A Safety Feature Caused The Suzuki Celerio's Brakes To Fail At 80mph

Remember the Suzuki Celerio’s minor braking issue? Journalists testing the new Japanese city car suddenly found they had no brakes while travelling at 80mph, causing Suzuki to pull the car off sale.

The cause of the issue has been found, and ironically it was a malfunctioning safety feature that caused the issue. In the event of a crash, the pedals are designed to retract, protecting the driver’s legs. When the Celerio was converted to right-hand drive, a fault was introduced.

Suzuki GB sales and marketing director Dale Wyatt told CarandVanNews:

”It’s designed to break away in an accident and cause the pedal to retract from the feet. It’s not the same design as the left-hand drive car…What we had was a safety mechanism anticipating a crash and activating way too early.”

Fortunately for Suzuki, only 40 cars were on the road in Ireland, with the rest of the UK’s pre-orders to be delivered in March. All owners were given courtesy cars, and a replacement brake assembly has been sent to dealers to fit to the affected cars.