Suzuki APV

Suzuki APV is available with seven-seater or eight-seater configurations. Talking about the interior designing and layout of the van, we must say the cabin has ample room. The seven-seater configured van has a middle row arrangement with captain seat. The dashboard gets a beige theme upholstery which makes it look a bit appealing, despite its old design. Coming to the centre-instrument cluster, it has a wide 7-inch touchscreen infotainment system with navigation and audio and Bluetooth controls. Suzuki has given wide ORVMs to the APV and these are controlled by knobs inside the cabin.  There is just a single unit of air conditioning inside the cabin, and with no AV vents at the rear seats, the cabin space can be assumed to be much heated up. 

There is enough of legroom and headroom space available, the only drawback we see is the lack of an under-thigh support feature, which is not that big a deal though. The overall build quality is pretty good and the van has a huge wheelbase of 2,625mm. The boot-space stands at around 194 litres.

The Suzuki APV has exterior design elements exactly what you would expect a van to the house. There are upright lines and a boxier shape. You surely won’t find anything else that is more eye-catchy, because that is what a primary brief design of a van would ideally have. The boxier shape was kept to maximise the inside cabin space of the van because that was the main focus of the automakers. In terms of dimensions the APV measures 4,155 mm in length, 1,655 mm in width, and 1,865 mm in height. 

Other exterior aesthetics include the wide chrome grille, and big headlights. Also placed at the front face are radiator and fog lights. The side and rear profile looks plain and minimalist with no overhangs around. 

The Suzuki APV rides on 14-inch wheels for the base variant and the top version rides in 15-inch alloy wheels.

When a model comes from the House of Suzuki, you can totally rely on the ride and handling feature. APV uses MacPherson struts in the front and a rigid axle with leaf spring/3-link rigid axle with coil spring at the back.  The whole set-up makes the van a little bouncy on jolty roads. However, steering handling is very easy and light and with a turning radius of 4.9 meters, it is a pleasure to drive the APV around crowded streets. There is also a ground clearance of 180mm which allows the driver the tackle rough roads and bumps.  

At the heart of Suzuki APV lies a 1.6-litre naturally-aspirated MPI petrol engine. This engine has the capacity to churn 93 PS of power and 129 Nm of torque. It is mated to a smooth-shifting floor-mounted 5-speed gearbox. The car weighs around 1.3 tonnes and that’s quite a number for 93 PS to carry around with ease. 

The torque curve at lower gears is quite flat and hence aids in second-gear starts. The engine is placed right under the driver’s seat which deprives the driver to adjust the height of the seat.

Suzuki has few safety features as standard in the APV. The Suzuki APV is incorporated with rear parking sensors, a defogger, and three-point ELR seat belts as standard. Additionally, the top variant of the new Suzuki APV also gets dual airbags, height-adjustable front seat belts, remote-controlled door locks, and side-impact beams. Australian NCAP tested the Suzuki APV and found gave it a three-star rating, which is quite a fair score to have. 

There is nothing in the market that can match the reliability as well as the efficiency of the Suzuki APV. The APV stands for all-purpose vehicle and one can use it to transport goods as well as people around. Different variants of the APV are available at different prices.

The GA is priced at Php 588,000, the GLX comes at a premium of Php 808,000. The Utility van is priced at Php 660,000. The only downside that we see here if the lack of standard safety features and crash norms, owing to which Suzuki might have to launch an upgraded version of the same with certain changes.