Every car is an argument about what matters, and the Suzuki Ertiga makes its case with Petrol engine and 70 kW. Suzuki built from 2012 — as electrification stopped being an experiment and the crossover took every market. Its designer of record is Hisanori Matsushima.
The story
The Suzuki Ertiga is a series of multi-purpose vehicles (MPV) manufactured by the Japanese carmaker Suzuki since 2012, designed primarily for emerging markets. The first generation was heavily based on the second-generation Swift while the second generation introduced in 2018 is made larger and based on the HEARTECT platform. A crossover-styled version was introduced in 2019 as a separate model called the Suzuki XL6 in India and Suzuki XL7 for worldwide markets. The largest markets for the Ertiga are India and Indonesia, where the model is mainly manufactured.
The vehicle has also been exported to other South Asian and Southeast Asian markets, along with several markets in Africa, Middle East, Pacific Islands, Caribbean and Latin America. The Ertiga has been rebadged by various carmakers throughout its history. The first-generation model was sold in Indonesia through Mazda dealership network by an OEM agreement as the Mazda VX-1 from 2013 until 2017, and was assembled and sold in Malaysia by Proton as the Proton Ertiga from 2016 until 2019. The second-generation model is also sold by Toyota as the Toyota Rumion since 2021. The name "Ertiga" is coined from "R-tiga", a pronunciation of "R3" in Indonesian where "tiga" means "three" while "R" stands for "row", referencing its three-row seating capacity.
What is underneath
Under the skin sits Petrol engine; it is rated at 70 kW; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. Kerb weight is 1155 –. Power-to-weight lands near 61 horsepower per tonne, which is unhurried — enough for the job, not for the bragging. The gearbox is a 5-speed Manual transmission / manual / 4-speed Automatic transmission / automatic. The layout matters: the engine drives the front wheels, the packaging choice that gives a small car a big cabin. The wheelbase is 2740 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
Where it sits in Suzuki's history is not in doubt: it was built at Gurgaon. On a showroom list of its day it stood against the Opel Mokka, the Honda N-One, the Toyota Aqua. Nearby in the Suzuki catalogue sit the Suzuki XL-7 and the Suzuki Landy.