So you want a new car for less than 12 grand?

AT THE Irish launch of their new Celerio in November last year Suzuki staff invited the motoring journalists present to undertake some nifty manoeuvres in the underground car park of the Gibson Hotel. It made for an interesting test and showed just how nimble and easy to manoeuvre this car is.

Make no mistake Suzuki are marketing the Celerio as a city car.

‘The Celerio beckons for a drive in the city,’ is one of the lines from their PR blurb. It’s a very neat car and apparently it’s a big seller in India where the selling price is obviously an attraction.

I’m not sure how much it costs in India, but in Ireland you can get the entry level version of this four-door car for

?¬11,995, which is one of the lowest priced new cars in Ireland right now.

I drove a blue version and it was really attractive. A young lady, not my daughter, described it thus:

“it’s small, looks cute, it’s easy to manage and to park, my type of car

?.

I certainly won’t disagree with that. Two small cribs; there was a little bit of road noise and my regular front seat passenger remarked that there was no vanity mirror. Surely such an important item as a vanity mirror wouldn’t have increased the price that much.

However, there are several plusses. Well for the starters it has a very frugal engine and I can safely say that you won’t have to make many pit stops for petrol. You get four doors which open at a 90 per cent angle, all with electric windows. While the boot is naturally small, there is space for a regular spare wheel. And it has a great turning circle.

I really liked the radio controls, two buttons, one for on/off, the other to choose your station of choice. I really like the latter, you can pre-select so many stations, but at times I like to just scroll through the wavelengths to find something different to get away from the ads, some of which I know off by heart by now. There is plenty of leg and head room for five adults, but naturally it would be more comfortable for all concerned with just two adults in the rear.

There are two trim levels, GL and GLX. The GLX has extra equipment like chrome front grille, electric mirrors and extra speakers. Both trims come with Bluetooth and USB connectivity.

This is Suzuki’s 30th year in Ireland and they are hoping that owners of Suzuki Alto and Suzuki Splash will switch to a Celerio and naturally they would be thrilled with some conquest customers from other brands.

So if you want to get behind the wheel of a new car for less than twelve thousand euro, take a test drive in the Celerio. Prices start at

?¬11,995, while I drove the GLX version which will cost you an extra one thousand euro.

Last month Suzuki had to temporarily suspend sales of the Celerio after a journalist from What Car? Magazine in England encountered problems with the braking system.

Declan Maguire Marketing Manager for Suzuki Ireland said:

“We recalled all models of the Celerio sold in Ireland since December 1 last year, due to problems with the retraction of the brake pedal. The problem has now been rectified and the Celerio is on sale again.

? Make no mistake Suzuki are marketing the Celerio as a city car.