Chevrolet Beat LT

The Beat’s suspension is tuned for comfort and the ride quality is outstanding for such a small car; it soaks up bumps with remarkable ease. What adds to the sense of calm is the suspension that works unobtrusively and a stiff, well insulated chassis that filters out any unwanted sounds. It’s only the really big potholes or deep ruts that crash through. The Beat’s wide stance and relatively long wheelbase means greater stability at speed and grown-up driving manners. The big-car feel the Beat offers, especially on the highway, instills a lot of confidence in the driver.

But the Beat is no sporty hatch, the handling is predictable, safe and good, but it’s not brilliant like a Maruti A-star. The hydraulic power steering is pleasantly weighted and fairly quick but it feels dead around the straight-ahead position and doesn’t deliver the ultimate accuracy we would have liked.
The front end is particularly soft and the Beat tends to roll quite a bit. The mushy front end, coupled with those weedy 155/70 R14 tyres, mean that the Beat understeers quite strongly. This isn’t a car that encourages fast driving but instead likes to be punted around town where its compact dimensions and light controls make it an easy car to manoeuvre.

The brakes are good with the right amount of progression and feel. There was no sign of fade throughout our brake tests and the Beat managed to stop dead in a reasonably shot distance. Wider tyres is something this car begs for as they would have reduced the stopping distance even further.