2003 Suzuki Aerio; SX Appeal.(evaluation)(Brief Article)

Small cars are cool again. From Foci to Matrices to Vibes to Protege5s, there's a growing crop of fun, compact five-door mini-wagons on the market. This is a class of cars to embrace for a variety of reasons: roomy interiors, versatile cargo spaces, high standard content, manual transmissions and overwhelming character. And we haven't even mentioned style. Or price-which brings us to the Suzuki Aerio.

The Aerio comes in two forms, the SX ``Sport Crossover'' five-door hatchback and a four-door that resembles the Ford Focus sedan. While neither body style is exactly striking, compared to its dowdy Esteem stablemate the Aerio is a thing of beauty. (No wonder that after the 2002 model year Esteem will take its place beside Swift and X90 as Suzukis-we-are-never-to-speak-of-again.) The SX makes a pass at a sexy curvature that gives Mazda's Protege5 its class-leading style, but looks too tall and minivan-ish. Blame its standard 15-inch alloys; 17s would look good.

Big wheels and tires, no matter how much they help visually offset these tall compacts, cost money. And where you put the money is crucial, particularly for Suzuki that admits to selling largely on price. Thus, the Aerio is less expensive than much of the competition-MSRP for SX and the uplevel sedan is $14,499-and you suffer those 15-inchers and rear drum brakes. (Compare: Protege5 and its 16-inch wheels and four-wheel discs costs nearly $2,000 more.) These are the only content complaints in a package trying hard to challenge conventional wisdom that says the only fun and exciting Suzukis are motorcycles.

See, Suzuki has discovered the same concept that's been driving Hyundai sales through the roof: Price only sells so well; price and style sell much better. (What of price, style and performance? That gets too far ahead of the game.) The Aerio SX looks like it was plucked from a Gran Turismo 3 memory card. The new car attempts to set an aggressive styling theme in motion, with a three-sided ``A'' motif liberally sprinkled inside and out. This ``A'' is evident in the dash, where a triangular slit reveals a digital instrument panel. Reinforcing the theme, the digi-dash begs ...