[vigsom]

Congratulations, Maruti Suzuki, for bringing on a hot product in 2005, when most other offerings of Maruti Suzuki were bland !!

In 2005, the G13B was a brilliant engine to be in a light hatch, and that is what made it the choice of the young blood.

Technology has gotten better, but the product still lives up to its reputation viz. appealing to the young at heart.

[Axe77]

Ah - 15 years to date since I bought my first car ever. Mine was a first lot (or 2nd lot maybe) delivery I think almost 15 years to date, sometime in May / June maybe. I still remember back in the day our office was in Phoenix Mills (the office complex above skyzone) and the Sai service was still at the back of what was Big Bazaar then. The car would be parked in the central quadrangle in those days.

I remember all the price to value analysis then (stringing the money together). Zxi is too much money and VXi the best value proposition. I had chosen VXi with ABS but deliveries were so thin of that model that they finally convinced me to accept the VXi.

I have the sweetest memories with that car - putting the faux leather two tone seats at Rhyme and Rhythm, together with a Blaupunkt music system. Upgrading the alloys and the wheels to 195 Bridgestone Potenza G3s. A simpler life but there was so much joy with every little change to it. I have to confess I did regret the orange decision at some point but I got swayed by all the ads which used the orange as the color of choice.

Sold it in 2009 to make way for the Civic (no way I could afford the upgrade otherwise) but despite what was a big leap for me at the time, I dearly wished I could have held on to both cars. I tried convincing my mum to sell her newer i10 instead and keep my swift but she loved her i10 and found the Swift "too big". Incidentally both cars (i10 & Swift toured (within MH) extensively at the time. My swift did numerous jaunts to Pune, some to Aurangabad, the odd one to Nashik. My mum on the other hand took her i10 in utmost comfort right through MH including districts like Parbhani / Cashim / Hingoli / Dhule / Osmanabad etc for some survey related travel.

Here is one of the rare pics I still have of the car. I still remember turning the wheel just to get a proper glimpse of the front on view of the tyre as well. Like I said - small joys and pride of ownership in every little detail of the vehicle.

[INJAXN]

our small Swift story.

In 2010, my girlfriend and I were sitting outside BTM Reliance fresh in Bangalore, and were discussing about our uncertain future. Soon the discussion came to cars and we started thinking which car we will purchase as our first car. we started looking at cars going by, I remember that most of them were Swifts and Altos.

Then we decided that, since Swift is already there in immediate family, and its the most common car, we will buy something else. Stupid conclusion, I know.

Cut to 2014, we are married now and started looking for cars and ended up getting a Swift . We were sold over looks of Swift and trusted name of MS. And we are totally happy with the car's performance and its swiftness. It took us to places like Goa, Malvan, Rann of Kutch , etc. its like a family member now.

[hema4saran]

If at all I am buying a second car for myself in India, I would blindly close my eyes and pick a red or white Swift. It was a dream car for me during my college days and even now. I would call this as a Mini Cooper of India. It is such a fun car with its sweet K12 petrol engine and compact dimensions. Only reason this will not be my primary car is my priorities changed. I'm 6.2 and there will be no space left behind me for my kind of driving position. Being a family man, comfortable and safe journey of the family comes first.

A red swift with fat rubbers on after market alloys and a minimal sticker works will make it perfect city car.

[DLC5005]

Congrats to Maruti Suzuki and Swift on reaching the 15 years milestone.
Completing such long years and being one of the front runners in sales, right from its launch is a big task and achievement in itself.

All iterations of swift have been eye turners.
A joy to ride and wonderful reliability with capability to munch miles happily both in petrol and diesel guise.

The domination of swift is a known fact.
Heck, even in my friends circle we have around 8 Swifts from all 1st, 2nd and 3rd gens, either being used as a primary or secondary car in the household.

Personally for me,
A black or red swift with good set of alloys is one hell of a looker.

If I was in a search of a fun to drive petrol hatch today, then surely it will be either the Swift or Polo.

Wishing that Maruti Suzuki should come up with a turbo variant of Swift with added safety package, so that I can replace my i10 with it in future.

[Rocketscience]

First gen swift owner here, i never got to drive it though, the decision to buy it was 100% mine and me and my dad both were really excited and thrilled when it launched, i thought it was the coolest car ever, it was the riskiest model Maruti ever launched and the design was so pleasantly different from the rest of the crowd, it was truly a game changer and i remember going to Maruti showroom at that time being a 12 year old boy and being in complete awe of the car and just sitting and staring at it.

