Here Is All You Need To Know About The New Maruti Suzuki Brezza

The second generation of Maruti Suzuki Brezza is here, earlier known as Vitara Brezza. But Maruti Suzuki has conveniently dropped the word Brezza to use it on its flagship SUV Grand Vitara. Coming back to Brezza, well back in the days when the sub-compact SUV frenzy was just picking up and Maruti Suzuki had no car in its stable to compete there, it came up with the Vitara Brezza. The SUV received tremendous success and became a brand in itself like Alto, WagonR, 800, etc. Initially, it was only offered with a 1.3-liter turbo-diesel engine sourced from Fiat (also known as the national engine of India). 

But with BS6 emission norms kicking in Maruti Suzuki dropped the engine and gave the Vitara Brezza a 1.5-liter naturally aspirated petrol engine and two gearbox options a five-speed manual and a four-speed torque converter automatic. The latter came with the Maruti Suzuki's mild hybrid technology which was useful in masking the shortcomings of the dinosaur-era 4-speed automatic. Fast forward to 2022, Maruti Suzuki brought the second generation and has a complete interior and exterior redesign. The new Brezza is based on the Suzuki Tect platform which is globally used in Suzuki's model sold in Europe. 

The earlier Vitara Brezza scored a respectable 4-star in adult safety rating from GNCAP and with the updated Tect platform we expect nothing less. Starting with the changes the SUV features an all-new exterior design and a more beefed-up side stance. The Brezza retains its floating roof design and Maruti Suzuki's clever design touches make it look bigger than what it is on paper. Heck despite having almost similar dimensions as the Vitara Brezza the new Brezza looks bigger and taller. Moving inside, the cabin has been redesigned and it now features Maruti Suzuki's latest interior design language which was first seen on the updated Baleno. 

There is a big 9-inch touchscreen and a host of feel-good features like a 360-degree camera, a Head-up display (HUD), ventilated front seats, auto-dimming inside rearview mirror, power-folding outside rearview mirror, and a first for Maruti Suzuki a sunroof. Apart from these, there are several other features like paddle shifters with the all-new 6-speed torque converter automatic gearbox, an updated hybrid system, rear AC vents, charging sockets all around, more airbags, and a slew of safety features like ABS+EBD, ESP, brake assist, hill hold, etc. 

Although the feature list looks lengthy and adequate there are some glaring omissions like leather seats are not offered even on the top-end variant, and it misses out on wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay (at the time of this writing Maruti Suzuki has started rolling out this features as an update on the new car and will provide the same to old buyers too). Not only that the plastic quality used inside the cabin still feels cheap and the switches and buttons around the cabin are still shared with cheaper models like the Swift.

Moving to the performance department here again there are some hits and some misses. Right off the bat, the power and torque figures of the new K15C engine (1.5-liter naturally aspirated petrol) have gone down compared to the K15B engine but it gains two spark plugs which ensure lesser emissions and better fuel economy. Also, the mild hybrid system is now standard on both manual and automatic variants and the new engine on the Brezza ensures it gets better fuel economy. Coming to the driving experience if you give an iota of importance to performance and driving experience then Brezza should be the last car on your consideration list. Even the manual gearbox fails to impress and gets vocal if pushed hard. One needs to work the gears in both manual and automatic variants to get this car going. 

Although the lack of power won't pinch your wallet as you would be smiling every time you visit a fuel pump. Double-digit fuel economy is given in worst driving situations unless you live in places like Bangalore when moving 1 km takes 1 hour. Coming to the ride and handling part, the Brezza's ride quality has been tuned to offer maximum comfort in our road conditions. There is a good amount of space inside the cabin and the seats offer good comfort. So the comfortable seats with soft suspension make the Brezza a comfortable cruiser. 

But the softer suspension does sacrifice a bit on the handling as the car dips under hard braking and losses composure under aggressive maneuvers at high speeds. Also, a point worth noting here is that the steering wheel still doesn't self-center (damn Maruti Suzuki it's 2023 and you still can't fix it. Bottomline the new Brezza is a strict point A to point B commuter and meant for mostly non-enthusiasts. 

Long highway drives with full loads will make the Brezza huff and puff and leave the driver frustrated with a lack of power. But if you can live with these then the Brezza offers a super smooth and reliable engine that delivers good fuel economy and at the same time gives you the street cred of driving an SUV (even if it's sub-compact).

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