This is the new Suzuki Alto (K10)

The Alto hasn’t existed in Europe for years. In 2014, the model was succeeded here by the Celerio, which has already been withdrawn from the market. Far beyond the Dutch borders, the Alto has never been away. For example, Suzuki introduced a new Alto with retro design almost simultaneously with the Celerio in Japan, a real kei car that has now been followed by a slightly less characteristically designed model. Then there is Maruti Suzuki, the huge Indian branch of Suzuki that also develops its own cars. The Celerio that came to Europe was one of them. Where the Celerio succeeded the Alto in Europe, Maruti Suzuki supplied the Celerio in the home country alongside a car called Alto. The Celerio was recently helped to a new generation and now the cheaper Alto is also completely renewed.

The Japanese Suzuki Alto is a kei-car and is completely different.

economical

The new Suzuki Alto will be given the K10 designation, which means that under the hood is the well-known but modernized 998 cc small three-cylinder that Suzuki also made available in the previous Alto and for many other models. This machine was also installed in the Celerio, which was delivered in the Netherlands. A turbocharged version went through life as a 1.0 Boosterjet in models such as the Vitara, Baleno and S-Cross. The petrol engine generates 67 hp and 89 Nm and is linked to a five-speed manual transmission or to a robotized manual transmission. On paper, the 1.0 consumes just 4.1 l/100 km.

So there is little news on the motor level, but the Alto does exchange its complete platform for a new one. Where the outgoing Alto was in fact still on a basis dating from 2000, the new Suzuki Alto uses a variant of the modular Heartact platform. The jolly Suzuki S-Presso, among others, uses the same version of this platform. The S-Presso turned out not to win a single NCAP star during crash tests, so the question is whether the Alto can count itself so lucky with this basis.

Suzuki Alto K10 (2022)

Modest

Of course, this new Alto does not play any significant role for the European market. However, for Maruti Suzuki it is a very important model. In the past 22 years, the company has spoken to 4.32 million people in an Alto in India alone. With a length of 3.54 meters, the new model is almost the same size as its predecessor. However, the wheelbase grew by 2 centimeters to 2.38 meters. Maruti Suzuki describes the design of the new Alto K10 quite modestly as ‘tasteful’, the headlights as ‘spicy’ and the front view as ‘friendly’. According to its creators, the new Alto stands on ‘big’ 13-inch wheels with brand new hubcaps.

In the interior we find a fairly serious-looking dashboard containing not only a simple digital instrumentation, but optionally also an 8-inch infotainment system that supports things like Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. The Alto is available with two airbags, ABS, seatbelt tensioners in the front and parkingpipers, although not everything seems to be standard. The starting price of the Alto in India is converted €4,998.