[fiat_tarun]

The biggest advantage the swift has is the maruti badge. 50% of buyers want a maruti. They don't even want to look at other brands. The swift D is good no doubt but the competition is also good enough if not better. Not everybody likes the the way the turbo spools up in the swift. Its more the younger gen. and people who enjoy driving who love it the way it is.

[DRIV3R]

Originally Posted by chncar

People who want to be snobbish should at least do it well. Maybe someone driving up in a Bentley can look down on the Indica, but drivers of 5 lakh Rs cars jeering at other 5 lakh Rs cars due to their 'image' is just lame.

IMO, this was uncalled for. Each person is entitled to an opinion, irrespective of the car he/she owns. Don't get personal.

BTW, If the vista was named just 'Vista' and not Indica Vista, the Taxi image, or perception would not have been there. Though the Vista is a great improvement over the Indica, the plastics and interiors need more improvement. They do feel cheap. TATA are masters of space management in their cars and provide great VFM.

[fiat_tarun]

Originally Posted by khoj

The Indica was, is and always will be a TAXI no matter whether you have a Quadrajet or you can bring in a Millionjet but what will you do with that TAXI image.

30-40% of the Innova's on the road are taxi's. Your statement does seem to hold credibility there.
I have seen the same statement, "indica has a taxi image and i will never buy one", in every thread where the indica is mentioned. Tata bashers keep harping on the very same thing time and again.

[Latheesh]

Originally Posted by Ajay_J

That is breaking news Latheesh. Lets not bash Swift this badly now.

Main reason is there are so many Swifts on road and its due for an upgrade. I used the word 'Homage' just because eventhough design is inspired by Cooper it has its own character.

[extreme_torque]

There are a lot of Swift beaters out there in the market if you are talking about better cars. But if sales is your only criteria, no there isnt but Figo comes the closest and is a mighty fine car for the price.

[Live To Jive]

Originally Posted by khoj

The Indica was, is and always will be a TAXI no matter whether you have a Quadrajet or you can bring in a Millionjet but what will you do with that TAXI image.
The Swift D is like an alluring Video game where the batteries just go on & on & on....

At least in Goa you see more Swift/Dzire taxis than Indica's. BTW I haven't seen a single Vista Taxi.

Originally Posted by finneyp

Beater in what sense?
If you are taking about sales nos, yes, no-one can beat Swift D.
Otherwise, there are equally if not more competent diesel hatches in the market - Punto MJD, i20 Crdi, Indica Vista Quadrajet, Figo Tdci etc.

Originally Posted by Latheesh

In terms of volume, no car can beat it just because we Indians are obsessed with Maruti.

All the cars mentioned are Swift beaters. Indeed Indians are obsessed with Maruti.

[vinaydas]

Purely sales, no one comes close to Swift in the same segment.
But if you step towards performance, swift D was never the King. The Title still is Held By The Palio

[rpmx1000]

Dudes,
I regularly used to smoke Swift Ds and Ps with my Indica Turbo (on the highway of course - where do our cities offer such scope ?) . Of course a lot depends on the drivers and his abilities too. Now I have a Fiesta Petrol. Needless to say I never even bother or give a Swift even cursory respect.Just flash a couple of times, then if he stays put, switch to the left lane, watch for two wheelers and the likes and overtake him at the earliest possible opportunity. I never really thought of the Swift D as so much of a 'performance' car as much a 'mileage' car. It too sells only cos of Maruti brand loyalty. Swift running rings around any car ? This is poetic not real stuff. I bet it would be easy to reach 150-160 even with the Figo diesel. with a driver who knows his stuff and how to work the engine.Over that, even the Swift can't do much and the boasts would only be due to speedometer error or pete's boxes . BTW, the rush of power was along similar lines on the Indica turbo too. The amount of fun I had driving that car plus happy times due to low fuel bills !
All said and done, it is very very difficult to drive fast _and_ safe. If you don't have the confidence to speed without a good car or handling abilities,
you should'nt be driving over 110 - that's my rule of thumb for a safe drive.

[HammerHead]

Originally Posted by pgsagar

There just isn't a diesel hatch which can stand up to Swift in terms of show and go. While show is subjective and cannot be measured by an instrument, acceleration and top speed can be and Swift D just leaves every other diesel Hatch in dust--the reason why it has grown from strength to strength.

i20 CRDi beats Swift D in all those parameters which you mentioned above.
If you are talking about sales figures, oh yeah there is hardly any Maruti which failed to perform sales wise. Hence Swift D is not an exception.

In spite of not featuring things like climate control, electric door mirrors, airbags, rear wiper/defogger, steering mounted controls etc. which the competition like Punto/i20 are providing, Swift is market leader. Wonder what would have Swift done if it had come with all these goodies. It would have probably wiped out all cars upto 10 lakhs.

