[Chetu]

Originally Posted by chaxy

The maruti showroom salesman called me today to tell that Maruti has asked all dealers to stop bookings of Swift Diesel till May. They will take fresh booking only after the current bookings are delivered by may.

So many bookings, but the production is less. After few months hope we get without waiting period as it happend to petrol version.

[Chetu]

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

The deal isnt as sweet as it looks. My friend recently got a swift VXi for 4.35 Lakhs all inclusive with some freebies like mats and stuff. Now the same speced swift the Vdi will cost atleast 5.5 Lakhs on-road since it wont be having any discounts as of now, so its around 1.15 Lakhs over the petrol version, which ain't cheap.

Maruti dealers are mad anytime they may give discount. when i purchased petrol version i got 20k dealers discount + 20k corporate total 40k. after few months they suppose to give only 1st year free insurance which is worth of 15k.

[Jaggu]

dealership allocation is going to be increased and soon all the 5-6 months wait will be down to 2 months for now, from reliable source at my dealership and good news for people waiting for Swift Diesel

[mithun]

Tech : In the comparison of ownership costs b/w Swift P & D, why did you compare Lxi with a Vdi ?

Why can't you compare a Lxi with a Ldi OR a Vxi with a Vdi ?

[navdeep]

Originally Posted by Jaggu

dealership allocation is going to be increased and soon all the 5-6 months wait will be down to 2 months for now, from reliable source at my dealership and good news for people waiting for Swift Diesel

.. and soon more options will be in same price bracket and demand will be less for Swift D.

[navdeep]

Originally Posted by mithun

Tech : In the comparison of ownership costs b/w Swift P & D, why did you compare Lxi with a Vdi ?

Why can't you compare a Lxi with a Ldi OR a Vxi with a Vdi ?

• moreover it is quite possible that monthly run may increase from 3- 5 years down the line.
• What will be the resale values of Lxi/Vxi/Ldi/Vdi.
• If you tend to keep the car for around three years. Diesel may not be viable option.
• With such a refined engine there is a possibility that you might like to keep your "hatchback" for more than 5 years ( assuming we tend to change car after 5 years ).

[chaxy]

The debate on petrol vs diesel never ends. AND its not always about the fuel economy of diesel. I would look at this differently.
In the case of swift diesel, the engine is smooth as a petrol car and has excellent torque of a diesel car. its got the best of both. Infact diesel cars were shunned by petrol heads as they were noisy. not anymore. moreover the extra torque gives you a steady delivery of power in city traffic with a/c on full.
frankly i wont mind shelling out about 80K for this.

We had a zen diesel that was purchased in 1999 and we sold it in Jan 2007. A full 8 yrs and 2 Lac kms on the odo. on the day we sold this car, it was still returning 15-18 kmpl in city. Apart from regular maintenance, we never incurred anything extar on thsi car.

[vishnugs]

Hi Tech,

Good work on your calculations. Here is my take

Technological Superiority

I am a proud owner of Swift LDi. Well the only reason I chose DDSi was technological superiority. I'm always behind high tech technologies and DDSi is one of the latest offerings even in International auto arena. The Diesel torque just takes you for sport every now and then on a highway. Moreover Swift Diesel is new, why not someone take a Ford Ikon instead of Fiesta, its basically you want few heads to turn at you for your choice. If you ignore all technological advantage and its new image, I agree to your point that it doesnt add that much value. But then, if nothing matters, I can settle for a Wagon R and invest the remaining money for better returns.

Payback calculations will not work for all

Most of your calculations leverage the 2300/lakh EMI advantages. For people like me who made a downpayment of 70% cost and took a 1 year loan @ 9% interest for the rest, these calculations will not work. For me for 1500 KM/month in Bangalore conditions at 12 and 17 KMPL city mileage and petrol and diesel at 53 and 36 respectively, I see 3500 Rs savings on paper month after month.

Maintenance Costs as low as Petrol

By UK standards this engine is expected to last for 500000 KMs, even in Indian road conditions I m expecting an engine life of atleast 2.5 lakh KM. So I m not expecting any other increase in maintenance costs other than the diesel filter costs which might be a max of 500 bucks additional / service.

