Swift Diesel Ownership Review after 600 KM

[vishnugs]

Hi Friends,

I booked Swift LDi on 31st Jan 2007 by making a full payment and took delivery of the car on 3rd Feb 2007 from Sagar Automobiles, Bangalore. The service from the dealer was very impressive, they delivered the car before schedule.

I was researching on this car for a long time and was waiting for it to be launched in India so immediately booked the car as soon as it was launched. The OTR price was 5.33 lakhs which is pretty reasonable. Its it is around 1 lakh expensive than petrol version (0.7 l in paper and another 0.3 l in-terms of discount for petrol version) but the price is justified by the fuel efficiency and the engine technology.

I have driven around 600 kms in 3 days, so far the performance of the car has been very impressive. My previous car was Fiat Siena, after driving for around 1 lakh KM I have changed to this car. I think there has already been lot of postings on petrol Swift reviews so I'm skipping my reviews on Design, Build, Safety, etc.

Engine (5/5)

The engine is so smooth and silent that its hard to notice that its running. I was showing the car to two friends of mine and they were standing right in front of the bonnet and they failed to realize that the engine was started. Its as smooth as the petrol Swift. The 5 stage injection has really shown its goodness. Its silky smooth, no clatter/vibration when starting or stopping. There is noticeable turbo lag which just means that till 2000 rpm your car would do just like any other petrol car and after than a sudden rush in power comes in. If VGT was used, the transition would have been smooth, but its hardly a minus point. The power delivery is too good, I drove upto 120 and dint try hard but then the engine effortlessly does high rpm which is quite visible in high speeds in gears. Overtaking was just a cake walk. One of my friend who owns a Swift Vxi said the engine was far superior in-terms of drivability and performance punch (partly because of diesel torque illusion) when compared to his car.

Gear Box (3/5)

The gear shifting was really slotted and good but on the whole you need to put a little effort to engage and disengage. Not sure if its the same with the petrol swift. The clutch is little hard too, I think its the same story with every diesel car.

Fuel Efficiency (5/5)

The distance I have driven was partly in the city and partly in the highway. I was not expecting a big number for KMPL as the vehicle was very new and might need a little time to settle (atleast till the first service), but to my surprise the vehicle returned 21 KMPL in bangalore city + highway driving conditions which is too impressive. For my road condition and style of driving, Siena would used to return 11 KMPL. But for all you know every time I fuel I have to get down and explain to the petrol bunk vendor that my car is diesel and pls fill diesel :-) they always mistake this one for a petrol swift.

Ride & Handling (3/5)

The suspension was quite stiff when compared to my previous car which used to be very smooth. So when it comes to bad roads, you really have to come down to a very slow speed to cross it without causing a big impact to the passengers. But I think all jap cars are like this. There was no compromise in handling when compared to petrol swift because of the engine. But anyways its hardly heavier by 70kg. I think I would upsize the tyres to get better grip but quite concerned if the ride handling would deteriorate if I go for tyres with lesser profile.

I have taken some pics of my new car and a video (with sound) to show you how silent the engine is outside & inside the bonnet.









Will upload the video tomorrow.

Vishnu

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[w 12]

Thats a nice review and a neat car .

Great news !!

21 kmpl for a diesel , in Blr is the Killer !!

and in a car which has just run 600 kms ...after 5000 kms and the engine is properly run in just imagine the mileage

[GTO]

Superb review from an obviously satisfied owner. Congrats on the car! With 600km in 3 days, you really are using the diesel economy arent you?

but to my surprise the vehicle returned 21 KMPL in bangalore city + highway driving conditions which is too impressive.

21kpl!! Under the same driving conditions, your Siena gave you 11? Maybe this involved a lot more highway running than usual? I would like to see what you get in a consistently urban usage environment.

[akroy]

Nice review...
Maan 21kmpl in the first fill....I wonder what will happen after 2 services? may be I have to start thinking to exchange my Alto...

Abhi

[speedzak]

That's a nice write up. Keep it up!!

