The Maruti-Suzuki S Presso is not the prettiest car launched in the recent past. But will this ugly duckling become a swan when it comes to sales?

Aesthetics is a deeply individualistic thing, but even then there are certain things, cars, buildings, watches and gadgets that fit into the pretty or ugly categories. You can debate endlessly about Adrian van Hooydonk’s new massive snouted BMW 4-series coupe, but the Maruti-Suzuki S.Presso is one of those cars that fails the test. Particularly, the rear-end, with its articulated shock-absorber, and tyres that seem awfully small and looks horrible. But history has taught us that when people find a car which has a lot of value attached to it, they do not care about its looks. The success of the original Hyundai Santro being a case in point. This is particularly true at the entry-level of the market. It is not as if there cannot be attractive small hatchbacks, the Daewoo Matiz was a smart looking car but its Korean rival smashed it in the sales charts, even Maruti’s A-star, which was an attractive design flopped.

Looks therefore, one can safely assume, is not the most important thing for entry-level car buyers. Practicality is and, frankly, on that front Maruti delivers. The S.Presso is based on Suzuki’s Heartect-K platform, the ‘K’ standing for Japan’s small ‘Kei’ cars, which got tax benefits. It has been modified to make it slightly longer and wider, but much like the old WagonR. This is a narrow albeit tall car. And as a result of that, Maruti’s designers (for this is a vehicle like the Vitara Brezza that was designed with Indian designers and engineers at the heart of the programme) have effectively made a proper successor to the old WagonR, since the new third-generation WagonR is bigger and wider than ever before. So one can say that the new WagonR is actually a Swift in an ugly suit. And like the old WagonR, the S.Presso has oodles of space.  Maruti’s designers have made a spacious cabin with lots of storage cubbyholes and a large boot given the car’s size. The tall-boy stance also makes ingress and egress very easy although while Maruti claims this to be a five seater but two large guys will take up all the space at the back. The steering column is not adjustable and the central-mounted instrument cluster takes a bit of getting used to, but the overall layout is pretty good. The steering mounted controls are a huge plus, although the shiny plastic trim on the top variants reflects off the windscreen and if you find yourself driving with the setting sun behind you, like I did, this is extremely irritating.

How does this drive? Well, Maruti’s K10B petrol engine that does service on several of Maruti’s other small cars finds its way onto this one as well, and as far as small, naturally-aspirated engines go, it is the best in the business. I am not sold on the Automated Manual Transmission (AMT) on this car, or any other for that matter, but with the manual gearbox this one is peppy off the line and can go plenty fast, all the while returning great fuel economy.

Now, that ‘tall’ stance makes one assume that the shock-absorbers have a lot of travel, which means ride over bad roads and rough surfaces is pretty good. After all, Maruti is marketing this as a ‘mini-SUV’ and it even has a front grille inspired by the Brezza. But, great ride is compromised by poor handling, particularly at speed. The S.Presso, as we have stated time and again, rides very high, and after two decades of evaluating cars, one can look at a car and immediately determine that taking a corder hard on a vehicle is a dangerous proposition. I’m not staying it takes corners really badly as there are several other cars that are as bad but I would brake and take a corner at a reasonable speed with the S.Presso. Modern Marutis have been a hoot to drive for the Baleno and the Swift are immense fun around corners and you can really push them through sweeping turns. But at city speeds and on India’s fairly straight highways, you would not notice a thing.

This is in essence an urban car, spacious and economical, perfect for a young couple as long as they don’t have to look at it and when you are inside the car you really do not have to look at it. That said, the ‘special edition’ variants where the cars have a bit more plastic cladding and contrasting colours, particularly the ‘Energetic’, make it look much smarter and considering that most dealer kits make cars look worse, this was a pleasant surprise. It is a very practical car and while it may not give you the caffeine shot that the name promises, it might just do that to Maruti-Suzuki’s moribund sales of late.