[moralfibre]

I bought the Gen 3 Maruti Suzuki Swift VDi just over a month ago. The car is an excellent package. Arguably the best Diesel Hatch available in the market today. The large number of orders Maruti Suzuki received before launch is a testimony of the success of the product. I have driven my car for 3,500 kms in a month and have been happy in all aspects except the brakes!

As soon as I took delivery of the car, I upgraded the tyres in my car from the skinny 165/80/R14's to 185/70/R14's to have enough grip for highway travel. I thought I was done for many miles of happy motoring. But, I was wrong, the initial impressions showed that the brakes would prove "adequate" but they are NOT. They are simply POOR. To make sure it wasn't just me I did offer test drives to my friends and ALL of them complained that the car doesn't have enough braking power. To put things in perspective I would like to report that the brakes on a non-booster assisted Maruti 800 are better.

I drove to Goa on Thursday and realized that in panic braking situations, the car simply leaps forward instead of coming to a grinding halt screeching its tyres. At one occassion, I almost went into an oncoming Innova because the car refused to stop in time, I had to swerve to avoid collision. This was on a State highway at speeds between 60-80 kmph. The first 40% of brake pedal travel doesn't give any braking feedback, the rest is just like stepping on a hard piece of rubber that isn't holding up. The brakes feel spongy. After about 200 kms of highway driving on NH4, there was brake fade. The brakes wouldn't respond at speeds over 100 kmph unless you literally stepped on them.

If you go through the test drive experiences of fellow bhpians in the official car review, there is just one common echo, "Bad brakes". I haven't driven the ZDi but many posts on this forum confirm that the Z spec has better stopping power compared to the V and L variants.

The Swift simply fails in the braking department and I have changed my driving style to accomodate the lack of brakes on the Swift. I posted a separate thread in order to ensure that this issue is highlighted to fellow bhpians wanting to opt for an LXi/LDi/VXi/VDi Swift. They simply refuse to stop and its time Maruti Suzuki fixes this issue on their assembly line.

[Vid6639]

Wow, Kiran this is a very unpleasant shock. I wasn't expecting something like this from Maruti.

The most critical part of any car and they compromised.

Have you driven a couple of more VDi's to confirm that this problem is not just with your car?

[revintup]

Isnt an additional brake boost possible?I think i read soomewhere about this thing regarding the first gen swift.

[AbhiJ]

Shame on Maruti for such irresponsible cost cutting. This issue was pointed out by GTO in his review for the swift ... i am quoting him from his review:

"Mediocre brakes (LXi / LDi & VXi / VDi). Inadequate for emergency braking conditions"

Maruti used to offer ABS as an option on the earlier "V" variants, and it's inexplicable that the same has been taken away on the new Swift. What makes matters worse is that the "L" and "V" variants have poor brakes, since it's only the "Z" level that receives the "brake assist" feature. While Maruti is tight-lipped on what brake assist means, from my drive in the ZXi, I can assure you that brake assist = bigger brake booster.

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

The first 40% of brake pedal travel doesn't give any braking feedback, the rest is just like stepping on a hard piece of rubber that isn't holding up. The brakes feel spongy. After about 200 kms of highway driving on NH4, there was brake fade. The brakes wouldn't respond at speeds over 100 kmph unless you literally stepped on them.

The Swift simply fails in the braking department and I have changed my driving style to accomodate the lack of brakes on the Swift. I posted a separate thread in order to ensure that this issue is highlighted to fellow bhpians wanting to opt for an LXi/LDi/VXi/VDi Swift. They simply refuse to stop and its time Maruti Suzuki fixes this issue on their assembly line.

OMG, thats a huge compromise on Safety by Maruti Suzuki. One thing that puzzles me was this not noticed during the test drive? Has this been shown to the workshop, whats their view on the same?

If this is an one off case then your car might be one of the sabotaged lot. I think Maruti's claim of 1L+ booking of the new swift will take a major hit if this issue is for real in all the new swifts.

[SwiftSD]

There was a similar issue with the old model as well and MS did provide upgraded brake booster for the diesel version. Got a reference of the same in the thread http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...gn-maruti.html

I hope the poor brakes are not a part of cost cutting, safety should be held on the top priority list by any car maker. MS should take this up and provide the necessary upgrade.

[goandude]

IMO Every car before production would have to get certification and one of those tests would be breaking performance. Why even auto mags come with this in their 60 - 0 times and distances. Can one QUANTIFY the poor performance? Even rudimentary quantification sent to the company or the press would shake things up. Even better would be a comparo with a competitor. I tried googling but the brake performance was blank on carwale site

[DieselFan]

@moralfibre - I have a Old Gen Swift VDI with old brake booster (Not the improved one). I also have BS Potenza GIIIs with Spec 185/70/R14 on alloys. since the tyre upgrade I have had no issues with the brakes. The car has stopped under all emergency situations so far. Touch wood.I use engine braking effectively.

