by Sala Masindane (@salaontop)

Although there was a welcomed relief for manufacturers in July with sales going up compared to the same time last year, it is hard to deny that consumers are under pressure and increasingly trying to make their money go further. So, what if you have a b-segment car budget but you need a c-segment car? Well, look no further than the Suzuki Ciaz. Like the Baleno, which is bigger than most of its peers, the Ciaz is almost the same size as c-segment cars but has a b-segment price tag. The entry level Suzuki Ciaz retails from R206,900.

What else can we tell you about the car now that we have given up the most interesting thing about it. Well, the car has many class leading features that you will struggle to find in similarly priced competitors. These features are even available in the entry level GL model. These include automatic climate control and projector headlamps.

The Ciaz will also spare you many trips to the pumps with a decent claimed fuel consumption of 5.4 litre per 100 kilometres for the manual and 5.5 litres per 100 kilometres for the automatic. No matter how much we pushed the car, we could only take it to a fuel consumption of 6.2 litres per 100 kilometres which is not too far from the claimed fuel consumption. This is becoming a trend for us with Suzuki cars we test. They deliver on the fuel efficiency promise.
All Suzuki Models are powered by a 1.4 naturally aspirated engine with has 70 kW of power and 130 Nm of torque. The engine carries the body well but at times you do feel that the car can do with a little bit more power, especially when taking on the Chapman’s Peak inclines, I felt the need to gear down quite a bit.

On test we had the 1.4 GLX 5 speed manual transmission. The GLX model sets itself apart from the GL model with standard features like keyless entry and push button start, leather seats, front footwell lights, front fog lights, 16-inch alloy wheels and even a rear-shade as standard.

The massive 510-litres is ideally for a young family or for a guy like me that travels with their wardrobe. Sigh. The Ciaz has decent legroom. All the adult occupants I travelled with felt comfortable in the car. Although the overall quality of the Ciaz is on par with the completion, the dash could do with more of a premium feel to it. Other than that, this in many ways a car that is here to make your money go far. At the time of writing this, Suzuki had made the case for the car even stronger by offer a 200,000 unlimited kilometre warranty.

The Suzuki Ciaz is priced as follows:
Suzuki Ciaz 1.4 GL 5MT R206,900
Suzuki Ciaz 1.4 GLX 5MT R232,900
Suzuki Ciaz 1.4 GLX 4AT R247,900
These prices include 3 year / 60,000 kilometres service.