Maruti-Suzuki’s S-Cross now has a petrol engine and an automatic gearbox. It offers a lot of car for the money because it needs to

Each and every other street of central Delhi’s Lodhi Colony are filled with India’s largest public art display, the Lodhi Art District. At a time when most museums and galleries are still shut due to the pandemic-induced lockdown, it’s an amazing place to go for a stroll or even take your car for a photoshoot, like I did with the refreshed Maruti-Suzuki S-Cross. The area offers varied backgrounds. The S-Cross, which is one of the best looking products in the Maruti portfolio, felt perfectly at home there. But one must wonder how is it refreshed car, now that it features a petrol engine and an automatic gearbox?

This car, on whose back Maruti launched their premium Nexa sales network, is approximately five years old. At its launch at Nashik, the S-Cross had come with a 1.6 diesel, which unfortunately didn’t last long and was soon withdrawn. Just like every second Maruti car those days, it was sold with ever so popular 1.3 DDiS diesel engine. As we know Maruti-Suzuki announced that it was withdrawing from selling diesel cars after the implementation of BS6 emission norms, there sales figures have sort of justified their decision. While the Korean Hyundai-Kia combine diesels still account for half of all sales in this segment with the Creta and Seltos which together have 75 per cent of the market, the S-Cross, Renault Duster and Nissan Kicks are all petrol cars now as will the future Skoda and Volkswagen products. Five years ago, petrol variants accounted for under 10 per cent of sales in this segment. Today they have two-thirds of the market.

There are a few reasons for this, one was the higher price of diesel cars following the BS6 emissions standards coming into force. Another was the ‘10-year lifetime’ on diesel vehicles in the National Capital Region imposed by the Supreme Court. But there is one more reason, that is the increasing efficiency of extremely lean-burning petrol engines. Take this 1.5 litre K15 engine from Maruti. While roads around the NCR are relatively high-speed, I managed over 15 kilometres per litre over a three-hour 100 kilometer return drive between Gurugram and Noida stopping in Delhi. The single biggest plus point on this car is its mild hybrid system, which allows the battery to fill in some torque when required. It keeps the mod-cons on while stopped in the traffic and the engine shuts off. Indeed, I am genuinely surprised why other mass carmakers have not installed Start-Stop systems in their cars. But the S-Cross is by far and away the most efficient petrol-engine vehicle in its segment as a result.

Now comes the part where I’ll have to share its issues — the engine and the gearbox. All the competing vehicles in this segment now offer turbocharged options, Hyundai-Kia’s 1.4 GDi engine gives 140PS of power and the Renault-Nissan 1.3 Turbo churns out a mighty impressive 156PS. Maruti’s experiment with small turbocharged petrol engines ended when they withdrew the Baleno RS and its Boosterjet engine. Fair enough on that front, all competing models also have naturally aspirated engines. While Renault-Nissan does not give an option an automatic on these variants, Hyundai-Kia offer their 1.5 naturally aspirated petrol engine on the Creta and Seltos with a CVT gearbox. If I was testing the manual, I would have compared it against the Duster and Kicks. When it comes to price-points, the S-Cross automatic actually does go up against those two cars. While I feel the S-Cross is a better built car and handles better than either of those, I’ll stick to comparing naturally aspirated automatic variants.

Against the Creta and Seltos CVT variants, the S-Cross is a lot cheaper. You can save around four lakh. It should be a no-brainer even if the S-Cross is slightly down on power versus the Korean twins. Yet, the S-Cross has a four-speed torque converter automatic gearbox. A four-speed automatic gearbox in 2020. If I could use cuss words in this column I would, but really? Decent six-speed torque converter gearboxes are available off the shelf and Maruti themselves use a CVT gearbox with the Baleno. Ford offers a TEN speed automatic on the Endeavour. While I feel eight, nine and ten gear vehicles are a bit much for cars doing duty mainly in an urban environment, a four-speed box in today’s era is absurd. I’ll use an analogy of ice-cream here, too many gears is like choosing between six or seven different types of chocolate ice-creams. But I would rather have that than just have vanilla, chocolate and strawberry.

Maybe I would not mind fewer options of ice-cream if they were spectacular, but truth be told you feel the lack of gear options on this car. Both in the city and on high-speed roads. The kick-down can be a bit violent if you really demand overtaking power and you tend to rev a bit higher than you would like to. Sure for sedate driving maybe it is enough, and the hybrid system will likely disguise the fuel inefficiency of such a gearbox, but this is partying like it is 1999. This car has a good ride and takes corners well,  it has decent interiors and I’d believe the manual would be great value. But this automatic? A big no!

With some manufacturers you would not get so critical, but the fact of the matter is that I hold Maruti-Suzuki to a higher standard. As a child of the 1990s, I grew up driving my mother’s Maruti van, then 800 and finally Zen MPFi alongside my dad’s Gypsy and Esteem. My first owned car was an Alto. I have held shares in the company for a few years now, and it has been one of greatest wealth creators of the past two decades in this country because it has the trust of the Indian car consumer. Yes, Suzuki Motor Corporation has some technology limitations being a relatively small manufacturer surrounded by giants, but this S-Cross feels like a cop-out. This car is a price warrior, but not out of choice. It is a price warrior because it has to be one.