Kia Sonet iMT VS 2020 Maruti Vitara Brezza - Which is Quicker?

Both the Kia Sonet and the Maruti Vitara Brezza rival each other in the fiercely competitive compact SUV segment that has seen rapid growth and demand. Various manufacturers are trying to capitalize on this demand by launching a compact SUV of their own. The Kia Sonet just launched a couple of months ago in September and has met with an overwhelming response, selling 11,417 units last month alone. The Maruti Vitara Brezza is comparatively a veteran in this segment, having been launched in 2016 and it just received a mid-life facelift earlier this year. It isn't a slouch in sales either, with 7,838 units selling in November. Such a high demand for both vehicles gives you an idea of the insane hunger for compact SUVs in the Indian market currently. Today, we decided to pit the Sonet and the Vitara Brezza against each other.

We will be doing an acceleration test between the two, but with a twist. The Maruti Vitara Brezza has come with a 1.5-litre 4-cylinder N/A petrol manual which makes 105 PS/138 Nm of peak power and torque figures and is paired to a 5-speed manual. The Kia Sonet we have got today is the 1-litre 3-cylinder turbo-petrol, churning peak power and torque figures of 138 PS/178 Nm respectively, it is mated to a 6-speed iMT. iMT or intelligent manual transmission is like a hybrid between a regular automatic and manual transmission. You change gears the same way as in a manual, but you don’t have a clutch pedal to press on. Instead, sensors detect when the gear lever is being shifted and press the clutch accordingly. Theoretically, it should be giving faster shifts compared to a normal manual. Let’s see how it goes.

In the first run, the Maruti Vitara Brezza posts a 0-100 kmph time of 13 seconds flat while the Kia Sonet posts 12.80 seconds for the same. In the second run, the Vitara Brezza does it in 12.39 seconds compared to 13.18 seconds for the Sonet. For the final run, the Vitara Brezza does the 0-100 kmph sprint in 13.66 seconds, with the Sonet doing the same in 13.46 seconds. Over the total of three runs, the Sonet is faster over two of them, but the Vitara Brezza posts the fastest time at 12.39 seconds, over four-tenths faster than the best time of the Sonet. This is mainly because the Sonet’s turbo-petrol takes a bit longer to spool up compared to the instant response from the N/A petrol of the Vitara Brezza, offsetting the advantage of the iMT. 

Prices for the Maruti Vitara Brezza is priced between Rs 7.34 lakh – Rs 11.40 lakh while the prices for the Kia Sonet range between Rs 6.71 lakh – Rs 12.99 lakh. All prices are ex-showroom, respectively.