The newer car has a significant improvement in terms of NVH levels, I was quickly humbled by the silence in the new car.
BHPian BlueKatana recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
My dad happened to purchase another XL6, and so now we have two of the same cars in the family. However upon closer inspection, there is quite a difference (in terms of feel) in the newer model. All the listed observations were made over the course of 3 months, so a pretty significant time to get the feel of both the cars.
Powertrain:
The old XL6 comes with Suzuki’s K15B motor paired with a Jatco sourced 4-speed torque converter unit.
The new XL6 comes with Suzuki’s K15C motor paired with an Aisin sourced 6-speed torque converter unit.
Driving Experience:
The new K15C motor is significantly quieter when compared to the K15B unit, it doesn’t have the infamous K15B droning noise upon acceleration. Upon cold start, the engine idles at 1500 rpm for much longer than the old engine.
Off the line, the pull of the engine is strong and feels really smooth, especially the jerkiness in the 1st gear in manual mode isn’t present at all, the old gearbox would have you being extremely delicate with the throttle inputs in L mode. The shifts are smooth, however, the transition from 1st to 2nd isn’t as smooth as the old 4-speed unit.
The gearing is not as tall as the older unit, it reaches 80 kmph in 3rd where the old unit would do so in 2nd. The additional two gears have helped the engine to cruise at much lower rpms, 100 kmph has the engine cruising at 2100 rpm where the old unit would do 2500 rpm.
The gearbox does get confused at times in automatic mode. I happened to notice some hesitation between 3rd-5th gear, it simply gets confused over which gear to select. Over some very slight inclined sections, the gearbox tends to hold onto much lower gears, it does get annoying at times because the engine unnecessarily revs like a CVT. Manual mode is the only solution to combat this issue, wished Maruti tuned the gearbox better. The older gearbox was pretty direct and straightforward in such scenarios.
The overall performance of the motor isn’t as eager as the older unit, low end is definitely much stronger, but the way the pull suddenly tapers off as it enters the mid range is a bit disappointing. It’s quite evident that the tune is more biased towards efficiency and sedate cruising so it does feel slower in flat-out acceleration when compared to the older one, however, it is not “underpowered” as many users report it to be. The engine behaves exactly the way a standard NA engine is supposed to, it won’t surprise or impress you, it definitely does its job well for a people mover.
NVH:
The newer car has a significant improvement in terms of NVH levels, I was quickly humbled by the silence in the new car. The cabin is well isolated from external noise. The difference is so noticeable that when I switched back to my car, everything just seemed so much louder.
Ride quality is exactly the same as I had replaced the suspension components of my XL6 to the newer model’s parts. The difference is pretty evident when you drive the vehicle on rough patches.
In Car Entertainment:
There’s no major difference between the two infotainment systems, the newer one just brings in a different UI, a voice assistant, wireless connectivity and some additional settings for speaker and display tuning. Maruti had a great opportunity to use the 9-inch system (used in the likes of the Baleno, Brezza, Swift, and more) at least in the Alpha+ trims.
The display seems to get a blueish anti-glare coating, and the decorative bezel around it seems to be finished in a slightly lighter shade, it’s definitely not black. Only a USB port is offered for connectivity, no AUX port.
Miscellaneous Points:
Puddle and Footwell Lights really improve the experience at night
The leather armrest section of the interior door trims now get some padding. The doors also feel a tad bit heavier and solid.
The car needs to be driven at least for 5 minutes for the TPMS sensors to show pressure readouts. It only shows the pressure in kPa, Maruti should’ve offered the option of switching to PSI and Bar readouts like other global Suzuki models
The MID screen no longer shows Trip A/Trip B with the total run of kilometres, strange?
Some pictures:
Side-by-side with an Innova
Side-by-side with my XL6
I ended up installing UV-cut glasses on my XL6 too, since they really do help insulate the cabin from heat.
A few doubts:
- Assuming there aren’t many structural changes or updates in insulation, rubber seals, etc. in the body frame, how has Maruti achieved such low NVH levels with their new engine?
- Probably a stupid question but I have had this for many years when we got the old XL6 in 2019, what is the buzzing sound upon startup and when the doors are opened after shutting off the engine? I have observed this in newer Maruti cars that offer the Push Start/Stop system and the updated TFT MID display in the instrument cluster. The sound seems to originate from the cluster meter, I feel it could be the steering lock actuator but I could be wrong.
- I plan to retrofit the front door puddle lamps onto my XL6. I have figured that the front door trims will need to be replaced along with the wiring harnesses to accommodate the lamp. I plan to use the Zeta model’s harness since my car doesn’t have the cameras in the ORVMs which the facelift’s Alpha and Alpha+ models get. Would it disable the auto-fold function of the mirrors when the car is locked? Also, would this be as straightforward of a fit as it sounds?
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