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A Note On Ride Quality Of The Suzuki Ciaz

The ride quality is right up there with the best in this class of cars. The car is very stable and takes the bad roads quiet well. One of the things I love about the sedans as compared to the Crossovers and full SUVs is the lack of body roll. You get pitched about much more in even the moderately higher cars like the Honda WR-V. The WR-V has a well balanced suspension and is pretty good at absorbing the bumps. The bigger wheels on the higher version are great at taking on the bumps. But be prepared to be pitched about on an uneven road like you are on a ship on the high seas. Anyway, back to the ride quality of the Suzuki Ciaz. There is minimal lateral movement and body roll. The suspension is soft enough to make the ride plush. But the front end can really exaggerate the feeling of going nose down when trying to go slowly over a deep pothole. The back seat ride is comfortable to say the least and anyone who sits there is always superbly impressed with the feel as well as comfo...
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First Oil Change at 9999 Km - Effect On Engine Running, Mileage and Performance

Ciaz owners can really look forward to the first oil change that happens at 10,000 km or completion of 1 year, whichever comes earlier. The oil change had a distinct change on almost all parameters of performance. I have a petrol model and therefore I feel the change was more pronounced. I do not remember feeling much difference with my earlier Diesel Swift, although then first oil used to be change used to happen after the first 1000km or 1 month. Anyway, I at once noticed that the engine seemed to be more free revving than before. The pickup was quicker. And it goes to follow that if the engine is running more freely then the fuel average is also likely to increase. I was getting about 12km/litre in city driving alone and now seem to be getting close to 14km/litre. The automatic gear shifts also seem smoother although that has more to the smoother engine and pickup because the transmission fluid does not get changed. In fact, the transmission fluid is not meant to be changed for a ...
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HVAC (Air Conditioner) Performace

To get to the point straightaway, the air conditioning in the petrol version of the car is not powerful enough.   If you stay in the some of the hot places in the country, the AC unit will struggle to cool the car. For example, I stay in the central / northern parts of the country where the maximum temperatures can go above 45 degrees Centigrade. If I go out while it is still sunny in the afternoon and set the automatic climate control to 21, the fans of the AC run at full speed trying to combat the heat.   Needless to say that running at full speed, the air conditioning gets noisy. So almost all the time I have to take over manually from the automatic climate control and lower the fan speed a bit.   Two things, I would like to point out. First of all I set the temperature to 21 and not 24 because if I set it at 24, the fans really slow down while it’s still pretty hot in the car. You do need to bast the AC at full speed if you want any cooling happening in the peak heat hours of...
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2nd Service - 5400 Kms

The 2nd service went off smoothly as the first. Once again, Suzuki offers the first 3 services at home, so the service van came for this one as well. Customary checking of the engine oil, transmission fluid (mine is an automatic transmission) vacuuming,  washing, topping the battery electrolyte with distilled water, adding some coolant, brake fluid and the car was done. There were no issues to report except the weak performance of the air conditioner unit, also called the HVAC, in peak summer. I will cover more of this in another post since that is not a service issue at all. The 3rd free service will be around 10,000 kilometers, which will also necessitate changing of the engine oil, for the first time. Almost all vehicles require first change of  engine oil only after 10,000 km and some like VW even more than that. This is unlike the earlier requirement of changing after the first 1000 km. The reason is that the engines are now primed pretty well during manufacture. S...
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Torque Converter, Dual Clutch and CVT - What's The Difference

Without getting too much in to the technical details of how each transmission works, I am going to focus on the performance aspect and which one I prefer. If you are looking to know how different transmissions work, just use a search engine and you will find plenty of explanations. Torque Converter Automatic Transmission / Slush Box /  Conventional Automatic Transmission  As an overall package of performance, reliability and maintenance, the conventional automatic transmission, know as the torque converters, or slush boxes, are my preferred choice. Torque converters have been around since the time automatic cars first came equipped with auto boxes. For this reason many people believe that this is old and out-dated technology. They couldn't be more wrong. Torque Converter Autos Are Not Outdated Not all old technology is out-dated and 'not-so-good' as the newer replacements. And older technology is liable to improve over the years with research and development. Tele...
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Watch Out For Visibility Issues With The Angled Windshield

This will probably be an issue with the low slung sedans more than other models. It is definitely an issue with the Suzuki Ciaz and I have not faced it to this extend with my other cars, none of which were sedans. Try taking the car out in the afternoon when the Sun is high overhead and shines straight down from your windshield on to the dashboard. I find that the glare / reflection from the dashboard back on to the windscreen is so much as to hinder visibility to quiet an extent. Many of you many have experienced this to some extent. For example in my previous car, if there was a sheet of paper lying on the dashboard, you could see its reflection onto the windscreen. But now the surface of the dashboard itself is causing the glare, that completely covers the windscreen and is strong enough to be a serious botheration and a hindrance with visibility. The reason of the glare to be so pronounced in my car is that the windscreen is very angled and lies at a low rake over the dashboard....
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Suzuki Ciaz Vs Honda City

I think there are other good sedans out there as well. There are very definitive reasons why I chose  the Ciaz over other cars. In fact while buying a new car, the choices were fairly broad. I wasn’t stuck to the notion of buying a sedan. The Honda Jazz, new City, WR-V, Amaze, Vento, to name a few were all contenders. In this post I will highlight the points that led me to choose the Suzuki Ciaz over the Honda City. Listless Automatic Transmission I was looking for an automatic transmission vehicle. Both the City and the Ciaz come with one. However, the technology they both use are very different. The Ciaz comes with a torque converter while the Honda City uses a CVT transmission. Both have their pros and cons but I find the torque converter much more engaging and fun to drive. It gives you the same feeling of gear changes that a manual transmission does. The CVT is plagued by the ‘rubber band’ effect. As much as the company might claim to have minimized it, its still there. ...
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