Maruti Suzuki Dzire long term review, 8,500km report

City runs may seem uneventful and boring, but when you combine record-breaking rainfall with back-breaking roads, even the mundane drive to work can feel like a scene from Death Race. You’d imagine the bare minimum you need in an uprooted Mumbai is a ladder-frame SUV with a lift kit – but surprisingly, the Dzire copes just fine.

Thanks to its ground clearance and superb ride quality, bumps are barely felt inside the cabin. Even with a full load, the Dzire never bottoms out or scrapes any of the haphazardly constructed speed bumps.

Then there’s the brilliant Z12E engine. While it may have lost the punch of the previous-gen Dzire’s K15C 4-cylinder motor, it has maintained – even improved – fuel efficiency. No matter how eager your right foot is, the efficiency never drops below 14kpl. In traffic bad enough to make you pull your hair out, seeing 14.8kpl on the display is always calming.

Exceptionally efficient despite harrowing traffic. E20 does not seem to have affected it that much.

In fact, since I got the car with a full tank at the start of the month, I haven’t had to stop for fuel. Sure, I’ve only done the home-work-home loop without straying too far, but that’s 20 days of 19km driving each day. That’s almost 400km on one tank!

What’s also nice is the AC performance, which, typical of Marutis, works extremely well. The 360-degree camera is incredibly helpful, and the light steering and clutch remove much of the stress of driving a manual.

360-degree camera helps parking in tight spots. No delay or lag in feed. Guidelines useful too.

There are things I don’t like, though. Saumil had mentioned the challenges of maintaining the Dzire’s bright upholstery, and you can multiply that by 10 during the monsoons. The seats stain easily, and you have to be extra careful when stepping in after running around in the rain.

Other annoyances include the lack of USB-C ports at the front. If you have a modern phone, you’ll need to buy a separate USB-A cable or use the Type-C ports placed behind the handbrake, which are meant for rear passengers.

USB-A seems last-gen with modern gadgets all supporting Type-C ports and cables.

Another gripe is with the auto start/stop system. This applies to all Marutis – the system is too sensitive and cuts off the engine eagerly, often at the worst times. It claims to improve fuel efficiency, but in slow crawling traffic, it shuts off the engine just when you need to speed up a bit. It’s like an annoying friend playing the same prank over and over. As a result, the first thing you do when you get into a Dzire is turn off the auto start/stop.

Auto start/stop cuts-off engine quite early, quite an annoyance slowing down in crawling traffic.

These aren’t deal-breakers, just annoyances. The Dzire doesn’t really have any significant downsides, especially as a city car. It’s smooth, comfortable, exceptionally efficient, and probably the only manual car that Autocar staffers still fight over.

Best to then fill it up, get away from the city chaos, and see if it’s just as impressive on the highways.