Why I would buy it?
- Big on presence
- Hybrid powertrain
- Maruti Suzuki network
Why I would avoid it?
- Interior quality
- Barely useable third row
Engine and performance
The Maruti Invicto is powered by an 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine producing 184bhp/188Nm. The hybrid name comes courtesy of an electric motor with a minimal pure electric range and an output of 11bhp/206Nm. The powertrain is mated to an e-CVT powering the front wheels.
The powertrain is responsive and lets you do quick overtakes without much effort. You get three driving modes Eco, normal and power. They alter the throttle response with significant differences in power delivery between the Eco and power.
Maruti claims a mileage of 23.24kmpl which when combined with a 52-litre tank should give you a probable range of 1208km, a massive amount considering the size and capacity of this vehicle. This kind of number actually gives it great touring ability. We recently put its sister car the Toyota Innova Hycross hybrid through our real-world mileage tests and it gave us a city efficiency of 13.26kmpl and a highway number of 18.52kmpl. We have little doubt that the Invicto when subjected to the same test will return exactly the same figures if not more.
Ride and handling
The ride quality is one of the places that Maruti has taken a change when compared to Toyota. Where the Innova Hycross is running 18-inch wheels, this one is running on 17-inch units. The Hycross was a big step up in terms of ride quality as Toyota switched to an independent and multi-link rear which in its very nature offers better ride quality than the ladder-on-frame underpinning of the Innova Crysta and its predecessors.
Here on the rutted and under-construction roads that populate the outskirts of Jodhpur where we drove the car, it rode the imperfect with aplomb staying stable and letting very little displace the car. On the smoother bits of tarmac and concrete, it glided along with relative ease and smoothness.
However, while it may ride very well, it should be remembered that this Invicto is a heavy front-wheel drive car. If the going gets slushy or very sandy the Invicto will beach itself with very little effort and it is best you take such roads with caution. As a car to drive, the steering is very light and quite accurate. The power steering is well calibrated and it's one of those little joys in life to have the steering self-centre at just the right speed so that you can catch it as it rolls rounds, which by the way is three turns lock-to-lock.
Exterior design
Up front, the Invicto gets the next specific grille with double slat chrome Suzuki grille very similar to what it has used on cars like the Fronx and Grand Vitara. You also get this nice chunky front bumper with these chrome elements.
In profile, Maruti has gone for these diamonds cut 17-inch wheels as compared to 18-inch units on the Innova Hycross. At the rear, Maruti has retained the boxy shape of the Hycross in its entirety save for a chrome strip that runs below the glasshouse.
Comfort, convenience and features
The Invicto is an all-black affair with rose gold inserts in the centre console, cup holders, AC vents and door pads. Maruti has been smart and retained the Hycross’ interiors without any layout, design or ergonomic changes and that should help them big time as the Toyota since its inception has always been a practical and very useable car.
Up front, everything falls to arm’s reach easily and there are lots of useable spaces all around. However, in doing this Maruti has also retained the texture layout and so you get soft-touch materials on the contact surfaces but scratchy hard-wearing ones over the rest unbefitting for a car that’s touching Rs 30 lakh ex-showroom. You of course get two dual digital screens of which the one on the right is the digital instrument cluster while the one on the left sitting at the top of the centre console hill is a 10.1-inch unit for the infotainment system.
The second row is a pretty spacious affair with a really generous amount of headroom, knee room and leg room. This version that we are sitting in is the top-spec Alpha Plus variant and thus only gets captain seats. You get your own climate zone, dual USB-C ports, door pockets, seat back pockets and individual armrests as a part of the deal. What’s missing though when compared to the donor vehicle is the ottoman reclining seat lounge function.
The third row is as cramped as ever with enough headroom but poor under-thigh support due to the low placement of the seats. Maruti claims the Invicto is a seven and eight-seat model but looking at the space in here, you are better off accounting it for a six and seven-seat model. The seats split-fold in a 60:40 fashion for an additional amount of boot space while you also get a remote tailgate on this top-spec Alpha Plus trim level.
The car that we have driven in the video is a top-spec Alpha Plus trim and has all the bells and whistles that Maruti offers with the Invicto. You get features like dual-zone climate control, a touchscreen infotainment system with wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, ventilated front seats, a power driver’s seat with memory function and finally a panoramic sunroof. As compared to the ZX variant of the Hycross, it misses out on the ottoman rear-seat recline function and of course, ADAS which is only available in the Innova’s top-spec ZX (O) variant. You get Suzuki Connect connected car technology, six airbags, TPMS, ISOFIX child seat mounting points, ABS with EBD and a traction control programme.
Conclusion
After spending time with the Invicto, we can say that it’s a pretty competent product with little complaint when it comes to being a luxurious three-row people carrier with SUV styling and a hybrid powertrain.
The exterior design gives the car a unique look while the cabin has more than enough headroom, legroom and knee room across both the first and second row. The presence of a third row is a boon and means the difference between taking a second vehicle and accommodating two more people in the back. The feature list is competent for this part of the market but does miss out on the rear seat package and ADAS offered by Toyota. This isn’t a deal breaker per se as the top-spec Invicto is a lakh cheaper than the equivalent Hycross. As a car to drive, it's peppy, rides very nicely and should be quite efficient considering its 52-litre tank and 23.24kmpl ARAI mileage figure.
However, the biggest kicker for you to go book an Invicto in the current scenario is that with a two-year waiting period for the Toyota in its top-spec models, you can have this one right away…of sorts. Maruti at the time of announcing this vehicle had said that it was looking to retail 9000 units annually. At the time of the launch, they had already got bookings for over 6000 units which means that even this will slip out of grasp if you want one and don’t book right away.
Photography: Kaustubh Gandhi
