Japanese auto giant Maruti Suzuki India has finally updated its premium sedan SX4 with changes in the interiors and exteriors besides effort to improve its fuel efficiency.
The SX4 was a runaway success when Maruti Suzuki launched it in 2007. It was the first premium model from Maruti Suzuki with a lot of features which appealed to a whole lot of customers. However, times have changed since then and there is now a dozen car makers competing with it in that range. We were expecting the new variant to come sooner or later but the launch of the new SX4 has come at the right time when people have been looking at new products since the beginning of the new year.
There are a few updates to the exterior and the new SX4 includes a more pronounced bumper along with two-tone front grille, fog lamp with dual-tone garnish and electrically foldable outside rear view mirrors with built-in turn indicators. The length of the car has also been increased by 10 mm and the model gets new colour options also. The interiors also have been spruced up, and boast of features like dual tone black and beige upholstery on the seats, black and marble finish prints, armrests finished in faux wood, chrome AC side louvers and side handles to give the car a more premium feel. The new SX4 gets optional features like all new touch-screen audio with integrated navigation with Bluetooth which allows features like GPS, music and messaging to be integrated on the screen.
Though the new SX4 is powered by the same 1.6-litre engine that produces 104.7PS at 5600rpm and a peak torque of 145NM at 4100rpm and the 1.3-litre turbo-diesel pumps out 90PS @ 4000 rpm and 200Nm of torque @ 1750 rpm, they both will now deliver better fuel mileage over their predecessors something which is very important in the mileage-obsessed country. According to the company, the new car is 6 per cent more fuel efficient over its predecessor and the petrol variant returns an efficiency figure of 16.5 kmpl and its diesel sibling 21.79 kmpl as per the company figures provided to the Automotive Research Association of India.
The good news is that the prices of the new model have not been revised and the range starts from Rs 7.38 lakh to Rs 9.21 lakh ex-showroom (Delhi).