Complete Guide to Buying a Maruti Suzuki Celerio

When someone plans to buy a fuel-efficient car on a budget, ‘Maruti Celerio’ is one of the first names they are suggested. However, there is much more to the Maruti Celerio than just mileage, which has kept it as a popular choice since its launch in 2014. The Indo-Japanese hatchback strongly competes with its sibling Maruti Wagon R, Tata Tiago, and Citroen C3, and comfortably garners substantially healthy sales month after month. Ever since the launch of the second generation, the Maruti Celerio has developed an all-new charm with its new looks and even more frugal powertrain. If you plan to bring home a Maruti Celerio, here is a complete guide to buying a Maruti Celerio along with what you will like, what you won’t like, and the best variant for you.

Maruti Suzuki Celerio Specifications

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.

Class-leading Mileage

In today’s times when fuel prices are skyrocketing, fuel-efficient cars are no less than a boon. Ever since its launch in 2014, the Maruti Celerio has been a reputed name among the most fuel-efficient cars in India. Even the first generation Celerio delivers mileage of 23.1 km/l, making itself a more fuel-efficient car than most rivals of the current generation Celerio. With the second generation Maruti Celerio, Maruti took the mileage game to the next level, equipping it with Suzuki’s 1-litre K10C Dualjet engine and idle start/stop technology that enables it to deliver the maximum mileage of 26.68 km/l. The Dualjet engine sports 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.

Smooth Ride

Maruti has always been revered for equipping its cars with refined powertrains, and the Maruti Celerio is no exception. Despite being a 3-cylinder engine, the 1-litre petrol unit smoothly delivers power and propels the Celerio with minimum NVH levels. The suspension system which is neither too hard nor too soft absorbs jerks aptly and keeps the ride hassle-free. These are essential when you consider the Celerio as a city car that has to navigate a variety of roads on its commute.

Urban Nature

Small cars like Maruti Celerio are meant to be driven frequently in the urban landscape 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 compactness of the Maruti Celerio. Combined with 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 what is appealing about the Maruti Celerio, it is time to shed some light upon its flaw that may deter you from buying it.

Better value for money Rivals

No one likes putting their hard-earned money on a product that is not a good value-for-money proposition. In the case of the Maruti Celerio, its rivals consisting of the Tata Tiago, Citroen C3, and even its sibling Wagon R are better value-for-money packages. The Tata Tiago brings GNCAP rated 4-star 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. 

Even its younger sibling Maruti Alto K10 comes across as a better value for money package, as it is relatively cheaper and features the same engine, delivering almost the same mileage. Also the feature list of Celerio does not differ much from that of the Maruti Alto K10.

Maruti Suzuki Celerio Variants

Maruti offers Celerio in eight variants. Among these seven variants are petrol-powered and one is CNG-powered. Here is the price of every variant and the best variant for you.

Best Maruti Suzuki Celerio variant to buy

For those looking for a Celerio with a manual transmission on a tight budget, it will be wise to skip LXi and go for the VXi variant. You can buy this variant and have some aftermarket accessories installed to enhance the ownership experience. If you are looking to own a higher variant, we suggest choosing ZXi as it offers much better value than the VXi variant. Mind you, neither of the LXi and VXi variants offer a music system, steering-mounted controls, remote central locking, and an adjustable steering wheel. So, if you can manage to stretch the budget further, the ZXi plus variant is the best value-for-money deal of all the petrol-manual variants. All the same, if you are looking to buy an automatic variant, the ZXi variant is a good choice and the ZXi plus variant is the pick of the lot. And If a CNG-powered Celerio is your preference, then the VXi variant is the only option.

Maruti Suzuki Celerio Warranty and Service Cost

Like every Maruti car, the Maruti Celerio comes with a standard warranty of 2 years/40,000 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 free 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 year/20,000 km and Rs 9,154 at 4 year/40,000 km.

Summary

All in all, the Maruti Celerio nicely resonates with most requirements of urban car buyers. Be it shopping, pick up and drops, travelling to workplace, or anything else, the Maruti Celerio has got you covered with its easy handling, city-friendly dimensions, and economic mileage. However, like every car in the world, the Maruti Celerio is also a mix of some pros and cons which are explained above. If you have decided to bring home a Maruti Celerio, this buying guide will help you deal with all the marketing diversions and remain focused on what is important to you.

FAQs about Maruti Suzuki Celerio