Diesel commands a premium in many parts of India

I think your resale value chart is biased to your geography. I live in South India and here diesel commands a much better resale value than petrol. To give you some instances...for example 2003 Palio 1.2 is available for 1.5 lakhs whereas Palio 1.7D is close to 3 lakhs. Skoda Diesel even commands a very high premium over petrol (not RS) in the second hand market. Same is the case with Ikon, Qualis and Innova.

Indian Mentality

Excerpt from AutoCar India also reveals the demand for Diesel cars in the market - Ford Fiesta sold 3000 units (most of them being Diesel) in Feb overtaking its long rival Honda City which sold only 2150. Same is the case with Skoda too. Honda is running around for a diesel power plan to match the other offerings says ACi.

Again in all makes you will see the new car discounts increasing at an exponential rate for petrol compared to diesel, that justifies the mentality.

Future is Diesel

To counter the demand for Diesel and to encash Indian mentality, all OEMs have made serious effort in enhancing their offering in Diesels. Do you need examples - Optra Diesel, Getz Diesel, Toyota Small Car Diesel, Santro/Pa Diesel, Baleno Diesel...Even in the international scenario where there is no price-fuel advantage, demand for diesel and technology advancement has been great. Production of Petrol involves in significantly higher usage of fossil fuel and moreover Diesels are becoming much more environment friendly with the latest technologies. (For example - DDSi / Multijet meets very strict Euro 5 norms in UK for which it gets good duty cuts)

Vishnu

[DCEite]

I have said it before, and say it again, the better driveability and in-gear acceleration (which is better than Octavia TDi) is reason enough for me to prefer Diesel over Petrol. Monthly running be damned!

[BUSA]

Originally Posted by dceite

I have said it before, and say it again, the better driveability and in-gear acceleration (which is better than Octavia TDi) is reason enough for me to prefer Diesel over Petrol. Monthly running be damned!

There is no use looking for the advantage cost here and there, its just going to turn around to be very close at the end of a given time period but the accelration which the Diesel Swift holds is leagues ahead of the Petrol and thats reason enough to look at it over the Petrol.

Also those guys taking more maintainance for the Swift i would say that unfair as the engine is the latest tech and does no require maintainance more then a Petrol and that what i have heard from most of the people.

[mithun]

Originally Posted by vishnugs

Diesel commands a premium in many parts of India

I think your resale value chart is biased to your geography. I live in South India and here diesel commands a much better resale value than petrol. To give you some instances...for example 2003 Palio 1.2 is available for 1.5 lakhs whereas Palio 1.7D is close to 3 lakhs. Skoda Diesel even commands a very high premium over petrol (not RS) in the second hand market. Same is the case with Ikon, Qualis and Innova.

In south India, it's a known fact that Diesels are more popular; BUT Diesels like Palio, Ikon commands poor resale values like it's petrol brethren. The situation is much worse for Ikon Diesel when compared to Ikon Petrol.

But Qualis & Innova diesels commands a better premium than it's petrol siblings !!!

The rest of you points are very much true.

[wizardofid]

As I recall Maruti does not (yet) make the DDSi engine in India, though they may soon start to do so under licence. Import duties probably account for the extra cost. Once they start making it here, it may be cheaper. It will however never be as cheap as the petrol, because of royalty costs to Densu/ Fiat/ Detroit-Diesels, who own the common-rail design patent.

[nbr]

Originally Posted by Jaggu

dealership allocation is going to be increased and soon all the 5-6 months wait will be down to 2 months for now, from reliable source at my dealership and good news for people waiting for Swift Diesel

My bro went to book the Swift diesel in Banglore,he was told there is a 6 months waiting period. Its crazy waiting for 6 months.

[hmishra83]

I went to take a look at the Swift Diesel in Delhi yesterday. Told there was a 1-1.5 month waiting on the VDi model and the LDi is available readily. No discounts/offers etc.

Anybody knows of a better deal in Delhi NCR?

[namit]

Maruti is having a production constraint as well and i think they are focussing on SX4 hence the waiting time.

I saw Jagdish Khattar in an interview where he mentioned that as of now they intend to produce only 2500 SX4 cars a month in Manesar plant as swift is selling around 7000 per month (including petrol and diesel).