Car Gazing
Suzuki Aerio affordable, unrefined
By Derek Price
My wife drives a 10-year-old Nissan Altima that still has the original shocks, and they're starting to make a wretched, squeaky, squishing sound every time you hit a bump.
You'll be driving along, minding your own business, when you hit a speedbump and hear the old shocks squeal like they ran into a mugger in a dark alley – "CREECH!" – before they gain their composure and drive silently along, like nothing ever happened.
It's time for new shocks.
Why am I mentioning this lapse in maintenance? Because the 2006 Suzuki Aerio I tested came with shocks that sounded exactly the same. That's not a good sign.
Granted, this Aerio was a member of Suzuki's press fleet and had seen more than 7,000 hard, auto-journalist miles in which we wannabe race drivers flogged it as hard as we could to test its limits. After that, you'd expect it to have a lot more wear and tear than the Buick your grandma uses to drive to church once a week.
Still, it's not encouraging to have a new car with 7,000 miles that sounds precisely like a decade-old car with 70,000 on the odometer.
It lacks refinement in other areas, too, like the cheap-feeling, clunky plastics that cover the dash and poor handling with too much body roll.
The only question is whether you'd rather have cash in the bank or a more refined car, because the Aerio is a darn good buy. It starts around $14,000 for the sedan and $14,500 for the SUV-like SX version.
Both body styles offer a lot of space for the money, with a front seat that's almost as roomy as a mid-size family car and a back seat that's perfectly livable. It's more comfortable than most cars in its price range.
While the Aerio sedan looks like a dull, run-of-the-mill family car, the SX seems to have a totally different personality. It looks spunky, youthful and very Japanese with a body that's shaped like a shrunken minivan, and I heard more compliments about its looks than I usually do about an inexpensive economy car.
A 2.3-liter, four-cylinder engine – the only one available for the Aerio – feels surprisingly peppy with 155 horsepower, enough to have a little fun and zip around in city traffic with ease. It's a good match for both the standard five-speed transmission and the four-speed automatic.
Driving at highway speeds isn't exactly quiet, but it's not unbearable, either. The suspension transmits quite a bit of noise into the cabin and 18-wheelers sound a tad scary when you pass them, but it's not bad for a commute. You just wouldn't want to spend 10 hours on the Interstate in this car.
Best of all, even the base models come with a good level of standard equipment, including automatic climate control and a CD player with MP3 capability. Other standard features include power windows, locks and mirrors, keyless entry, a rear spoiler, tilt wheel and outside temperature gauge. That's a lot for the money.
For people who need good traction in the winter, the Aerio is the cheapest all-wheel-drive car on the market for about $2,000 more than a basic, front-wheel-drive version.
All in all, the Aerio offers a lot of car for the money, but it doesn't have the kind of refinement you'd expect from, say, a Honda or Toyota – or even a Nissan. Whether you buy one should depend on how picky you are and how much you're willing to pay for little things.
Things like decent shocks.
(Derek Price is a newspaper editor and freelance writer living in Texas.
Contact him at dprice@cargazingonline.com)
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