When a new Maruti scores 5 stars, a Maruti showroom is near your college, your college leaves you earlier than usual, and you're a car enthusiast, I don't see why you wouldn't drop by to take a look at the car in question! The car in question, ladies and gentlemen, is the new Dzire. Sure, the 5-star safety rating is the big headline here, but for us enthusiasts, a new car = excitement anyway

. It is this excitement that took me to the Maruti showroom near Fort, Mumbai to check out the hotly discussed Maruti Dzire. Here are my first impressions of the 2025 Maruti Dzire ZXI+....
Wait a minute.
What am I doing in the Honda Amaze thread? Good question. You see, very rarely does it happen that the next generation models of two well established nameplates are launched hot on the heels of each other. While the new Dzire is a brilliant improvement over the outgoing car, the new Amaze is arguably the most "complete" product in Honda's lineup. If there is a car that can actually pose a challenge to the Dzire, it is the Amaze (not in sales terms of course). Obviously then, I couldn't resist visiting Arya Honda, Prabhadevi the very next day to see how the most affordable ADAS equipped car in India, the all-new Amaze, stacks up against India's best selling sedan!
Do note, I didn't drive either car as I got my driving license recently and didn't want to risk driving brand new cars, so this report doesn't contain driving impressions. And if this helps, we have a 2022 Honda City ZX MT in the garage. Anyway, on with it:
Maruti Dzire ZXI+:
- The 4th-gen Dzire is easily the best looking Dzire ever. Those clean lines lend it a timeless and be'audi'ful look! I can't comment on the effectiveness of the reflector type LED lights, but they sure tick the box when it comes to 'form'.
- The overall proportions are good for a compact sedan except the rear end looks that chopped off. The taillight design is reminiscent of various cars like the Grand i10 Nios, Kylaq, Virtus, XUV700 all at once. Nevertheless, this is a good-looking car. Nice to see four parking sensors in an age where OEMs show 'kanjoosi' (stinginess) and offer only two:
- This is a rare Maruti that has many panel gaps -
the other one being the Swift. Panel gaps are surprisingly inconsistent:
- The front wheel well gets full cladding, while the rear gets partial cladding.
- Missed clicking the wheels, but I remember the size = 185/65 R15.
- Yes, the Dzire gets a sunroof, but it is too small - dare I say, almost useless. Is a small sunroof better that having no sunroof at all? No, I don't think so.
- The boot is the smallest in the segment at 382L. It does get a boot light. Also, the underside of the boot is exposed. Not nice:
- The doors felt slightly heavier that the other Marutis on sale, although to be honest, I do think that the NCAP rating was playing on my mind when I was judging the heft.
- The Dzire is fairly spacious. For reference, I'm a 5'8'' tall 18-year-old with a lean build. Excellent legroom and kneeroom on offer, but the under thigh support is lacking. The headroom is good enough for a sedan, and it's definitely better than our Honda City. I had about 4-5 inches of headroom to spare in the Dzire.
- The headrests are adjustable, but a centre headrest is not provided. Also, the floor hump will come in the way of the centre passenger, resulting in a relatively knees-up position. What comes as a relief is the seat foam that extends all the way to the ends, which means shoulder room would be adequate:
- The rear AC vents are too small, placed too low, and raked at an angle too high. I doubt how effective they will be. The central tunnel doesn't
look intrusive in this image, but a knees-up position is somehow achieved:
- Two reading lights are provided at the back, both of which are positioned beside the grab handles. The grab handles are spring loaded and damped.
- The seat belts aren't adjustable for height. Also, this part felt very flimsy:
- Here's the cabin of the new Dzire. I must say, the quality of materials, textures and layers on the dashboard are quite good and well executed. The plastics on the dash don't have that 'typical Maruti feel' to them'. Overall part quality is satisfactory and the cabin looks upmarket. No auto-dimming IRVM here:
- A look at the centre console. A driver armrest is a stupid exclusion in an otherwise sorted cabin:
- Love the instrument cluster and those sexy needles! This analogue unit is such a breath of fresh air in a sea of half-baked digital dials. Only issue = those ugly stalks that literally stick out like a sore thumb:
- Headroom in the front is alright. The sunroof does eat into some of it.
- The front seats are on the narrow side. Seat fabric quality felt decent.
- The front doorpads have a fabric padding to rest your arm on, but none for the rear doors. Strange:
- Overall ergonomics are spot on. The footwell area and the placement of the pedals is natural; however, a proper dead pedal is missed in the MT variant.
- The glovebox is fairly sized. It is neither cooled or damped:
Honda Amaze ZX:
- The design of the Honda Amaze is a mixed bag for me. I can see the elements of a great design in there, but they don't come together cohesively. The grill is too big for a compact sedan; it should've been trimmed down height-wise. Love the LED projector headlights though, and the integrated LED indicators. Front fascia screams Elevate:
- While the overall proportions are fine, the chopped ends spoil the look IMO. Can't really complain much as this is in the sub-4m segment after all:
- Front and rear ends look like they were actually chopped off:
- This is an interesting design detail = is it to give the car a more 'swooping' look from the side? The Verna has a similar design detail, although it is much more exaggerated which accentuates its 'wannabe coupe' look.
- The rear end looks unnecessarily similar to the City, but in person it is not easy to mistake the Amaze for the City thanks to the overall proportions, unless you're a total automotive noob that is. Only two parking sensors at the rear; the Dzire gets four:
- Nice to see a request sensor on the passenger door too, something that the Dzire also gets:
- This is the camera for the much-talked about ADAS. The Amaze is the most affordable car with ADAS in India. Pardon the reflections in the image:
- The ORVMs of the Amaze have now been repositioned to the doors instead of the A-pillar, just like in the City. Notice the lane-watch camera. On the other hand, the Dzire goes one-up on the Amaze with a 360-degree camera.
- The showroom car was shod with Goodyear Assurance Triple Max 2 tyres. Size = 185/60 R15 on the top trims; the diameter of the wheels is slightly smaller than the Dzire's. As far as I can tell, the alloys are the machine-cut version of the wheels that came in the V variant of the pre-facelift City. Fun fact: the pre-facelift Indonesian-spec City also had the same machine-cut alloys:
- Front wheel well gets partial cladding, while the rear gets none at all. Too bad, considering the Dzire offers full cladding at the front and partial cladding at the rear:
- Here's another interesting design detail I found in front of the front wheel. This vent leads to... a hole to the ground?!
- The Amaze has a big boot at 416L, second only to the Tigor and that too by 3L. It is definitely bigger than the Dzire not only from the spec sheet standpoint, but also from a practical standpoint. The loading lip is low in both cars. Also, the underside of boot is fully concealed, unlike the exposed one in the Maruti. Good touch!
- The spare wheel is a space saver steelie. Spare wheel is weirdly an MRF ZVTV (weird because this vehicle was shod with Goodyears), and the size if 175/70 R14. Notice how this area isn't painted properly:
Continued below...