We bought from the first batch of the car and were among the first owners of the car in Delhi, the waiting times i remember clearly were atleast 3 months in the entire city and just one big dealer offering it in 1 month (DD Motors), we got a broker involved and he got us our car in one week flat (we did not pay any premium for this he just processed our loan), i cannot describe the reaction of everyone on road, people would turn their heads they will step out of their cars, some would stop us in the middle of the road and enquire, our neighbours would ring our house and enquire about the car, we had a Corolla in our garage at that time too and no one would even turn to look at it, this was something very very special.

We have owned better cars in the future and even had better cars at that time, this design and concept by Maruti was a game changer though and no car purchase has felt so special ever since. (For my dad it was his third special car purchase first one being the Maruti 800 after fiats and ambassadors and then the first gen Zen after buying 3 maruti 800s, i suggested the colour of the Zen as Red, he actually bought that colour, i was 3 at that time)

I personally was obviously a fan of first gen Swift, especially for its time, i never really liked the second gen in terms of design upgrades and even the overall package, it may have improved on several fronts but wasn't exciting enough, i absolutely love the third generation and although i don't really have a use for it but i want to buy a third generation red Swift VXi, get a nice audio system, alloy wheels and freeflow exhaust, i think life would be a little more exciting with that.

P.S The engine in our first gen car was marvellously refined, so many people wanted to try driving our car and most of them have double cranked the car, the engine was dead silent and vibration free on idle, when my dad used to revv it to redline, there was some sort of smell that entered the cabin i don't know if it was exhaust or what, but my dad for this reason would not push the car often unless i insisted.

[a4anurag]

Quoting from my Swift ZDi thread:

Very very happy with the ownership of my Swift that lasted for 3 years and 10 months clocking 1,25,000 kms in total averaging at 90 kms a day.

I have immense respect for the car and feel bad that I couldn't drive it much since the last 2 months due to my health issue. This car has taught me to be a DIY person.

Just loved the 'all-black' good looking dashboard


Odometer at the time of selling


Last image before the handover


I feel this generation was the best of the lot in terms of all qualities. The new one feels flimsy and too light (no offence to current generation owners).

[Sk8r]

Have great memories with my dad's Swift ZDi 2011.

IMHO this was the best iteration of Swift with ageless styling and " 0 " reliability issues

She's still going great at 90000 kilometers / 9 years of ownership

[manchandap]

Nostalgic. Thanks @TusharK, for starting this thread. Couldn't wait to read through the complete thread before sharing my experience with this beauty.

I happen to own a 2006 Swift Vxi. I was bowled by its look when it was first launched in 2005. It was a great improvement over Esteem/Zen in terms of its higher stance and road presence. I had to wait for almost a year due to financial constraints to own one.

Swift has taken me to lots of place including Leh, Sangla/Kalpa, complete Spiti Circuit, Rajasthan. It has never let me down though lower GC is a challenge in tough terrain of Leh or Spiti.

However, we should not forget that it is a hatchback and not a SUV.

In fact, it would not be an overstatement if I say that Swift brought back the wanderlust in me. With it's reliability and comfort, my wife and kids also got hooked to road trips.

It's a breeze to drive in city's B2B traffic as well as on the highway. And it loves cornering and I miss it's cornering capabilities in my Scorpio.

The maintenance is light on topic and so far the major replacements have been:

• suspension (once)
• clutch (once)
• tyres (once): moved from Stock JK Tyres to wider (Zxi ones) Bridgestones
• battery (3rd one in the engine bay).

Tyres and clutch had few thousand kilometers of life left but I had them proactively replaced to avoid and misadventure in remote area.

It gives a feeling luxury, at least from the driver's seat.

Like any other vehicle, it also has its share of shortcomings like:

• flimsy bumpers,
• wide pillars that reduce visibility, especially while reversing
• limited leg space in rear seat
• limited storage in boot

One day, I will document my experiences of driving a hatchback and a SUV over demanding trails of Spiti, Lahul, Ladakh.

[JojyKerala]

In January 2020, a 22-year old cousin born and raised in the UK visited us. His dad bought a black Maruti Swift in 2012 here in Kerala and that was their ride whenever they visited India.

