FAW Carrier VS Suzuki Ravi – Is Carrier Worth an Extra 80k?
Suzuki Ravi, which is the seventh generation of the long-running Suzuki Carry has been ruling the Kei truck segment of our market for over thirty-five years. Its only real competition came into existence only four years ago when FAW rolled out their Carrier to take on Ravi. Despite FAW Carrier’s availability in Pakistan, Ravi has been producing impressive sales figures partly thanks to subsequent Government projects like the “Apna Rozgar Scheme.”
Have a Look: A Brief Comparison: Suzuki Cultus Vs FAW V2
In this article, we will look at the distinguishing factors between the current two stakeholders of the small truck segment of Pakistani market. Doing so we will also find out whether or not the FAW Carrier is worth the PKR 80,000 more than Suzuki Ravi.
So what comes under the hood/seat of the two?
Under the seat of Suzuki Ravi, you will find a relatively new 0.8-liter straight three EFI engine which produces a total of 37 horsepower and 62-Nm of torque. The power goes to Ravi’s wheels via a modest 4-speed manual gearbox.
FAW Carrier, however, has a full fledged 1.0-liter EFI engine which gives out about 60% more power than Ravi; 59 HP to be exact. As with the power output, the torque produced too is 50% more than that of Ravi topping out at 84-Nm. As far as the transmission of FAW Carrier is concerned, it comes with a 5-speed manual.
Dimensions and Loading Capacity
The previous category elaborated the performance aspects of both the trucks in which FAW Carrier took a fair lead. Moving on since we are talking about two commercial vehicles, the dimensions and loading capacity are factors which hold great significance in our equation.
Regarding exterior dimensions, FAW Carrier makes Ravi look like its scaled model as it is over 1000-mm longer, 80-mm wider and 240-mm higher than Ravi along with having a whopping 710-mm longer wheelbase. Truck bed size which is dependent on the exterior measurements is no different, so I’ll simply move on to the loading capacity of the two a determinant which holds immense commercial value. As expected thanks to a more powerful engine Carrier can carry up to 67% more load than Ravi by having a loading capacity of 1.0-ton as opposed to Ravi’s 0.6-ton.
Also Read: All That FAW Can Offer: A Pakistani Auto Consumer’s Expectations From FAW
Basic Features and Interior
As with every vehicle comparison, there is a need to discuss the features and equipment found on the two cars being compared. In this case, as both are commercial vehicles one of them being over three decades old, there is not much left to talk about.
Keeping up with the continuing trend since the start of the comparison, Carrier again outclasses its opponent as it comes with standard equipment like the front disk brakes, fog lights, heater and AM/FM Radio.
Ravi, on the other hand, sticks with the standard features found in the cars from the twentieth century as it goes on to ditch basic stuff like trip/RPM meters in its information cluster and guarantees a freezing ride in winters by leaving out heater too!
Pricing and Commercial Viability
FAW Carrier is way better than Suzuki Ravi in almost every corner be it the on board equipment, engine specifications or loading capacity. Which is why in my “Case A” where cargo capacity holds great value for the business, FAW Carrier turns out to be a whopping PKR 4.4 million more feasible than Suzuki Ravi if a job requires picking up 12 tonnes of cargo.
On the other hand, pricing also plays a significant role in the feasibility of a commercial vehicle since commercial vehicles are often bought through bulk purchases at times over hundred units are acquired in a single order. This wholesale kind of a concept turns a mere difference of PKR 80,000 to PKR 8 million in the case of hundred units. As displayed in my Case B where the number of trucks is a priority, Suzuki Ravi turns out to be a more viable choice than Carrier.
Technically speaking, Carrier is worth every penny of the additional PKR 80,000 you spend, but only if buying more units is the case for you, Ravi may turn out to be a more viable choice.
Read More: FAW X-PV Review: A Solid Contender To Suzuki Bolan
one thing you forgot to mention which is way too much important in these sort of purchasings. price of the spare parts.
Ravi and Bolan are only preferred over other options are because of cheapest part possible on earth. you can get the best head lights in 700 for them so considering this factor, Ravi is way much better.
P.S. I hate Ravi, Bolan and Mehran like any other patriot.
Dude Adan kaya 10 trucks k sath 2 free han…bhai kaya kar rahay ho!
Although we get the gist of your comment but since you focused on the headlamp, here I wilm say something only about the headlamp:
FAW Carrier has projector headlamps which are sure to be expensive, and the bulb inside is more durable too. Ravi has sealed beam. Unless there is an accident, the normal replacement is needed because the bulb fuses. In case of normal replacement requirement, you replace the bulb in FAW while you replace the whole beam in Ravi.
Because of the truck body shape, the headlamp is in a position (height) where it causes much glare into oncomers’ and pedestrians’ eyes. Projectors headlamp is a modern technology with well-defined cutoffs which are lacking in the Ravi. Granted that Ravi came with diffuser type headlights (front glass used for refraction – those round headlamps) for 2 decades and then was upgraded to reflector-type (crystal headlights, since the square ones started coming i the facelift), which was a newer technology first introduced in Pakistan in Civic EK9 facelift AFAIR, and low-quality projector-type upgrades are available in the market, still FAW wins hand down specially in the case I am driving a sedan in the night and a commercial small truck is around me, I would prefer a FAW.
The best possible headlights for Ravi cost 700/- but what about their durability and performance? Ho much do they output, how far, what is the visibility and focus of their output? How do they compare with standard Koito headlamps that originally came with the Japan assembled Ravis eons ago, before the birth of most of the PakWheelers?
We should keep in mind that commercial vehicles get driven all the time. Therefore driver takes a high brunt if something is not upto par, and driver receives the fruit of any slight improvement 12 hours a day, everyday.
