In 2005, I bought the first generation SWIFT, the top end variant, Zxi. I paid a grand total of approximately Rs 5.6 lakhs on road, Kolkata.
The car came in a pretty natty shade of - what the company brochure said - "Bright Red" and by virtue of the fact that it looked like nothing else on the road, at that point of time, curious glances and sometimes appreciative glances were more often than not witnessed at traffic lights and mall parking lots.
The car was well kitted out as well. It had:
- Electric power steering
- All four power windows (with one touch driver side op)
- Fully Automatic Climate Control
- Digital Clock with outside ambient temperature readout
- Anti Lock Braking System
- Twin Airbags (Driver and co-driver)
- Height adjustable driver's seat
- Height adjustable front safety belts
- Rear wash / wipe
- Rear foglight
- Rear de-mister
- Alloy wheels shod with 185/70 R14 tubeless radials
- the spare wheel also is an alloy
- Tinted glasses all round
- Day night interior rear view mirror
- Integrated music system in dash
- Electrically adjustable wing mirrors
- Rake adjustable steering wheel
- Electric release for rear hatch door
- Central Locking (all 5 doors + bonnet)
- A cracker of a 1.3L all aluminium, 16 valve petrol engine with a fantastic top end
- Large, commodious front seats (which i still feel is the best after all these years)
- All the seats, front and rear, come with their individual adjustable head restraints
- All fabric upholstery
- All back interior theme (what the Ad-kids now call "sporty")
- Healthy NVH suppression material. Dash insulation, firewall insulation even under bonnet insulation
- Full wheel well cladding on all 4 wheel wells.
- Torsion beam rear suspension setup with stabiliser bar (the reason why the first gen Swift is still such a cracker of a drive)
- Front fog lights
- Euro NCAP 4 star rating for adult occupant protection, 3 stars for child protection and 3 stars for pedestrian protection ( all ratings as per then prevailing crash norms, but I think the Offset Deformable Barrier test remained then as well)
Link:
https://www.euroncap.com/en/results/suzuki/swift/15683
- As per the "kitna deti hain" angle, even after 14 years and 135,000 kms later, she still returns 12kms per litre in the chaos of Kolkata traffic. Glugs a litre of unleaded every 16.5 kms on the highway
and till now has not let me down even once, anywhere , anytime , any place.
Fast forward to 2018:
- The new 3rd gen Swift costs an eye popping Rs 8.5 lacs on road Kolkata.
- Has almost the same feature set when compared to the top end manual petrol of 2005 vs top end manual petrol of today
- Plus points of 2018 model are:
LED headlights, bigger boot, infotainment system in keeping with the times.
Rest are similar, if not a notch down on its grandfather: for example: no stabiliser bar in rear suspension setup, a weirdly calibrated "woolly" feeling helm, maybe stylish but tacky interior plastics, a crash rating which is debatable and a curiously "detached" driving feel.
My question is: in 14 years, even accounting for currency depreciation and a myriad other economic parameters, aren't we paying a bit much for this tin pot?
Maruti has achieved tremendous economies of scale.
Most parts are shared between its various models, so fiendishly competitive sourcing prices are guaranteed to keep part price fluctuations to a minimum.
Even stuff like ABS, Airbags et al, which were treated like "exotic" stuff a decade and a half back are common now and unit prices would definitely be lower, than what it was 15 years back.
Steel prices too are not that harder than what it was earlier.
Yes, maybe the electronic content has risen, but how costly will it be? Keeping in mind that even entry level vehicles, such as KWID , are nowadays sporting touchscreens as well.
When Tata can provide a better performing system in the Tiago at a much lower price point, then one can half assume that the new Swift's audio bits are more or less along the same cost level, if not lower.
So, what is it that is causing OEM's to resort to this "creeping increments" to their best seller's prices?
Are there genuine reasons ? Or just unit profitability?
Love to hear from you folks!
And in the meantime , I've decided to keep my old Swift. I'm not losing anything at all.