Not sure if Suzukis are sold in the UK but my cousin had a very bad image of the brand though he loved driving the Swift.

He was pestering his dad to sell the car and buy another one because Suzukis are worthless (based on his limited knowledge). I'm not sure how he arrived at this conclusion because there are like thousands of Swifts on the road whenever we used to hang out together. He consulted me on the pricing he would get for the Swift. He told me he was expecting 1.15 lakhs since it is a 2012 model. I spent half an hour lecturing him about the brand's resale value.

Later, he got 3.30 lakhs for the car. And I must say its an impressive price because the car was poorly maintained with nobody to take care of it for at least 10 months in a year.

His dad bought a white and brand-new Toyota Innova Crysta as a replacement in February 2020.

[CornerCarver]

In a mileage obsessed market of ours, this machine was a breath of fresh air. Bought a Pre Owned Red 2011 VXI from MS True Value with the odometer at 27K. Had previously owned an Alto, so surely this was an upgrade of sorts.

Whether commuting for my daily drive to the workplace to grocery trips and monthly highway runs, it has performed all the duties with aplomb and more.

Have very good memories of my red swift and sitting in a distant land, in these trying times, a mere thought of this fun to drive car evokes all the beautiful time which me and my family had on our innumerable trips without letting us down even once.

Surely, a frugal cornercarver.

[snappysam]

I have a 2nd gen Swift ZDI. My first car with my money. Bought it in November 2011. Still own it. Love it to bits. It's old now, but still gives a new car feeling even now. Clocked more than 105000 Kms. Friends who drive it occasionally, I don't usually let other drive my car, come away surprised and few of them actually still enquire if I will sell it to them.

I have kept it bone stock till now. Did few replacements like Steering Assembly (as early as 3800 Kms in-warranty), Ball-joints 3 times, Steering damper, Dashboard display (around 49000 Kms in warranty), Clutch assembly (for a leaking clutch cylinder which damaged a perfectly ok Clutch) and most recently a leaking AC condensor (few months back). Changed Battery once - current one is more than 5 years old (Amaron), and on third set of tyres (latest set changed 3 days ago due to careless puncture by a Hotel Valet just before lockdown). Aside from these, all I had to do were regular servicing at 10000 Kms (or annually) - oh! I don't allow the Authorised Dealer Service calls every 6 months to influence my service schedules

Car has been serviced ONLY at Maruti Authorised Service Centers till date. It was mostly OK.

All in all, I am totally swept by the SWIFT. Fun to drive everytime and extremely reliable. I hope they can come up with a full size SUV - strongly built, and I will buy it without blinking.

Way to go SWIFT!

[cpabhijit]

1st gen Swift diesel, my 1st car, got it in 2007. Stayed with me till 2013, clocking 90k kms. Wonderful car. Low cost of maintenance. Diesel cost was quite low then and mileage was around 15kmpl so was very cheap to drive, too.

[Gonewiththewind]

Still remember that year : 2005 when this car was launched as a new concept of Luxurious and sporty hatchback ( hatchbacks were boring at that time! ). At first It seemed that the cost of ownership for a hatchback shouldn't be that much but all my perceptions changed when I first took a ride in this car. We got ourselves a black Swift Petrol 1.3 Liters , in 2006 and what an engine it was. Rev-friendly and always ready to soar ! Sadly, we sold it in the year 2015 but the car still has so many wonderful memories till date. You're the fuel !

[amsidhu]

Congratulations and big thank you to MSIL for giving the Indian Car Market a world class product with timely and refreshing updates.

We still have a White Swift Vdi 2009 at home and we love it. Those were good old days when there were no restrictions on using Black Sun film over window panes. The White car with Tinted Glasses and thick Yokohama 195/60/15 tyres was a looker.

Add to it the DDIS engine and precise handling, it was a pleasure to take it out for local and outstation duties alike. The power delivery wasn't linear but that very kick around 2000 rpm made it so addictive to drive. Back in day it could give many expensive cars a run for their money on Highways.


Our Car has clocked around 1.75 lac kms. Sometimes back we were thinking of trading it with Brezza Zdi. But after Brezza dropped the diesel engine, we dropped the Brezza plan for time being. I am thinking of restoring the car to its Original pristine condition. Because the benefits of selling it are less than keeping it for another couple of years.