Maruti Suzuki Ertiga Pros & Cons

Check out pros and cons about the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga that are worth highlighting for a potential buyer. Here are some of the highlights of the benefits of buying the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga. We'll also list out the Ertiga drawbacks to help you make an informed buying decision.

Ertiga Advantanges

• 180mm Ground Clearance

  While 180mm may not sound like much, you would be glad to know that this is the psychological threshold to enter the SUV territory. The Mahindra XUV300 also has a 180mm ground clearance. Do note that typically, the manufacturer-published ground clearance figures are without any load. With a full load, it’ll drop a little but you should still end up with enough clearance to make you doubt the car’s ability to go over most speed breakers.

• Reliability & Service Network

  Maruti Suzuki have the widest sales and service network in India. This means that as an Ertiga buyer, you won't have a problem finding one within a short driving distance. Moreover, you are also likely to easily find experienced mechanics at 3rd party service centres who have worked at a Maruti Suzuki service centre before. Given the popularity of Maruti Suzuki cars in India, the spares are also easy to come by. When shopping for spares, you will not only have the choice of getting original MGA spares, but you can also find 3rd party OEM-spec parts, from reputable auto ancillary manufacturers.

• Good Mileage Even With Automatic

  The new Ertiga has a 10% higher mileage than the pre-facelift model. This is remarkable considering that the older car was already pretty fuel-efficient, to begin with. What’s astonishing is that even with the power-sapping torque converter automatic, the Ertiga manages to deliver a 20kmpl+ mileage figure.

• New 6-speed Automatic

  We’ve complained about Maruti Suzuki’s old-school 4-speed torque converter automatics, which they normally offer with their 1.5L petrol engine in the S-Cross, Brezza, XL6, and Ertiga. With the 2022 update, the Ertiga gets a new 6-speed torque converter automatic. With 2 extra ratios, it’s more likely to keep you in suitable gear regardless of your speed and driving style. With the older 4-speed gearbox, you sometimes ended up in a gear too short or too tall for the driving situation at hand.

• Top-Notch Safety Survivability Score

  In the GNCAP crash tests, the Ertiga/XL6 didn’t impress us with the 3-star score. However, once we dug deeper into the crash test report card, we found that the Ertiga protects critical parts of our body like the head, neck and chest just as well as 5-star cars like the Nexon and XUV300. It beats many 4-star cars in the survivability points. So, we can happily say that based on the GNCAP crash test results, the Ertiga is just as good at saving lives as a typical 5-star rated car like the Nexon or XUV300.

• CNG in VXI, ZXI Variants

  Maruti Suzuki earlier only offered the CNG bi-fuel option in the basic VXI variant, which does well with commercial customers. This time around, they're offering it with the ZXI as well. As an individual buyer, if you wanted the CNG in a well-loaded variant, then the 2022 Ertiga facelift should meet your needs.

Ertiga Disadvantanges

• Efficiency With Automatic

  In ARAI’s mileage tests, the Ertiga automatic is about as efficient as the manual. But we buy automatics because we don’t want to deal with the frequent gear changes in stop-and-go traffic. Unfortunately, its fluid coupling saps efficiency even when you’re stuck in traffic with the transmission in the D mode. This is because moving fluids consumes a lot of energy and doing so without moving an inch is just inefficient. Once you get moving, though, you can expect the Ertiga automatic to deliver good mileage figures but in stop-and-go traffic, you should expect much lower mileage. Newer automatics like dual-clutch, CVT and AMT don’t have this efficiency problem.

• No Turbo Petrol, Diesel Engine

  Hauling 7 adults requires torque, especially at lower RPMs. While the hybrid petrol engine of the Ertiga has decent torque output, it doesn’t have the torque output to match that of a turbo-petrol or turbo diesel. The Carens has both of these engines besides a 1.5L normal petrol engine. A turbocharged engine is more suitable for hauling 6 occupants because of its low-end torque.

• Non-Removable 3rd-Row Seats

  While removable 3rd-row seats are not a feature we thought we needed, the Triber increased our expectations. After seeing the practicality and boot space improvements this feature offers in 2-row mode, we were impressed. Because of the removable 3rd-row seats, the smaller Triber manages to beat the significantly larger Ertiga in 2-row boot space. The Ertiga has a 550-litre boot space with the 3rd-row seats folded down. Meanwhile, the Triber has 625 litres of storage with the 3rd row out of the way.

• Expensive Automatic Transmission

  The Rs. 1.50 lakh price difference between the manual and automatic transmissions of the Ertiga is difficult to digest. Typically, the automatic transmissions carry a premium of about Rs. 1.0 lakh except for the AMT type of automatics, which cost about Rs. 50,000 more. With the 2 extra gears, Maruti Suzuki have only caught up to the industry standards. For Rs. 1.50 lakh, we expected more than just a 6-speed torque converter automatic and paddle shifters.

• Poorly-Loaded LXI Variant

  The base LXI variant, which costs Rs. 8.35 lakh (ex-showroom) doesn’t offer several must-have features like: Music system, Steering-mounted controls, Rear AC vents (critical must-have feature for a large car like Ertiga), Remote central locking, Day/night inside mirror, Power mirrors (must-have given the car’s width), Hence, we didn’t recommend the Ertiga’s base variant even to buyers on a tight budget.

• Missing Features

  Even the top variant of the Ertiga misses out on features like: LED headlamps (available in XL6), 16-inch wheels (available in XL6), Curtain airbags (available in Baleno), 360-degree camera (available in Baleno). Since Maruti Suzuki offer these features in some of their other cars, we exp[ected to see these at least in the top variant of the 2022 Ertiga.

• Cab Image

  Since the Ertiga is extremely popular among fleet operators and taxi owners, it often borrows some of that taxi image even with a white number plate. Often, you might see pedestrians around crowded bus stops waving down an Innova or Ertiga. You need to prepare yourself for such things. If you can’t, then the Ertiga is not for you. You should probably consider stretching your budget and getting the XL6 as that car is only available with a white number plate and doesn't have the cab image.