Family car review – Suzuki Celerio

Suzuki is one of the lesser talked about car brands in Ireland despite being established here since 1985. That is poised to change though – it has some exciting new models coming for 2015. We spent a week checking out the recently launched Celerio. It is a competitively priced, spacious small car with a high up driving position and a fuel efficient engine. It might interest Mums in the market for a new run-around.

Regular readers of our family motoring reviews will know that we spend a lot of time debating the merits, or otherwise, of the impressive but often complicated-to-operate touchscreens and technical equipment fitted to modern cars. Suzuki has saved us the trouble on this occasion, there is a complete and refreshing absence of any daunting systems inside the Celerio. Instead you will find traditional buttons, knobs and levers for the basic controls including the air con and radio. Old fashioned? Well, slightly. But also ridiculously simple to use, which is exactly what many multitasking Mums crave. To be in full control of a car with children on board is a serious challenge, and the Celerio makes that easy.

Surprisingly, the Celerio offers a lot more comfort for rear passengers than many larger cars. The tall roof means two six-foot-tall teenagers will have plenty of space, while long legs are very well accommodated because the rear bench seat sits quite high off the floor. The large windows mean kids in booster seats will see lots out the window. The dark, plastic interior and seat covers might look a bit dour, but it will be easy to clean when family life starts to take its toll.

The Celerio is best suited to being an urban or town car – city cars don’t work as well as longer distance or motorway cars. All Celerios come with a one litre engine, perfect for short journeys at the city speed limit, and you can have either a manual or automatic gearbox. Very few cars can offer the same amount of space and practicality for €11,995 – in fact we cannot think of even one other model that can. Suzuki’s reputation for simple engineering and its Japanese reliability will all give Mums confidence that it will serve the family inexpensively and with no fuss.

During our week at the wheel the 1.0 litre engine hardly used a drop of fuel – around the city you will travel over 400 miles on €50 petrol, and road tax is €190 per annum. Servicing and parts on Suzuki’s are also known to be very affordable, and replacement tyres on the Celerio’s small wheels will also be cheap to buy when the time comes. You can add some sporty body bits to your Celerio from the options list if you like, but we were more interested in the thermo shopping bag Suzuki will supply for just €29 that fits perfectly into the boot – how cool (no pun intended) is that...? Sorry, we couldn’t resist that one!

Is there loads of storage space?

City cars generally have quite small boots so fitting; a double buggy for example, wouldn’t be possible. The height of the Celerio means that you could possibly remove the parcel shelf and stand something like that up if you needed to, although it may obscure your rear visibility. Otherwise the boot as you can see will take a few school bags or a bit of shopping no problem. We found a storage cubby to the right of the steering wheel which is a perfect fit for an iPhone, while the glove box is big, too. The cup holders are on the floor so you have to reach down to get your drink, but at least they don’t get in the way of the gear lever or any of the buttons like on some cars.

Is it baby friendly?

With its wide-opening back doors it is much easier than you might think to fit a baby chair into the back seats of a small car, while the high roof line means there’s lots of space for parents to work in when bolting the seat in place or fastening seat belts. It is quite easy to reach the baby from the driver’s seat if needs be as the rear seats are quite close to the front ones. Like in bigger cars there are two ISOFIX child seat mounts in the back.

Is parking easy?

The Celerio has all the ingredients required to be a Mums car park dream machine. It is very short so can squeeze into even the smallest spots, while the high driving position means seeing everything around you whilst manoeuvring is easy. The rear window is really big and is straight in line with the rear bumper, so no guesswork required as to how much space you have to the car behind, while the short bonnet means swinging in and out of the supermarket parking space is no problem. Top marks!

What about safety?

The Celerio scored a rather low 3 stars out of five in the Euro NCap safety test, but there are mitigating circumstances – the particular model tested had no side air bags fitted which are standard on the Irish car, and would have resulted in the car being awarded four stars. The test did indicate that the basic structure of the car is solid in an accident. As with many budget cars there are compromises – modern safety technologies like automatic city braking are not featured, although there is traction and stability control along with brake force distribution, all of which are recognised as crucial in helping to prevent the driver losing control of the car.

Verdict:

Thumbs Up:

Very spacious for such an inexpensive car

High driving position and simple to operate and park

Wide opening rear doors make fitting a child seat easy

Cheap to run

Thumbs down

Interior a bit dated