2019 Maruti Suzuki S-Presso Expert Review

2019 Maruti Suzuki S-Presso Overview

Naming cars used to be a task of the intellectuals, but now the manufacturers have moved on to names that are relatable and connect to buyers instantly. That said, the recently launched Maruti Suzuki S-Presso is named excitingly since S-Presso is homographic to espresso, which is a form of coffee. And as caffeine is known to wake up the most sensible of the men around the world and Maruti Suzuki is trying to do a very same job. As when most manufacturers are focusing on higher segments, Maruti Suzuki is trying to wake up and revive the entry-level segment with the help of S-Presso. But what actually is S-Presso and how well is it going to take on the competition that is what we are going to find out here.

Maruti Suzuki S-Presso 360 View: Exterior Review

The S-Presso is designed as a mini-SUV or rather say micro-SUV. The minuscule S-Presso is based on the Future-S concept that Maruti showcased at the 2018 Auto Expo. Though the S-Presso hasn’t adopted all the radness that the Future-S concept had instead it has been designed with a subtle yet hardcore approach. Maruti is using the thumb rule of designing an SUV for the S-Presso’s exterior and that of designing a small hatchback for the car’s dimension. That said, the S-Presso comes up as one proportionate blend of a hatchback and an SUV. With SUV-esque design elements, S-Presso is designed with the function-over-from approach but these design elements do give it a respectable street presence for its size.

Front View

S-Presso has a very SUVish front end that gives it a distinctive appeal.

At the front, the car gets a high bonnet-line that gives it the SUV character, also helping it are the sharp clear-lens headlamps with a toothed grille fitted in between them. It also gets a dual-tone bumper that reduces the visual bulk at the front and gives it the much-needed SUV character. However, the bumper-mounted LED-DRLs are sleek, or I should rather say in-existent if not working. And they are only available as an accessory.

Side View

The car has a large glass area on the sides, but there is a vast expanse of sheet metal tool.

Moving on to the sides, the car hints of its size, that it is small, very small indeed. With a length of just 3565mm and a height of 1564mm, the small length is evident, and so is the sheer expanse of sheet metal, that lacks creases. With lift-to-open door handles what also comes up, is Alto’s part bin as the door handles are a direct lift from the smaller and elder Alto. The side-skirts or say the side-cladding that runs below the doors is the element that somehow tries to break the mass.

Rear View

 

The rear, however, is little more exciting, but just a little, since the visual bulk we talked about earlier is still intact. But the dual-tone bumper tries to do so in conjunction with the wrap-around LED tail lamps and the reflectors, which mimics the LED DRLs on the front, and a spoiler. But the bottom line is all the SUV elements, dual-tone bumpers, soft creases, and pronounced visual bulk gives the car an impressive road presence and a haunched up stance.

Also Read - Maruti S-Presso Vs Hyundai Santro – Prices, Features, Specifications Comparison.

Maruti Suzuki S-Presso Dimensions: Length, Width, Height & More

Maruti Suzuki S-Presso is a compact car with SUV like styling that has been already talked about a lot of times now.

The car measures 3565mm in length, 1520mm in width, and 1564mm in overall height. The S-Presso tips the scale at 726kgs for the base variant while the fully-loaded top-end variant weighs 763kgs. Since S-Presso is designed like an SUV, it should have a high ground clearance and the fact is, it sits as high as a Mahindra Scorpio with a ground clearance of 180mm. However, with a short wheelbase of 2380mm, S-Presso also has a better ramp-over angle than the competition and also better space on the inside. It can also swallow 270 litres of luggage in its boot, while for its wheels, it sits on a tyre size of 145/80 R13 (Std., Lxi), 165/70 R14 (Vxi, Vxi+), which are large enough to fill the large squared-off wheel arches.

Maruti Suzuki S-Presso Design: Interior Review

The resemblance to the Future-S concept that was missing on the outside is present inside the car. However, the suicide doors have maintained their exclusivity to the Rolls-Royce, but the centre console has been carried over from the concept. That said, the interior is not done in a plain-Jane-mundane manner, instead, it is an exciting design that has a modern appeal to it. Maruti asserts the fact that the dashboard is inspired by a smartwatch, and we agree to it. As the centre console houses the all the tell-tale gauges, touch-screen infotainment system, and the switches for the power-windows and hazard-lamps inside the circular-bezel with protruding panels on the sides that resemble the straps of a watch. So the Maruti’s claims for the smartwatch inspired dashboard design stands true.

S-Presso's dashboard is designed with an inspiration form smartwatch.

Keeping aside the well-pronounced centre-console, the elements on the dashboard are rather interesting. The circular AC vents on the sides and trapezoidal units in the centre, chunky 3-spoke steering wheel are a few of those. Talking about the practicality that the cabin offers, the dashboard gets a decent-sized glovebox and some space above it to keep your essentials like a wallet or a phone, while the map-pockets on the door pads aren’t all that wide and deep.

Seating Capacity

The most important aspect of an interior is the seats and space & support they offer. The S-Presso deserves applauds here. The car has got ample space to take 4 adults on the longest of the road trip, 5 adults, however, are a tight squeeze. S-Presso has a slim profile, thus 3 people seating abreast comfortably in the second row would be a tough task. Maruti has designed the car thoughtfully on the inside and thus has been able to carve out a lot of room inside the cabin and the boot. Boot space is also generous with a usable volume of 270 litres, but the loading lip is a little higher, which makes loading-unloading stuff in the boot and out from it a tough job.

