In one sense, the Celerio is a gift from Suzuki to Dacia. It replaces both the Alto and the Splash, which between them accounted for 17,000 registrations in the UK last year. 11,000 of those - a sturdy proportion, I think you'll agree - were accounted for by the most basic Alto, which cost £5,999. The cheapest Celerio costs £7,999.
To put that another way, Suzuki is abandoning nearly two-thirds of its city car fans, who are about to discover that for the same money they would have paid for an Alto they can have an entry-level Dacia Sandero instead.
This is not a great business model for Suzuki GB, which acknowledges that it's probably going to experience a drop in sales during 2015, though one that should be kept to a minimum by the arrival of the new Vitara. There is, however, an upside, namely that Suzuki has done a superb job with the Celerio, and now has a city car that can stand comparison with anything else on the market.
It's not the most attractive looking car in the class, and its interior would not have inspired gasps of amazement ten years ago. But it's very roomy, capable of transporting four six-foot adults, and has an unmatched luggage capacity of 254 litres. Admittedly, other manufacturers come very close, but the Celerio is one of five city cars offering 251 litres or more.
It’s fun to drive, too. There's a bit of jiggling over small bumps, but larger ones are smoothed out very well, and through a series of bends taken at speed the Celerio handles fabulously. It helps, of course, that the 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol engine produces no more than 68bhp, so it's unlikely to get you into much trouble.
That engine is quiet in subdued motoring and produces an amusing roar when being pushed hard. A colleague described its sound in these circumstances as "harsh". I disagree. It has enough power for the job, and it gives the Celerio combined fuel economy of 65.7mpg and CO2 emissions of 99g/km, so you don't have to pay Vehicle Excise Duty.
A more complex engine of the same size named Dualjet with the same maximum power output and variable valve timing, will join the range in April 2015. It makes the Celerio faster (13.0 seconds from 0-62mph rather than 13.5), probably because of a slight increase in power at mid-range revs, and should be cheaper to run because its "green" figures are 78.4mpg and 84g/km, the latter being an amazingly low figure for a car whose price has not yet been confirmed but will almost certainly be under £10,000.
Dualjet Celerios have not yet been made available to the UK media, but one with the AGS gearbox (also due to be introduced in April) has. It's an automated manual whose gearchanges are described by Suzuki, with spectacular bravado, as "extremely fast and smooth".
How seriously you take this depends on your definitions of the words "extremely", "fast" and "smooth". For me, they're okay, but not much more than that. Then again, "okay" is by far the most enthusiastic thing I've ever said about any automated manual. Most of them are terrible. Suzuki has managed to produce one I could just about live with.
It doesn't affect the official fuel economy or CO2 emissions in the slightest, but it drops a grand piano on the foot of the acceleration, which falls to 16.4 seconds for the 0-62mph run. That's if you leave it in fully automatic mode. If you decide when to make the changes, you can bring the time down to 15.2 seconds.
The things I like least about the Celerio are its limited rear visibility, lack of spare wheel (there's a silly tyre repair kit instead) and the fact that the steering wheel isn't adjustable for reach. This is all common stuff for a city car, but I wish Suzuki could have done something about it.
It's not short of equipment, though. The £7,999 list price of the more basic SZ3 is very competitive, yet its specification includes alloy wheels, air-conditioning and DAB digital radio. You can spend £8,999 on the SZ4 if you like, but the only really important thing it has that the SZ3 doesn't is a pair of front foglights.
The Celerio is an unexpected delight, and far better than I thought it was going to be. I'm not sure if I would have one over a Hyundai i10 or a Renault Twingo, but the fact that I'm prepared to talk about it in the same sentence is telling.
