A moment’s silence, please: the Suzuki Celerio is being withdrawn from the UK market. New examples of the Celerio city car, along with the larger Suzuki Baleno hatchback, will no longer be supplied to Suzuki showrooms after August.
‘Suzuki GB PLC is refocusing its model range to cater for the high popularity of its best-selling UK models, which are Ignis, Swift, S-Cross and Vitara,’ said a statement.
‘This has resulted in sales of Celerio and Baleno being discontinued for the UK only.’
So long Celerio, bye bye Baleno
Sales of the Celerio and Baleno have been disappointing compared with other cars in the Suzuki range. In addition, the move also helps the company meet future emissions targets: ‘Suzuki is also preparing its range line-up for future emission regulations in 2020, of which details will be confirmed and announced in the future.’
If you simply must have a Celerio or Baleno, dealers should have pre-registered and nearly-new stock into September 2019.
Neither will break the bank, particularly the Celerio, which was touted as ‘the car that’s cheaper than a smartphone’.
The Celerio had a difficult life from day one. Vegetable-related jokes about its name aside, there was a well-known brake failure issue soon after its launch.
Suzuki acted swiftly to fix this, but the car’s reputation never fully recovered.