Meanwhile Swift can equip all the above-said features in its top end version and watch all cars up to 10 lakhs disappear.

No Maruti car can wipe out any car other side of 10lacs!!! Still its a dream for them to explore segment other side of 10lacs. Think of SX4 it has all the goodies that you mentioned at 1.5 to 2lacs less then H. City and still could not wipe it out.

A friend did not buy Swift just for lack of these features. He went ahead and bought Punto E pack. He is happy with it but cribs about the fact that a Swift D can smoke it hopelessly on highway.

Interesting. I never knew this fact. Punto D owners would be in a better position to verify this fact.

[clevermax]

A friend did not buy Swift just for lack of these features. He went ahead and bought Punto E pack. He is happy with it but cribs about the fact that a Swift D can smoke it hopelessly on highway.

Originally Posted by HammerHead

Interesting. I never knew this fact. Punto D owners would be in a better position to verify this fact.

Yes, interesting. A usual Punto owner is someone who bought the car because he wanted to buy that car itself - no word of mouth or mass popularity really matters on the his/her buying decision. I think most of, if not all Punto MJD owners also know that it is not the fastest diesel hatch around.

I don't think any Punto owner will 'crib' just because a Swift D smoked him 'hopelessly' on the highway. This is too funny a statement to me. Punto drivers will be busy enjoying every bit of the drive on a highway.

Why did that dude went ahead and bought a slower car for the 'features' if getting faster on a highway to smoke other cars was so important to him and he can't tolerate a similar car smoking him on the highway?

[lifeonwheels]

When viewed from a VFM pint of view there are good competitors for the Swift in the form of Figo D and a few other cars. However, the obsession with us for Maruti products ensures that Swift D rules the sales charts. Although great to drive it's under equipped IMO.

@rpmx1000 - Now isn't that too hard to believe. Only true if the driver in Swift was a novice. I know ther was no point replying to such posts but then again if no one does how do kids learn things while growing

[sushantr5]

I had fairly good experience with Swift and Vista. No doubt Swift is better in terms of acceleration and handling but Comfort, Rattling, Space, NVH is really let down compared to Vista.
If Suzuki can manage to sell A-Star, Zen-Estilo, Ritz in respectable numbers, then Swift deserves these numbers afterall it is best looking car from Maruti Stable. Only Maruti-Suzuki name is playing a game.

We Indian people grown up with listening Maruti Suzuki all the time. Before 15 years we had no option other than Maruti. So we love listening Maruti. Go to village they deside to buy a Maruti car and then deside budget and picks their car. They dont even bother to think about any other option. I bet if Suzuki would have entered into market little late like others then I think they would have been poor performers in selling numbers.

[sonirohit]

the answer to the question asked is NO in one word - reason being - performance, maruti's name, fuel efficiency, fun to drive, price.
other cars in competetion will have at the max 3 points covered - but swift d has all these covered.
I can see another market emerge - which is a swift d (sports), and a sx4 - diesel

[clevermax]

Originally Posted by sonirohit

the answer to the question asked is NO in one word - reason being - performance, maruti's name, fuel efficiency, fun to drive, price.other cars in competetion will have at the max 3 points covered - but swift d has all these covered.
I can see another market emerge - which is a swift d (sports), and a sx4 - diesel

How can other brands cover one of these aspects - maruti's name - anyway?

These are the only things a car should be addressing? Swift D is a success majorly because Maruti sells it.

[pgsagar]

Hammerhead, i10 looks good on spec front but still it can't match Swift D in acceleration and top speed. Yes, Getz CRdi easily could. But it is history now, having priced itself out of reckoning.

Clevermax, I don't know what you find so funny about this Punto guy feeling bad about not being able to keep up with Swift D. May be you don't mind being smoked but he does. Every one is not like you. Trust me there is kid in every one of us who comes to surface once in a while and we get into these "unofficial" races once in a while. Especially with equal cars just to check out which is faster. Now a Punto guy will be stupid if he feels bad about being beaten by a Ferrari. But Swift is Punto class car and hence my friend's unhappiness. More so because both cars share same engine, he felt bad that Punto isn't as quick. That is it.

By the way, I am a Punto fan too. Din't you see the part where I said only to-be-launched Punto Sport seems capable of beating Swift D. But I hope Fiat doesn't screw things up and gives us a whimper which plays second fiddle to Swift D on highway Grand Prix again. I am also kinda bored reading in every review about every other diesel hatches' inability to beat Swift D in performance. And how Swift D has set a benchmark in performance and blah, blah, blah.... It as become too one-sided and boring. So Pleeeeeeease somebody give us a Swift D smoker. Is Fiat listening?