Suzuki Ciaz gets a refreshed design, revised powertrain

Having made its debut in 2014, the Ciaz certainly made an impression especially with its exterior styling, onboard amenities, and fuel efficiency. Marketing literature from Suzuki touted the Ciaz as being capable of more than 20 km/l on a single tank of gasoline, challenging the reigning city cars from another Japanese stalwart at the time.

The refreshed Suzuki Ciaz comes with a new face

It’s been half a decade since the Ciaz reached our market. In car years, that means it’s ripe for a facelift. With most of its rivals in the segment having moved on to newer generations, the good news is that Suzuki has refreshed its subcompact sedan. Maruti Suzuki has had the revamped version as early as 2018, with Thailand as the first ASEAN country to get it just last year.

Redesigned projector headlamps with LED DRLs flank the sleeker grille

Exterior dimensions have been mostly retained on the Thai-spec model, with the Indian market unit riding 10mm higher from the ground. A sleeker grille is now flanked by restyled LED headlamps, complemented by a sportier-looking bumper featuring new foglamp housings in chrome trim. Along the profile, the turn signal repeaters are now mounted on the side mirrors, while the alloy wheels move up in size to 16 inches (two-tone on the Indian version).

The cabin's generous dimensions have been retained

For the interior, Suzuki opted to leave the cabin mostly intact. The changes are confined to automatic climate controls that add a rear vent, updated instrumentation, and a new touchscreen infotainment head unit sans physical knobs, now offering Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.    

A new head unit comes standard with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto

The old 1.4-liter K14B gasoline mill is no more, having been supplanted by the smaller 1.2-liter K12B rated at 90 hp and 118 Nm of torque for the Thai market. It’s a different story for the India-spec model, moving up to a bigger 1.5-liter K15 Smart Hybrid engine that puts out 103 hp and 138 Nm of torque. While still offering a 5-speed manual gearbox, the Thai-spec Ciaz chucks the 4-speed automatic in favor of a CVT.

A new 1.2-liter K12B gasoline engine replaces the standard K14B mill 

Safety loadout remains the same, with dual airbags, anti-lock brakes with electronic brakeforce distribution, seatbelt pretensioners, and side impact beams as standard on the Thai version. The Indian model includes a reverse camera, electronic stability control, and a speed alert warning system.

The Thai-spec flagship RS variant comes with its own body kit 

As Suzuki Auto Philippines sources its Ciaz units from Thailand, we’ll probably be getting the smaller engine and CVT. We’ll be counting the days to when the refreshed 2021 Suzuki Ciaz finally appears on our showrooms.         
     
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