By Miles Downard
What’s this?
The small, affordable commercial vehicle is a segment that not many big players bother with in South Africa. It’s largely left to the Chinese and Indian manufacturers, which does of course make them affordable, but service and reliability is a potential pain point for customers.
No longer though as Suzuki has joined the fray with this, the Super Carry. It’s got a little 1.2 litre motor that’ll go forever, cheap maintenance as with all Suzuki’s and a reliable dealer network to back it all up. That all helps the small business owner sleep at night.
On the inside
It’s unlikely that if you’re used to any form of modern car that you’d feel terribly comfortable inside the Super Carry. There isn’t even a blower to circulate some air around the cabin, never mind luxuries like a radio. Hidden under some of the dash panels you’ll find things like your brake fluid reservoir, which is interesting. The only feature I can reliably speak of is vents by your knees that allow air to rush in from the outside, but only while you’re moving of course.
But having spoken to a few small business owners, the likes of garden services and wallpaper installers, they say that’s all ideal because there’s less to break and go wrong.
Read also: Suzuki Baleno: Big space, big value
Behind the wheel
There are 52kW and 110 torques out of the petrol 1.2 litre motor. Top speed is a mere 145km/h but you’d need a downhill of many many kilometres to get there. Fully loaded at 750kg rated payload and you’re not going anywhere quickly either, but again these are all points that the small business owners liked; less reckless speeding fines etc to deal with from your driver’s. I will say that a bit more torque would be nice if you’re going to be carrying big loads on a regular basis.
The Super Carry sports the biggest load box and best fuel economy in its class too which again adds to the positive points.
Pricing
At R135,000 the Suzuki is middle of the road. You can buy something Chinese for less, under R100,000. And you can buy a Tata for more. The Tata has a diesel option which is probably quite nice for carting bigger loads.
Verdict
What you can’t beat with the Suzuki Super Carry is its stats on paper. Japanese reliability, that big load bin, low running costs. If you, as the business owner, are going to drive the thing often you might want the Tata that has some creature comforts, but otherwise it has to be the Super Carry.
