[rajeev k]

Originally Posted by swiftnfurious

What Bala mentioned is, the bookings would have been nearly the same even if the old Swift continued to be in production! We need to understand that this is more of a hype. This car is a next gen car of already proven one and also without much changes exterior or mechanical wise.
A
For the real impact, we [Maruti rather] need to do a survey and find out from the customers that "how many of them would still have booked this car if this was the first time Maruti ever launched Swift". People will be skeptical only with a new car or new mechanicals including engine, and not with a tried & tested "successful formula".
B
Do you think they would have gathered the same number of pre-launch bookings if they had plonked a Peugot engine instead of MJD this time??
C

A. No, not really. There are additional features, new interiors etc which would have lured many a customer who were about to lock on. on other brands like Polo, i20 etc. to the ANS B. Maruti won't do any such survey or why it should. With loads of bookings Maruti would be laughing all the way to the Bank. C. Why should? MJD has a brand equity which Peugot may have to wait for at least a decade to garner in India. Even if the engine is a new VW-Suzuki co-developed one the same aura would have been generated.

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by rajeev k

A. No, not really. There are additional features, new interiors etc which would have lured many a customer who were about to lock on. on other brands like Polo, i20 etc. to the ANS

Features wise, there are not much changes as far as I know. The major change is the addition of a ZDi. Could you point as to how many feature additions has been done on the ZXi apart from the current equipment levels?

Your claim on Swift taking the fight over i20 / Polo will need to wait till the launch. 90% it will not happen this time as well. From the reviews, the interiors are still not leagues ahead, but I will wait to see t-bhp review to believe what's in store.

Originally Posted by rajeev k

B. Maruti won't do any such survey or why it should. With loads of bookings Maruti would be laughing all the way to the Bank.

Precisely ! If they do that survey, we, readers will be laughing at their press releases of 30k bookings for the new Swift and all !

Originally Posted by rajeev k

C. Why should? MJD has a brand equity which Peugot may have to wait for at least a decade to garner in India.

All of us know that they need not change anything! My question was "would have Maruti gathered the same bookings with something completely new."

Again as I said, the bookings attribute to these already tried, tested & successful formula. So naturally people know what they are going to get rather than speculations.

Edit:: Please dont use "bold". Its a strain to read thru + improper etiquette to use in a public forum. I understand you wanted to highlight your answers from the quote. Please break up the quote and answer correspondingly to achieve the same result.

[rajeev k]

Originally Posted by swiftnfurious

Edit:: Please dont use "bold". Its a strain to read thru + improper etiquette to use in a public forum. I understand you wanted to highlight your answers from the quote. Please break up the quote and answer correspondingly to achieve the same result.

Sorry.I tried to intersperse my comments within the quote in Bold. But the post was not accepted on minimum character limits as there were none outside the quote. So the cut and paste resulted in unknowingly carrying through in bold. The difficulty in reading is true.
I was within the edit allowed time and rushed through to convert.

[Klub Class]

Please excuse me for the post :

Originally Posted by Racer_X

Seventeen days prior to its launch, the new Swift from the Maruti Suzuki fold has record bookings, with the company registering 38,000 pre-launch orders for the car.

The news is misleading, for sure. Fiat Uno holds the record for the maximum number of bookings (~3,00,000) received before launch!

But Fiat messed up the golden opportunity, almost two decades back.

[swiftnfurious]

Off-topic::

Originally Posted by rajeev k

Sorry.I tried to intersperse my comments within the quote in Bold. But the post was not accepted on minimum character limits as there were none outside the quote. So the cut and paste resulted in unknowingly carrying through in bold. The difficulty in reading is true.
I was within the edit allowed time and rushed through to convert.

hey..no worries I was not offended in anyway and I understood you wanted to highlight the answers. In fact I made the same mistake some time back & some one else helped me understand it. But my eyes were paining, so put a note.

[rajeev k]

Originally Posted by swiftnfurious

Features wise, there are not much changes as far as I know.

Some changes features could be,
Increased Length and Width and Wheel base.
New dash board and Steering.
New Chassis and suspension. ie.,better Ride and Handling.
Turn Indicators on ORVMs, 15" wheels.
Better sound system & Connectivity options
Lesser weight due to Plastic Fuel Tank etc.
Key-less Entry/Start/Stop

[Your claim on Swift taking the fight over i20 / Polo will need to wait till the launch. 90% it will not happen this time as well. From the reviews, the interiors are still not leagues ahead, but I will wait to see t-bhp review to believe what's in store.

The fight has already begun. VW now offers Zero Insurance, Exchange Bonus and Free Accessories for the Polo. Come to think of it, even the older swift has no freebies.

