proportional to shrinking road space, the Ignis is surprisingly spacious inside, seating five (four, if they have my proportions) adults comfortably. Quality of the interiors is excellent too, the only thing that isn’t so great is that old school music system. In this day and age of touchscreen convenience, it felt a bit out of place on the commute to work and back.

“When you’re not in a hurry that AMT serves you well without too much of shift shock but spirited driving?”

To drive through Pune’s traffic, the Ignis always felt zippy. What else could it be with that smooth 1.2-litre petrol engine producing 82bhp and 113Nm of torque to push less than 900 kilos? When you’re not in a hurry that AMT serves you well without too much of shift shock but spirited driving? Those were the times when we wanted manual. Not the manual mode that serves as a compromise, but the real thing with the third pedal. The trade off would of course be in convenience, for there is no arguing the benefits of the automation of transmission in a city where the number of vehicles has recently exceeded the number of people!

All good?

The other thing we didn’t particularly like about the Maruti Suzuki Ignis were its stock tyres. They are a little thinner than they should be and didn’t provide as much grip as we demanded of them. They also didn’t look that great. The problem though was quickly solved with a set of excellent wider tyres being loaned to us by Ceat. Having used those for four and a half of the six months the Maruti Suzuki Ignis stayed with us, we’d be happy to recommend the same upgrade to all Maruti Suzuki Ignis owners. You’ll benefit infinitely from the extra grip without too much loss in running efficiency.

Finally, degradation. Seems like Maruti Suzuki has done a brilliant job of arresting that on their new cars. Like Aninda has mentioned in the Dzire report, the Ignis too has been kept baking in the sun for long hours. I’m happy to report, both the paint and the plastics in the cabin have managed to retain their lustre. Neither are there any rattles or squeaks to report. Service too, like in the case of the Maruti Suzuki Dzire, has been prompt and efficient. Nothing to complain there. Overall, it has been a nice experience and I for one am certainly sad to bid this little Ignis goodbye.