Our longstanding reader Gurudatta Nayak recently had a chance to drive the Maruti Ertiga. He sent us an email containing a boat load of well captures images and described his experience in a short note. The Ertiga's arriving on the 11th of April and is expected to be positioned between the new Dzire and the SX4.
Over to you Guruji!
I drove the Maruti Ertiga for a few kilometers and its the perfect family car. Here are my reactions to the car.
Initial Driving Performance
The initial performance of diesel is not that great as compared to my type II Swift Diesel but once it crosses 40kmph everything settles down. High speed stability is excellent, the body does not pitch and roll. The car's dynamics is sorted very well, it does not feel unstable or top-heavy even at speeds of over 120kph.
The car soaks up bumps well, riding over a rough patch of road is an experience I can relate to the Innova. There is good sound insulation all around. Driving this in the city feels similar to zipping in a Swift, it does not need mental reprogramming, you can confidently take corners at usual speeds.
ABS works very well, I felt it kicking in during hard braking.
Maruti Ertiga Interiors
The steering wheel is height adjustable like the one found on Dzire. The dash console is directly taken from the new Dzire. There are audio buttons on the steering wheel. The car is equipped with driver and passenger side airbags. The front and the middle seat rows can slide for adjustable leg room.
Middle row seats can also be reclined for better long distance comfort and have adjustable headrest. On top of this, the driver seat is height adjustable. The Air conditioner is quite effective considering the large internal area. There are vents for the middle row passengers, mounted on the roof.
Maruti Ertiga Variants and Equipment
The vehicles comes with 185/65 R15 MRF ZVTV and 10 spoke alloy wheels. The spare wheel is located under the car. The top of the line ZDI/ZXI comes fitted with turn indicator on the OVRM, rear washer & wiper with defogger.
Feature list for Maruti Ertiga ZXi/ZDi
- Driver & front passenger airbags
- ABS with Brake Assist and EBD
- Front ELR seat belts with pretensioners (with shoulder height adjustment)
- Rear door child-locks
- Security alarm system
- Immobilizer
- Seat belt usage reminder (driver seat)
- Lights-on reminder, buzzer
- Digital clock
- Fuel consumption - Real time and average displays
- Outside temperature display
- Accessory socket
- Retractable cup-holder in I/P (1 co-driver side)
- Cup-holder in front console (1 cup-holder)
- Tiltable steering wheel column
- Double horn
- Steering wheel mounted audio control
- Seat height adjuster
- Seat back pocket
- Front head restraint
- Rear seat head restraint for 2nd & 3rd Row
- Manual AC + Central AC Unit in the 2nd row.
- Radio + CD + USB + AUX
- Remote Control
- Speaker (Fr x 2 + Rr x 2 = 4); Tweeter (2)
- Driver seat power window / auto switch
- Key-less entry
- Inside chrome door handles
- Remote back door opener
- Day and night IRVM
- Electronic adjustable ORVMs
- ORVM mounted side turn indicator
- Remote fuel lid opener
- Passenger side vanity mirror (sun visor)
- Room lamps 2 nos
- Green tinted glass
- Front 2 speed+fixed intermittent wipers
- Rear window defogger
- Rear Wiper
We're waiting for Maruti to distribute its media vehicles to bloggers for us to conduct a comprehensive review. Until then you can view Gurudatta's comprehensive collection of images of the Maruti Ertiga below.
Maruti Ertiga through Gurudatta's eyes
If you can't see the slideshow above, head over to the Maruti Ertiga Flickr page to see images directly.
Make sure to "like" our Facebook page (Facebook.com/IndianAutosBlog) to keep track of the Ertiga.