In the initial months turbo is superstrong and if you have the engine RPM in the tourbo band the engine will be pushing the car so much so that the engine braking is ineffective.

[moralfibre]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Have you driven a couple of more VDi's to confirm that this problem is not just with your car?

I haven't driven any other than mine Viddy but here's Dinar's take on it:

Post link.

I am sure he hasn't done an intercity highway drive yet but I bet that he'll find them inadequate at higher speeds.

Originally Posted by ghodlur

OMG, thats a huge compromise on Safety by Maruti Suzuki. One thing that puzzles me was this not noticed during the test drive? Has this been shown to the workshop, whats their view on the same?

Ghodlur, I did not do a test drive yet, BUT, all Maruti Swift TD cars are ZDi's.
I am going to take my car to Maruti service over the weekend to see what they have to say about this.

If this is an one off case then your car might be one of the sabotaged lot. I think Maruti's claim of 1L+ booking of the new swift will take a major hit if this issue is for real in all the new swifts.

I doubt that the brakes could be sabotaged but I am not ruling that as yet.

Originally Posted by SwiftSD

There was a similar issue with the old model as well and MS did provide upgraded brake booster for the diesel version. Got a reference of the same in the thread http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...gn-maruti.html

Yes they replaced when people complained but I wish they did a formal recall and upgrade the brakes in the cars that have been sold. It is dangerous to drive the Swift V and L spec cars from what I have experienced so far.

I hope the poor brakes are not a part of cost cutting, safety should be held on the top priority list by any car maker. MS should take this up and provide the necessary upgrade.

I hope they do.

Originally Posted by goandude

IMO Every car before production would have to get certification and one of those tests would be breaking performance. Why even auto mags come with this in their 60 - 0 times and distances. Can one QUANTIFY the poor performance? Even rudimentary quantification sent to the company or the press would shake things up. Even better would be a comparo with a competitor. I tried googling but the brake performance was blank on carwale site

Like I mentioned before, all media cars and test drive cars at showrooms were Z spec and they seem to have better brakes than this one.

Only team-bhp reviewers have been lucky enough to get the right model to TD. Additionally majority of the Swift sales will be from the VDi / VXi and those are the ones that have this issue.

[Speed Pujari]

I see the brand MUL USP is going haywire. How will excellent MUL A.S.S will help in this situation?

I am quite surprised to see that this famous swift braking issue was not known to people even in this forum. And even more surprised to see 100k people lined up to get their deliveries :-@ ...

[seedyk]

Dont think this is an issue of cost cutting.
It's a known issue even in the older gen swift, although the abs ones perform better, but not the best !
MSIL hasn't taken much efforts to boost up the brakes on the new gen swift inspite of the persisting issues. sad !

[Racer_X]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

At one occassion, I almost went into an oncoming Innova because the car refused to stop in time, I had to swerve to avoid collision. This was on a State highway at speeds between 60-80 kmph. The first 40% of brake pedal travel doesn't give any braking feedback, the rest is just like stepping on a hard piece of rubber that isn't holding up. The brakes feel spongy. After about 200 kms of highway driving on NH4, there was brake fade. The brakes wouldn't respond at speeds over 100 kmph unless you literally stepped on them.

That's scary that the brakes don't engage properly on speeds between 60-80 kmph and brakes fading out after 200kms.

Thankfully I have had good experience with my ZDI even at high speeds the car is well in control and the brakes are responsive. Did a 350 km run on NH3 and pushed the car to 150+ kmph on couple of occasions but the brakes are working fine and no spongy feeling. You can try out BumbleBee the next time we meet, so that you can spot the difference if any. Thank God you managed to avert the collision man!!

[libranof1987]

Success seems to have made MS complacent.

Did the road test engineers not realize the poor brakes before shooting the car off to the assembly line?!

Whether MS does a recall or not, can the brake booster be retrofitted? It is unimaginable to drive a car knowing the brakes aren't confident of stopping the car when you want it to stop.

Originally Posted by moralfibre

I haven't driven the ZDi but many posts on this forum confirm that the Z spec has better stopping power compared to the V and L variants.

Any idea what the reason for this is? ABS? How?

[moralfibre]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

Any idea what the reason for this is? ABS? How?

It has Brake assist and we are all of the belief that the brake assist could be the reason for better brakes and not just ABS.

Check the document attached in this post.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

Any idea what the reason for this is? ABS? How?

It may not be due to just ABS, it could be better calipers or brake pads.

In case of Figo the Titanium variant that has ABS has better braking as the size of the brake rotors is different. Rotor diameter is 20mm more compared to lower variants. So ABS plus better braking.