All of us know that they need not change anything! My question was "would have Maruti gathered the same bookings with something completely new."

Maruti products are Suzuki products and further the new swift is already launched elsewhere. Change is a sign of growth and growth is a sign of life.

Again as I said, the bookings attribute to these already tried, tested & successful formula. So naturally people know what they are going to get rather than speculations.

As I said earlier, Brand is vital till the arrival of a competition. See the case of Honda which has already felt the heat and reduced prices. No manufacturer would like to carry inventory.

[fuel_addict]

A masked black new Swift was spotted in Andheri (Mumbai) yesterday. Probably the test or demo vehicle heading towards the showroom - Sai Service perhaps. This info was posted on one of the Swift communities on Facebook. News is that dealer training will begin on 8th. Scheduled launch on course for 17th.

[deetjohn]

So MSIL has managed to ship only 348 units to the dealers in July. I was wondering whether they had a huge inventory of old Swifts at the factory/ dealerships when the production for the old one was stopped. But now we know that they didn't have cars at the factory. I doubt the case with dealers will be any different.

And for a car which did 12K numbers consistently, this is a big opportunity loss. I guess, the new Swift will have to clock close to 20K in the initial few months to get the numbers back on track for the financial year. Expect a gigantic number of Swifts to be shipped to dealers in Aug/ Sept.

But why did MSIL went for this option? Why was the launch date pushed all the way to Aug 17th? Couldn't they have managed this transition in a better way by advancing the launch date? Are they expecting someone big for the launch like Osamu Suzuki? Or are they making everyone wait so that the new one will start off with a bigger bang?

[fuel_addict]

Originally Posted by deetjohn

So MSIL has managed to ship only 348 units to the dealers in July. I was wondering whether they had a huge inventory of old Swifts at the factory/ dealerships when the production for the old one was stopped. But now we know that they didn't have cars at the factory. I doubt the case with dealers will be any different.

And for a car which did 12K numbers consistently, this is a big opportunity loss. I guess, the new Swift will have to clock close to 20K in the initial few months to get the numbers back on track for the financial year. Expect a gigantic number of Swifts to be shipped to dealers in Aug/ Sept.

But why did MSIL went for this option? Why was the launch date pushed all the way to Aug 17th? Couldn't they have managed this transition in a better way by advancing the launch date? Are they expecting someone big for the launch like Osamu Suzuki? Or are they making everyone wait so that the new one will start off with a bigger bang?

While this can be debated forever, I think in some ways this was a good move by MUL. They sent out a clear message that the upgraded variant would be available soon and people with existing bookings can upgrade to the new model. I don't think all car manufacturers would do that. Look at Honda - they dropped prices of Jazz but left everyone guessing if there would be a product upgrade or not.

From an inventory holding point, this move also ensured that old stock is cleared and no discounts have to be offered like in the case of Jazz.

Since Swift has always had a healthy demand, Maruti could afford to do this. Not sure if they would do this with any other car. Imagine doing this with an A star.

[ashok_lat]

New Pictures from IAB. Seems like Swift got damaged while Ad shoot. But what i can see is much better paint quality from Maruti.

New Maruti Swift damaged during ad filming

[deepakchiniwal]

This was shot in ITPL, Bangalore on Sunday 31st July.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by ashok_lat

But what i can see is much better paint quality

True. And a nice shade of red as well. From pics, it looks more like Figo's red shade than Punto's red, which I feel has more orange to it.

Are all versions getting 15" wheels?

[volkman10]

"With Maruti Suzuki, numbers take a different meaning altogether in India. The No.1 carmaker in India produces almost half the cars that run on this country’s streets. So when it comes to flaunting the bookings received for their new products, the numbers simply make other carmakers’ projections look microscopic. Often we hear carmakers boasting having received ‘4000’ or ‘6000’ bookings ‘after the launch. Here’s we have a carmaker, which is still about 15 days away from launching a new product, the price of which is not known to anyone, and yet, has managed to receive an astounding 40K bookings! Imagine where the number is headed in the next 15 days, and in case you want to marvel a bit more, after the launch! Not without reason is the Swift called the darling car of India."

2011 Swift registers 40000 bookings, crashes during a shoot before launch

Any guess what will be the bookings by Aug 17th ?

Cheers!

[e46]

Its good to see such magical figures during pre-launch. however, we should not go overboard while applauding, since this mind boggling figures would in turn hurt us like boomerang in the form of unfathomable post booking waiting periods (read 5-6 months could be more for diesels)

moreover this, however wee bit, add to the arrogance of the manufacturer/ dealers. My words might not sound in a jovial tune, but its truth.

[determinus]

Is there any hope for an AT version at least as an option? Puleease?!!