Drove a 30000kms - run Swift today

[BUSA]

My Swift VDi has gear oil leakage, and the oil leakage seal is not there with my dealer or any dealer in Mumbai, has been ordered from MUL and is dispatched by courier.

So my dealer has given me a replacement vehicle, orange Swift VXi with your the fuel written on it, done 30000kms, i guess its the test drive car.

Initial Impressions - The cars body is falling apart, the front bumper will fall any moment and there is lots of rattling from all the places in the car. The dashboard rattles like crazy, the interior doesnot smell good and the car rattles so badly that i cant make it from where it is, place the hand on the dash it is rattling, the gear lever is rattling, not good build quality IMHO.

Ride - It is ok, not as good as the diesel. Too much bounce.

Handling - Miserable, the car is still on stock puny 165 JK's and even a turn at 20kmph and the cars tyres makes screeching noise, so i didnot have the guts to take her above 100, later settled to drive it at 70-80

Performance - The car does move, unlike what i though the petrol was a sissy, revv her hard and it goes like zooooooom, revved her till 7000RPM in first when the ECU cut in. My sister who has no interest in cars said its so noisy, yes the Swift Petrol is noiser then the Diesel. Low end torque is invisible and you need to rev it to extract the most from the engine. Yeah i do like the noise the car makes, but to some it may not appeal.

Braking - Is easier then the diesel since the diesel lacks totally any kind of engine braking. But tyres play a important role, just lift of the accelerator and the petrol car deacelarates unlike the diesel

FE - 12 is what the dealer told me.

To Sum Up - The car needs better rubber and stock tyres are scary, build quality is poor.

Good News is that MUL is launching the M16A engine the very next month for the Swift petrol, this news is what Navnit Motors told my friend who has booked a VXi and is waiting for a month for the new engine to arrive.

[GeekSrik]

busa

thats a lot of problems mentioned about swift. sheesh. hopefully the m16a is good enough for the swift. rattles surely get on a persons nerves and its not a nice thing to have in any car!

good points mentioned though. useful for prospective buyers.

[king_julian]

Busa,

After two test drives in the Swift, I totally agree with you on the need to rev the engine hard to get some good acceleration. If the new engine would be a bit less peaky, it would become the ideal car in it's segment.

I also felt that the ride was a bit bouncy, especially if you try to drive over a bumpy (not potholed, just bumpy) road at a reasonable speed. But not irritatingly so.

Thanks,
Amit.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by BUSA

So my dealer has given me a replacement vehicle, orange Swift VXi with your the fuel written on it, done 30000kms, i guess its the test drive car.

Good News is that MUL is launching the M16A engine the very next month for the Swift petrol, this news is what Navnit Motors told my friend who has booked a VXi and is waiting for a month for the new engine to arrive.

Originally Posted by GeekSrik

busa

thats a lot of problems mentioned about swift. sheesh. hopefully the m16a is good enough for the swift. rattles surely get on a persons nerves and its not a nice thing to have in any car!

Please note that its a TEST DRIVE CAR and must have been decently abused!

M16A in a month? Hmmm. Thats good. Thats for the info, my friend too is planning to buy it soon.

[EatMyDust]

what would be the effect of the new m16a engine on the swift petrol with respect to power, acceleration and FE?

[rajshenoy]

Before concluding abt Swift petrol, please keep in mind that the car that u hav got is a totally abused one.(Typical example given by u, u pushed it to 7K RPM) god knows how others have pushed it..

i dont think this is the right way to say anything abt a car.

But then,Swift petrol has its own share of horror stories...

[ravi@64bhp]

My colleague has been using swift vxi for the past 1.5 years and completede almost 20000 km. Even with spirited driving, the car is still in excellent condition. No rattles and no engine noise.

There is no logic in making a review out of a badly abused test-driven car. It must have been very badly maintained car.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Just picking up on a comment --- that the diesel does not have engine braking.

Mine certainly does. In fact, I'm not sharp about putting my foot back on the gas after a change to third it has markedly slowed down again.

I didn't even notice lack of engine braking on my 2003 Tata Indica diesel --- and it lacked most things!

Given the compression ratios, shouldn't a diesel engine have more engine braking than a petrol?

Hope this post is not too much of a sidetrack for the thread!

[BUSA]

Please note that its a TEST DRIVE CAR and must have been decently abused!

Does a test drive car have You are the fuel written on it, or does it have Demo Car written on it. I was told that its companys car and not demo recently, when i saw a Demo car for the petrol and another demo car for the diesel.

what would be the effect of the new m16a engine on the swift petrol with respect to power, acceleration and FE?

A vast improvement, better acceleration, more power and slightly better FE.

i dont think this is the right way to say anything abt a car

.(Typical example given by u, u pushed it to 7K RPM) god knows how others have pushed it..

I own a Swift myself, and i have test driven cars like Skoda Octaiva 1.9TDi done 85000kms & Optra LT done 22000kms which felt as if they were totally new, so i think MUL's build quality is a question mark and by revving till 7000RPM, it wont make the car rattle would it, it might affect the engine though.

[navdeep]

First of all it test drive car and may not be properly maintained. Rattling issues are there in swift but it got over highlighted on not so maintained car.

New engine in a month or so, sounds too unrealistic. Does Maruti have sufficient resources to handle Swift Diesel, SX4 and now new Swift Petrol ? Lets hope its true.

[drifter]

I would tend to agree here, i've driven old swifts and they do rattle more than other cars of similar vintage.

Drifter

[lohithrao]

Originally Posted by drifter

I would tend to agree here, i've driven old swifts and they do rattle more than other cars of similar vintage.

Drifter

I know many who own swift, which are new. but always i wondered how this car would be after it has covered some kms like 40k +?

I have OHC which has done about 80k, and its rocking i know many OHC's which has done 1.4lacs+ and still doing great.

Would be great to hear from people who have done 40k+ kms on thier swift.

Drive safe

[ravibhat]

I have read the Survey report for new cars (cars launched 2004 onwards..)

New Car owner satisfaction has come down what I mean is new cars created more disappointment than being happy with it. Swift and Innova scored very marks with intial impression but intial happiness lasted faster than what it was before with old cars.

New cars are manufactured by keeping cost in mind rather than quality in it

However not to worry Maruti recommands lot of replacement with Swift time to time so as long as we service it on time its good car.

The car which you used is really tested one and dealer didn't do proper servicing I feel.

Regards,

Ravi.

[Technocrat]

@Busa: The test drive Swift in Pune had a You are the fuel written over it. Also from what I have observed the quality seems to have improved from what it used to be in the initial lot to the current ones. IIRR previosuly even brand new Swifts used to rattle which is not the case now. So hopefully all the problems you observed are due to poor intial QA\QC & should not happen in the later lots

[benbsb29]

May i mention here a certain Ford Fiesta 1.6, a TEST DRIVE car, (no questions about that) which i had the chance to rip during my test drives. Car had 38K on the odo, no floor mats and there were no vibrations/rattles whatsoever. Clutch was hard, but thats about all i could blame. The sales guy also did mention it was a poorly maintained car.

Build quality on the Swift was always a question, and just shows that cars from other manufacturers which were abused in the form of test drives and stunts still dont rattle. My respect for the Fiesta increased greatly after seeing this.