FAW Carrier is better at it has brake booster, it requires less effort from the driver, as in Ravi all the load of stopping the car is on the driver’s foot in the absence of power assistance through vacuum boost. Additionally, larger wheel size means greater ride comfort, wider tyres also means easier driving. Ravi has single person bench seat vs Carrier has bucket seat. The seat belt in Ravi is not retractable type.
Another major point: FAW Carrier has new generation design in which there is small bonnet. The small bonnet houses the radiator, brake oil bottle and wiper washer bottle. This small bonnet is for superior crash safety. If you see, Ravi/Bolan design was obsolete decades ago as the newer generations of Suzuki Every/Carry (1999 onwards) use the newer design language. It allows for better heat dissipation too, and the heat is drained further away from the cabin, making A/c performance better and reducing the load on the A/c, thus decreasing fuel consumption and compressor wear & tear. If you noticed, the Suzuki APV also has the newer design language.
FAW comes with an electric radiator fan (someone please confirm).
FAW has projector headlamps, very good for conscious driver who does not want to hurt others, as Ravi’s headlamps do not have clear cutoff, they cause glare into oncoming driver’s eyes and on traffic signals/stops, they shine into other cars from back glass, invading the privacy of pardahposh families. Moreover they reflect from the side-mirrors and back-mirror causing glare in the eye of the driver.
One plus point for Ravi: As majority of our urban population lives in slum areas, which have no proper street planning, Ravi is smaller and it is easier for Ravi to access the general stores in slum areas to provide supplies. FAW will find harder to navigate the kacha lanes of slum areas.
Another plus point for FAW is that its suspension components are much better resulting in softer ride and steering that is light (it functions similar to santro’s) where as components of bolan/ravi are so bad that they provide a harsh ride and damage themselves over time no matter what resulting in alignment lose. Also in tight spaces, dry steering becomes impossible on ravi without causing damage to steering system where it is possible on FAW.
Thank you. That coupling, broke many a-time! How could I forget it!
One point I missed. Ravi uses obsolete technologies that require way too much maintenance to function optimally.
E.g that recirculating ball steering. A rack & pinion steering is much better, requires much less maintenance. Similarly, drum brakes require periodic adjustment while disc brakes are self-adjusting. The contact breaker in the distributor requires replacement at 10,000 km. These days, good quality contact breaker cannot be found in the market, therefore it start malfunctioning at 6-7000!
All this causes more and more downtime for the vehicle, a big no-no for commercial category. As soon as the vehicle stops, the company starts losing money.
even if faw carrier was 1 lac more then suzuki daba , i would take carrier .
That Ravi interior! How do people drive that?!
come one man! do you think they care about these facts? i agree the technology they are using is even more older than us and has no comparison with the tech. used in faw.
i am not defending Ravi. i truly hate it and wont even want it to be around my locality but they as cheap as keeping a bike and that makes them popular in such purchases.
Lol…. FAW is disposable … Suzuki Dabba is Hardcore… Much Much tougher than Faw carrier….. FAW is a TOY…… Cheap tires , cheap and disposable interior , Plastic Engine and Paper Body. ….. Ha ha…. ha ha …. It is not Faw it is FLAW… it must be not more than 3 lacs….
did u ever drive ravi or carrier?
i think you need a test drive to decide and review your post!
i had ravi then carrier and hate them both but those days when i had carrier were the most difficult days of my life every time i drove around on carrier made me praise suzuki ravi.
1 Resale value
I bought ravi in 2010 for 479k and sold that for 600k in 2012 to buy faw carrier which i bought for 730k and sold that 460k in 2016 after keeping it up for sale for 9 months.
2 Technical issues
1 Rear axle
I drove ravi more than 70k kms in 2 years and never had any axle brake on the other hand faw broke 4 axles axles and 17 bearings cost of repair was above 40k
2 Front brake
The front tire skids quite eaisly due to imbalanced weight of the vehicle or the centre of the gravity i had to change the front bumper and a fender due to unxepected slipings cost was above 17k including paint.
3 Cargo deck
the cargo deck is stretched alomst 3ft behind the rear axle or 1.5ft from the rear joint of the leaf spring.
this engineering fault put all the cargo load on the rear axle. I once measured the per axle weight with evenly loaded cargo and the rear axle had the 75%of the total load. This caused tire burst rim crack leaf spring brake accumulated cost was above 50k.
This load dis parity was also the cause of axle failure and front wheel skid.
4. Suspention
The front suspention was so rigid that first drive of carrier made me have a look under the fender to make sure if it have any shock absorber at all. The rear suspention was not able to hold the load of 1 ton load.
5 interior
Looks can be deceiving, purchase of carrier taught me this lesson. at first it looked great but after a couple of drives gave me severe back pain due to odd design of the seat. Also the dashboard has occupied the room in the cabin that an average height person’s legs get tuged into it and i being 6ft tall had to squeez my self to keep my legs away from dashboard.
6 Loading capacity
in international market carrier equivlants are sold with either .6 or .7 loading capacity o its a lame 1 ton
4 Engine
you ll have to press hard on throttle to move the car or wngine ll stop. which was very annoying.
only 3 things i liked about carrier
1 cabin heating
2 better steering
3 low engine maintenance due to efi
Now i have imported suzuki kei truck with auto trans A.C. abs 660 engine and am satisfied with it.
any one needs more info contact me at [email protected] or 03335118848
Screw you paksuzuki! People spending 7 lakh a getting what? No grills? No heater? Damit! Are we stupid as a nation or what? Paksuzuki is sucking our blood since years and we are letting it do it over and over and over and over again!
The interior of RAVI is big joke
Biased review
Which pickup should you suggest?