Suzuki Alto - Eighth Generation (HA36S)

2015 Suzuki Alto

There's a new king of fuel-efficient petrol cars arrived in Japan and it comes from a Japanese car company that helms as the king of fuel-efficient cars. Many have rivaled it but this car company's still fighting back and in Japan, they're winning in the fuel-efficient stakes. Yes, we're talking about Suzuki and what you're looking at, ladies and gentlemen, is the brand new, eighth-generation, Suzuki Alto. Yes. Suzuki has been using the Alto name for some time now since 1979 and for this 8th-generation model, looks like Suzuki's on a different approach when it comes to making this car from scratch.

2015 Suzuki Alto

2015 Suzuki Alto interior

Starting first with the design and for this new model, they've gone for a more retro approach which dates back from the 1980's. That sounds fine but for me, the new look is a bit tad old-fashioned for a new model but that's the way budget-friendly city cars look. Cheaper prices with cheaper designs that car enthusiasts wouldn't want in their dream garage except for Gran Turismo fanatics because it's a kei car and kei cars live well in the Gran Turismo virtual environment.

The same thing goes for the interior because just like the outside, it looks cheap and plasticky but it has the basic necessities that a car needs such as aircon, a radio, an instrumental panel, and seating for four people. The new model's height may be lower than the previous model but you can expect more space for your legs because the wheelbase is now 60mm more so, good job.

2015 Suzuki Alto

Now, here goes the most important stuff about the brand-new Alto: its performance. The new model inherits Suzuki's revolutionary S-ENE-CHARGE from the recently facelifted Wagon R, its big brother. If you need a quick recap, S-ENE-CHARGE is a system that assists the engine's acceleration with a motor by adopting the Integrated Starter Generator and a Li-ion battery that is specifically made for this system. Coupled with the R06A engine and the CVT gearbox, the result is a record-breaking fuel economy of 37.0kmpl based on Japan's JC08 Mode standards. This fuel economy is by no means the new Alto is the most fuel-efficient petrol-powered vehicle in the world today. There's no way other car makers can match that kind of fuel consumption.

This is only the beginning because the new Alto is offered in different variants, apart from its most fuel-efficient model ever made, including the one with the 5-speed manual gearbox and the one with a brand-new 5-speed Auto Gear Shift (ASG), a new type of gearbox that combines merits of both manual and automatic transmission.

It is equipped with an electro-hydraulic actuator that automatically operates clutch and gearshift and by integrating these two, ASG is made to provide unity on the operating device, resulting to an excellent fuel efficiency of 29.6kmpl, easy driving, and fun driving. Yes. Fun. Shifting gears is fun for this kind of city car.

Although I'm not going to pretend that this is a boring car made for old people with no sense of fun for a city car, it's not so bad. I mean, with a turning radius of 4.2 meters, this car is very easy to park and slip through the bends. It's that good but for a cheap car, it's not what you call comfortable because judging from its cheap seats and its cheap performance, it feels like I couldn't sleep in here. It feels like I'm sleeping on a rusty chair in my classroom during recess.

Even though it's a cheap car, the new Alto is not far behind when it comes to safety for this model, it comes with Radar Brake Support that stops automatically when an object is nearby, a false start suppression system that prevents collision when the driver hits the pedal and gearbox by mistake when a car crawls, and an Emergency Stop Signal to warn drivers at the back.

Time to conclude with with a little thing called "Evaluation Time" and if I had to evaluate it, the new Alto excels in the rear space due to its added wheelbase, its record-breaking fuel-efficient that can't be beat by its rivals, and with prices start at 847,800 Yen (around $8,500), it's a value for money. What the Alto flunks is its design, its comfort, its measly performance, and the interior that is as cheap as a check-in at a dirty motel. No matter though because with this new model, its fuel efficiency is unquestionable on the city streets and if any carmaker makes a car higher than any Suzuki model, they will still counterattack it despite their limited resources.

Photo: Suzuki Motor Corporation