Suzuki Ignis, A Small Crossover Perfect For Countries Like Pakistan, Revealed At The Tokyo Motor Show
44th Tokyo Motor Show is going on at full swing, and all Japanese automakers are bringing all sorts of automobiles to showcase at the event. Honda will be there with its concept bikes, as well as production cars. Toyota brought its highly anticipated S-FR Concept and very bizarre Kikai Concept. Yamaha unveiled its first sports car. Needless to say, all Japanese automakers are excited to show their achievements in their hometown show. Among those, Suzuki has also launched a bunch of concepts and potential future cars, at the ongoing Tokyo Motor Show. Suzuki launched it’s all new Baleno, just a couple of months ago, at Frankfurt Auto Show, and now at Tokyo Motor Show, there is ‘Ignis’, a small concept crossover.
However, the name Ignis is not a new one. From 2000 to 2008, Suzuki was producing a sub-compact car with the same name. Suzuki is hoping to revive that name once again, with this new car. Compact crossover Ignis, will be Japanese carmaker’s first product in this segment. It is by no means a replacement of Suzuki Jimny. It was first introduced as the Suzuki iM4 concept that was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show.
Suzuki hasn’t said much about their new crossover, except,
“a compact, visually striking body and a simple, highly practical interior design highlight the IGNIS’s credentials in the compact crossover genre.”
Suzuki further said that Ignis has,
“high eye point and plenty of ground clearance ensure day to day convenience”.
Although Suzuki hasn’t been very open about the technical specs, rumors are the Ignis will have a 1.2l hybrid engine. Combustion engine itself is a Suzuki DualJet engine, and the hybrid system is Suzuki’s Smart Hybrid Vehicle by Suzuki (SHVS). The engine will be mated to a CVT gearbox, and while front wheel drive will be standard, you can get a four wheel drive version as well.
Styling has arguably been kept retro. Car’s physical dimensions are:
- Length: 3,679mm
- Height: 1,579mm
- Width: 1,478mm
The car is likely to be launched in South-East Asian markets, including India, and in UK and Europe and it will be available for sale by 2017.
We talk again and again about decade old cars that are being sold as brand new by Pak Suzuki in Pakistan, and I think we’ll continue until Pakistan gets what would be fantastic for us here. On paper, Suzuki Ignis seems like a car made for Pakistan. It will be cheaper to buy and run, considering it’s a hybrid. It will be easier to drive, because of its CVT. And it will be convenient to use in the not so developed regions of our country. Think about it, the number of people living in cities in Pakistan looks handful compared to those living in rural areas. Even people who live in cities, do visit their actual home towns/villages, some of them on a regular basis. So considering, a car that is not only practical but can also be used in most circumstances, it is only logical to bring this car over here through proper dealership channels. And if Pak Suzuki doesn’t do it, which they probably won’t, we wouldn’t be surprised to see Japanese imported Ignis running around on roads in few years.
Suzuki has developed such mentality over the period of time that its equally difficult for them to bring new-tech cars here. People are happy to pay 7 lacs for a mehran. They had to discontinue the Cultus VXL in order to boost the sales of Swift, the WagonR has been getting the same problems. With Mehran bearing such a high price tag and people actually buying it, how would Paksuzuki price the Ignis?
There is an “in-production” Ignis which is just a 1300cc version of Suzuki Kei.
What it means is, in Japan, Suzuki marketed a car with 660cc engine and called it Suzuki Kei.
The same car was sold with 1300cc engine in UK and SriLanka &c. with varying names like Ignis and Swift.
When Paksuzuki was launching WagonR, many people discussed on the PW forums that maybe Paksuzuki will buy the tooling and plant for Suzuki Kei from Japan Suzuki. Because Suzuki Kei had been discontinued the same year in Japan. People also speculated that Suzuki Kei would be fitted with a 1000cc engine instead of 1300cc, this would be a difference compared to UK and SriLanka model.
If they adopted Suzuki Kei/Ignis (existing) many things would be better because of features Pakistani public really likes: ride height, bigger wheels, ground clearance, engine is higher so less trouble in rains, small on the outside but bigger inside, and a shape Pakistani public would actually like.
But Paksuzuki is the ultimate enemy of the consumer. They adopted WagonR Indonesian market design.
Now there has been 1400+ views of this article. previously I posted same comment with photograph of the car and wikipedia links. Disqus will put suspend comments with photograph and hyperlinks for moderation. It has not been approved yet, so I have posted this info again to contribute to the article and provide the awareness to consumers.
Paksuzuki is an anti-consumer company. This car is modern and good they will never bring this to Pakistan they only sell 1980’s era Junk in Pakistan like the Mehran, Bolan, Ravi, Cultus. Even their swift is globally retired and featureless version of the international 2004 model and their Wagon R is based on parts imported from Indonesia (which itself is a an even less powerful economy than Pakistan)
Yes Mr. Aref it is a perfect car for Pakistan but it will never come here given Paksuzuki’s exploitative behavior so its not of much value to talk about it.
Go Paksuzuki Go!
Indonesia is much better than Pakistan. Stop living in old times dear, world has moved on while Pakistanis have stayed behind.
sedhi bat hai they want to make max profit and due to importation of used japanese cars their repo was going from bad to worse in terms of safety , economy and other latest features. They only launched to make their repo look good while we all know what they are selling here. even suzuki made in india has air bag option.
the fact is these guys are licensed assemblers they are not manufacturers they only assemble vehicles here and they will only look for max profit.
It does not matter if they only assemble. They are still affiliated with Suzuki Japan. But it is the problem with Suzuki Japan that it does not care what it’s branches in different countries are doing.
The fact is suzuki japan is only interested in profits to keep shareholders happy, they have no concern whatever about quality , price to performance ratio,etc. It is the govt. job to implement good anti competitive policies and fine companies which are selling overpriced junk in Pakistan. Sadly govt. officials are only interested in kick backs and prefer their own joint owned assembler’s profits……
if any person knows about suzuki kei car or suzuki ignis,plz tell me negative or positive points