Maruti Suzuki has pulled up quite a feat when it recently launched the Alto K10. We found in our Alto K10 review that it is a through-and-through no-nonsense car and is a people pleaser. It doesn’t feel as rudimentary as Alto 800 with F8D engine that will soon be axed by the end of this year.
But the attractive Rs. 3.99 lakh (ex-sh) sticker price is for base STD variant and is not very well equipped as such. Alto K10 has quite an uphill task of competing in a dying segment. Let’s see how it fares against other 1.0L petrol engine equipped rivals in a detailed compare.
At first glance, this battle seems to be one-sided as Maruti literally has 4 vehicles and we have Kwid on the other hand. However, this comparo is about individual vehicles irrespective of their manufacturer. All of them are equipped with a 1.0L 3-cylinder petrol engine. All Marutis are making 66 bhp of power at 5,500 RPM and 89 Nm of torque at 3,900 RPM.
Kwid makes 1 bhp more at the same speed and 2 Nm more at 750 RPM higher than Marutis. To ease city driving, all the cars in this list get a 5-speed AMT along with a 5-speed MT. Taking “Kitna Deti Hai” concept to new heights, Celerio trumps in fuel efficiency. It promises 25.2 km/l with MT and 26.6 km/l with AMT.
With CNG, Celerio promises 35.6 km/kg and is the country’s most fuel-efficient car. WagonR also offers a CNG option while the other three don’t as of today. Celerio, Kwid and WagonR are the only ones to get rear power windows. Kwid offers the largest in segment 8” touchscreen system while the rest offer a 7” unit.
Kwid doesn’t get steering-mounted audio controls, while everyone else does. Hey, you get some, you lose some. Celerio trumps everyone else on this list by offering keyless entry, push-button start, power retractable ORVMs and some others. All cars offer electrically adjustable ORVMs in top-spec variants. But only Kwid offers factory-fitted rear parking camera.
At 3,731 mm, Kwid is the longest. However, there’s no beating Celerio in width at 1,655 mm. Owing to its tall boy design, WagonR is the tallest and offers the most headroom. Both Celerio and WagonR are based on the same platform with longest-in-segment 2,435 mm wheelbase. Kwid takes the cake for highest ground clearance with 184 mm and S Presso follows with 180 mm.
At 341L, WagonR boot space is practically unmatched. Even in real life, WagonR boot can punch way above its segment. Coming to pricing, Alto is the lowest priced starting from just Rs. 3.99 lakh followed by S Presso at Rs. 4.25 lakh, Kwid at Rs. 4.64 lakh, Celerio at Rs. 5.23 lakh and WagonR at 5.47 lakh. WagonR is also the most expensive off this list going till 7.19 lakh (all prices ex-sh).
However, it is to be noted that WagonR top-slab pricing is for 1.2L variant and Kwid lowest-slab pricing is for 0.8L variant. If seen logically, Celerio is the most expensive as it gets a host of features in its top-spec ZXi+ trim.