The SWIFT diesel is indeed a good car. And you've done 600kms in just 3 days. That's good. 21kmpl is very good. And elsewhere on the forum, somebody was saying it gave him an amazing 23kmpl!!!

Thanks for the update and we hope to read a 2000kms report soon.

[menonrajesh]

A very good writeup..and an amazing FE!! If its going to be the general FE achieved by the users, the car surely is going to rule!

All the very best and looking forward for future updates.

[theMAG]

21 kmpl ? Thats great ROI. And your usage so far also justifies it. How is it with full loading in the city?

Changing to lower profile tyres may not be the best way to go here. The ride'll get harder. And the Swift's suspension is on the stiffer side anyway - teh D Swift's might have been stiffened up another notch

[msdivy]

Hi vishnugs,

Congrats on your new car ! Swift is comparatively good for highways. Enjoy your drives !

Originally Posted by vishnugs

Ride & Handling (3/5)

The suspension was quite stiff when compared to my previous car which used to be very smooth. So when it comes to bad roads, you really have to come down to a very slow speed to cross it without causing a big impact to the passengers. But I think all jap cars are like this. There was no compromise in handling when compared to petrol swift because of the engine. But anyways its hardly heavier by 70kg. I think I would upsize the tyres to get better grip but quite concerned if the ride handling would deteriorate if I go for tyres with lesser profile.

Make sure your tyre pressure is correct (cars are shipped from factory with 4 to 6 PSI higher than recommended. Dealers sometimes don't correct this).
Its my experience that new cars are bit stiff. Allow time (couple of weeks) for suspension to loosen up and then take a call on tyre upgrade.

[vishnugs]

Thanks a lot for your encouragement.

Here is the video guys

YouTube - Swift 1.3 DDSi

When the bonnet is closed all that you hear is background noise and no engine sound at all, I tried taking the camera very close to the chain drive of the cam to show you how the engine actually sounds when you keep your ear so close. My camera mic is pretty sensitive and the video was shot very close to the engine so realistically the human ear cannot pick this much decibels :-)

[vishnugs]

Originally Posted by GTO

21kpl!! Under the same driving conditions, your Siena gave you 11? Maybe this involved a lot more highway running than usual? I would like to see what you get in a consistently urban usage environment.

Mine was a Siena 1.7 Turbo Diesel, its quite normal for the car to deliver 14+ KMPL on highway and in bangalore city conditions it would give 9 or 10 and combined would be 11.

I will keep you posted with my swift city mileage soon. I have added the video with sound of the engine, check it out.

[nitrous]

Congratulations on ur buy!

21 kpl in bangalore city+highway and that too during run-in.
Do i take it that u were using AC all the time?

[Surprise]

Congrats on your new car. Hope Swift diesel will surely maintain the waves created by the petrol version.

Found that Cars India (dealer for Maruti in Chennai) has 80 booking till date for the diesel version even without a test drive car. They have only the demo car.

[navdeep]

can you provide approx percentage of highway and city driving

[anarchist]

Hey Vishnu,

Congrats on ur new buy.. a comment on the clutch, i own the petrol swift and I did take a test drive of the Swift VDi and found the clutch to be slightly harder than the soft clutch on the petrol swift. I am sure you did find the Swift clutch softer than those in your Siena TD

[vishnugs]

Originally Posted by navdeep

can you provide approx percentage of highway and city driving

To be precise, I drove little under 300 KM in the city and little over 300 KM on the highway. In the city I mostly play with 2nd & 3rd gears.

I think I will be able to give an update on whats the city only mileage with mostly 1st, 2nd and little 3rd gear usage (my city driving conditions).

Originally Posted by anarchist

Congrats on ur new buy.. a comment on the clutch, i own the petrol swift and I did take a test drive of the Swift VDi and found the clutch to be slightly harder than the soft clutch on the petrol swift. I am sure you did find the Swift clutch softer than those in your Siena TD

No doubt, its definitely lighter than my Siena :-) Just that I expected it to be even lighter.