Safety Features

Being an entry-level offering, the Maruti S-Presso isn't exactly brimming with safety equipment. However, thanks to the new regulations, all the variants come with ABS and a driver-side airbag. Also, the new car conforms with the upcoming crash test norms, which means its front-end has been designed in a way that pedestrian suffers from the minimum possible risk. 

Comfort Features

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd has ensured that the S-Presso doesn't feel as basic as the Alto twins. Its interior comes kitted out with a sufficiently long list of features, at least on the top-spec trim. These include the company's SmartPlay Studio touchscreen infotainment unit that supports both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Other features that the small car comes with include front electric windows, power steering, remote locking, Another feature worth mentioning here is the steering-mounted set of audio and telephone controls. This is a first-in-class feature that isn't available on any of the rivals. 

Security Features

The entry-level offering from the hot-selling carmaker comes with remote locking in case you pick the top-spec model. The lower variants come with a regular key but the good point here is that the car is kitted out with an engine immobilizer. 

Also Read - Maruti S-Presso vs Ignis Comparison.

Maruti Suzuki S-Presso Performance: Engine Review

S-Presso comes with a 1.0 L 3-cylinder petrol motor that belts outs 67 PS of peak power at 5,500 RPM and a peak torque of 90Nm at 3,500 RPM. Transmission duties are performed by a 5-speed unit, either a manual one or an AMT unit.

The specifications on paper are healthy enough for a car of this segment and size. In real-world, the case is a whole lot different. Different does not mean that it was lethargic or the engine felt underpowered, instead the car picks up pace quickly, and there’s always enough punch left in the engine to keep up with cars at cruising speeds. It can also reach S-Presso can cruise at 100kmph with ease, while speeds of 80-90kmph can be kept constant on the speedo for all day long without breaking any sweat. It is at these speeds, that engine also feels relaxed with a well-tuned 5th gear, which performs the overdrive duties in a sweet manner. 

S-Presso is a stable car at cruising speeds since it is underpinned by the Heartect-K platform.

Also, our test car was an AMT variant, which meant that our little-tiny SUV was even more fun than other cars in this segment. The AMT is jerky at times, but Maruti now knows how to make their AMTs intuitive for the drivers at least. With a few kilometres added in the Odo, we knew how to actuate the accelerator pedal to ask the AMT for an upshift or downshift and we were accurate at our task. In simple words, this AMT imparts a character to this car, which is enjoyable at times. If all fun was over about this AMT box it surprised us with blips while hard downshifts. Yes! That is a lot of character and fun infused into a small car. However, one can also over ride the gearbox by taking over the control of the gearbox for shifting manually.

The ride quality on S-Presso is pliant and the body roll is well controlled.

S-Presso sits on 13-inch steel rims, which isn’t a lot of unsprung weight for McPherson struts with coil-overs at front and torsion beam with coil springs at the rear. This combination of suspension components and wheel size also gives the car a reasonable ground clearance of 180mm to make it go over steepest of the bumps without scraping the underbelly. The high ride height, however, does not mean that the car tosses you around while manoeuvring a curve. Credits go to the Kei-Heartect platform and the suspension setup which is on a little stiffer side. By stiff, we didn’t mean that the car transfers all the undulations to the occupants, but there are some vertical movements always hindering the poise. Overall, this is how a car could possibly have the best combination of ride quality and handling since S-Presso is a tall-narrow car that also sits higher from the ground.

Also Read - Maruti S-Presso Vs Hyundai Grand i10 Nios Comparison – Prices, Specs, Design, Features and More.

Maruti Suzuki S-Presso Mileage: What is its fuel economy?

Yes! S-Presso is a fuel-efficient car. Our team performed a fuel economy run on the car and it returned a mind-boggling number of 21 kilometres to a litre in 100-kilometre city runabout. The car has a 27-litre fuel tank and with an avg fuel economy figure of 21kmpl, it gets a tank range of more than 500 kilometres. However, the car sits at a sweet spot of 80kmph while cruising on a highway and that is when it returned an instantaneous fuel efficiency number of 24kmpl.

Maruti Suzuki S-Presso Cost: Is it affordable?

Prices for the S-Presso start at Rs. 3.69 lakhs for the base variant and goes all the way up to Rs. 4.91 lakhs for the top-end Vxi variant that also comes with automatic variant. Maruti also offers front passenger airbag as an optional extra across the range at an extra cost of Rs. 6000. With a total of 7 variants, Maruti has made sure that there’s always an S-Presso for your needs.

Also Read - Maruti S-Presso Vs Maruti Swift Comparison - Design, Specs And Prices

Maruti Suzuki S-Presso Colours: How many options?

The Maruti S-Presso is on sale in as many as six different colours. These include-

• Solid Fire Red
• Metallic Graphite Grey
• Solid Superior White
• Metallic Silky Silver
• Solid Sizzle Orange
• Pearl Starry Blue

Verdict: Is Maruti Suzuki S-Presso worth buying?

S-Presso is a small, affordable, peppy, frugal, and spacious car, however, it is also fun to potter it around city streets.

S-Presso is launched as a direct rival to the likes of Renault Kwid and Datsun Redi-Go. The segment these cars cater to is filled with buyers all around the country, which indirectly means that Renault Kwid was enjoying a bigger share of the profit pie. Now with S-Presso, Maruti is planning to take over this space and let me admit that Maruti has a very potent product on their hands this time. The S-Presso might look a little off the place to some, while it does look the part to rest, but as an overall car, it is a lot better than its rivals.

In simple words, S-Presso is stable at highways, handles well at city speeds, there’s a lot of space on the inside, and it is fuel-efficient. Also, Maruti has priced it aggressively thus making it an affordable option against certain cars from Maruti itself.

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