Maruti Suzuki Stingray - The Fashionable No Nonsense Hatchback

The WagonR Stingray is the company's attempt to make the practical and spacious WagonR a bit more compelling and attractive by giving it cosmetic upgrades for a more premium feel. What has changed from the WagonR? Maruti WagonR Stingray is based on the WagonR which sells like hotcakes and shares most of its parts with the WagonR. The car has received a few cosmetics upgrades to the exterior and interior over the standard WagonR.the upgrades to the exterior include, a new and imposing chrome grille along with brand new headlamps with projector setup. The rear has a different tail lamp setup and a chrome strip running across the boot lid with Stingray badging. The side profile remains more or less the same, apart from the new 14” inch alloy wheels. On the inside, the top spec VXi(O) version gets a leather wrapped steering wheel with audio controls and a driver's side airbag. It also gets a brand new instrument cluster with blue accents. It also gets an MID display which shows two trips and also gives average and instantaneous fuel consumption figures. The door trims and fabric on the upholstery is different from the regular WagonR. How does it drive? Under the hood, the car is still powered by the same 1.0L K10B 3 cylinder petrol motor producing 68 hp and 90 Nm of torque which is coupled to a 5 speed manual transmission putting the power down through the front wheels. This is the same setup from the WagonR and the Celerio. The engine has adequate punch, the clutch is on the lighter side and the gear box, although has long throws is easy to operate in the city and nipping in and out of traffic gaps is a breeze. On the open highways the car settles into a 90-100kmph cruise but anything above this speed makes the engine more vocal and more noises tend to creep into the cabin making it a bit uncomfortable.The company claims a fuel consumption figure of 20.51kmpl and the car returns an odometer indicated figure of 13.5 kmpl in the city and 16.5 kmpl on the highway. Space and practicality The car is an extremely practical city commuter which has tons of space on the inside. The doors open wide and entry into the car is an almost walk-in experience which makes it a breeze to use for older passengers. The seats are comfortable and supportive and there is enough room to seat three in the back. Knee room is adequate and there is tons of headroom. There are two cup holders and one bottle holder in the entire cabin which is not quite much. The boot space also remains more or less the same at 180 litres which can be easily increased if need be by tumbling the back row of seats which split 60:40 ratio by pulling a lever.  Refinement levels and cabin insulation aren't up to the mark as the engine is very audible once it gets past the 2,500 rpm mark and road and tyre noises creep into the cabin especially at higher speeds. Does it justify the premium price over the standard WagonR? That's a difficult question to answer as the cosmetic upgrades have made the Stingray around ?50,000 more expensive than the regular WagonR for the base LXi trim and this difference remains more or less the same till the top trim. The better looking exteriors and a few tiny changes to the interiors of the car doesn't really create a USP for it as the car is identical to the WagonR mechanically. So the higher price tag isn't very justifiable making the car difficult to recommend.