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Sales of the Suzuki Celerio have been halted following catastrophic brake failure during testing by Autocar magazine in the UK. The brakes on the Celerio, recently introduced to the market, failed during an emergency braking test from 128km/h (80mph).
Suzuki is now investigating the cause of the failure, which happened to two separate cars, with technicians flying in from Suzuki Motor Corporation in Japan.
The 80mph brake test is a standard feature of Autocar testing, conducted at the Millbrook Proving Ground, which allows for the assessment of a car's behaviour during heavy braking and the functionality of its stability systems. The failure occurred on the first such high-speed test and when Suzuki replaced the Celerio the issue happened again.
As a result, all dealers have been instructed not to conduct test drives and owners are being contacted and advised not to drive their cars. Affected owners will be given courtesy cars until the issue is resolved.
The problem seems to be restricted to right-hand drive models, sold in Ireland, the UK, Australia and New Zealand, as left-hand drive versions have been on sale in Japan, India and Thailand since early 2014 with no such problems.
"The Celerio model has been on sale in India and Thailand since 2014 and so far Suzuki has no prior experience or knowledge of this phenomenon," said an official statement from Suzuki.