[.anshuman]

The biggest reason for Swift diesel's sales is the Maruti brand. If we consider Swift as a product nobody would buy it if it was sold by Fiat, Ford or Chevrolet.

Not that i hate Swift D, i have owned this car and absolutely love this car. I still recommend Swift D to friends and relatives who are more concerned with after sales support and resale value.

[PAVAN KADAM]

Originally Posted by iceman7

There was one. We called it the Getz CRDi.

+1 to what you said.

Swift is a pony when you drive the Getz CRDi.

For me Swift is always a young boys toy. Least spoken about its 4 member seating is better. A puny M-800 has more space to offer 4 occupants than the claustrophobic Swift.

I would never recommend Swift to anyone. My cousin sold off her 1 yr old Swift in exchange to a spacious Wagon-R.

Have driven the Getz CRDi, and i love it. Many will agree on this.

Swift D can never catch or match Getz CRDi in build quality nor the power of its engine.

[srishiva]

So it looks like there is no answer to the question. Hope there will be a Swift D beater. It will have to be a great hatch to do that.

[shortbread]

I dont think anyone buys a Swift D for its performance, it kind of defies logic. Although decent by diesel standards in India its advantage is really minimal compared to other cars with the same engine. At the end of the day we are talking about a 1.3 diesel small car here and not exactly a hot hatch.
In terms of practicality the Vista beats the swift hands down, although the Maruti brand and A$$ will find more favour. The Swift D is a decent small car and has the advantage of being a diesel and branded Maruti in India, but calling it unbeatable is stretching it too far.

[pgsagar]

Originally Posted by PAVAN KADAM

+1 to what you said.

Swift D can never catch or match Getz CRDi in build quality nor the power of its engine.

No one denies that. But what about present cars? The discussion is about existing cars and not about out of production cars.

By the way, I feel Hyundai killed Getz hastily. They should have cut prices, tweaked the bland looks up a bit and by virtue of its missile like pace, who knows it might have bounced back. But Hyundai was in hurry to make way for i20 and hence sacrificed Getz.

[.anshuman]

^^ I exchanged a new Swift VDi ABS for a Punto last year, Except for the quality of service i do not miss my Swift at all.

For me even the Swift with the narrow powerband was a non-performer compared to my Elantra. I never bought the Swift or Punto for outright performance.

Link to my thread; http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ms-update.html

[Deep Blue]

Originally Posted by pgsagar

He is happy with it but cribs about the fact that a Swift D can smoke it hopelessly on highway.

When will guys at Fiat realise that economy buyers buy Nanos, 800s and Altos and stretching fuel consumption for 2-3 kms more and sacrificing pick-up/top speed is a big NO. Hope Punto Sport with 90 BHP engine may change things a bit.

Your friend would be happy to know he is safer in a Punto than the Swift D.

Fiat's understanding of fuel economy must be tempered by its earlier experience with the Palio Petrol.

[KA18]

Reason why people buy swift:

"Maruti"

Some people don't have confidence in any other brands.
They care about what others think, even if it is their hard earned money, they want to spend it impress others.
They don't make analysis/comparisons or take Test rides. Many people are biased against other companies.

Some call TATA cars as Taxis. If they judge from a Taxi operator's point of view, they'll understand that he would buy a vehicle that is Sturdy, ruggged, good FE, low cost of spares, easily repairable (not depending on the ASCs), etc.,

That's why they don't go in for a Swift for their Taxis as it does not have the necessary qualities.

Nobody treats Indicas like they treat a Swift, Santro or even a M800. Treat a Indica well and she won't let you down. I have seen many examples where the Indicas are trouble free if maintained like any other car rather than abusing it.

No swift can be abused and clock as much as an Indica and still be going strong.

I agree that every car may have issues. If other cars have problems, even Maruti has them. No car is perfect.

Before I am flamed for this post, let me tell you that I am no TATA fanboy. I had owned 2 Maruti cars - Omni & 800, My brother in law has a Swift and SX4.

I strongly feel that the Indica Vista is a true Competitor to the Swift in all areas, sometimes even better. It is sad to see a good product, that too from a Indian Car manufacturer being let down by lot of Indians.

We'd rather be happy if our money is taken away by a foreign Partner. We yet have to grow out of the "phoren maal" syndrome.

If Honda can retain the Civic/City badges, Toyota the Corolla, Maruti can call a different car, the estillo as the Zen, what's wrong if TATA calls it a Indica (India+car).

No doubt the Swift is a good car, but the rest of them are not bad. Test drive other brands and judge yourself.

Or Subscribe to Team-Bhp!

[PAVAN KADAM]

Originally Posted by KA18

Reason why people buy swift:

"Maruti"

Some people don't have confidence in any other brands.
They care about what others think, even if it is their hard earned money, they want to spend it impress others.
They don't make analysis/comparisons or take Test rides. Many people are biased against other companies.

Some call TATA cars as Taxis. If they judge from a Taxi operator's point of view, they'll understand that he would buy a vehicle that is Sturdy, ruggged, good FE, low cost of spares, easily repairable (not depending on the ASCs), etc.,

That's why they don't go in for a Swift for their Taxis as it does not have the necessary qualities.

Nobody treats Indicas like they treat a Swift, Santro or even a M800. Treat a Indica well and she won't let you down. I have seen many examples where the Indicas are trouble free if maintained like any other car rather than abusing it.

No swift can be abused and clock as much as an Indica and still be going strong.

I agree that every car may have issues. If other cars have problems, even Maruti has them. No car is perfect.

Before I am flamed for this post, let me tell you that I am no TATA fanboy. I had owned 2 Maruti cars - Omni & 800, My brother in law has a Swift and SX4.

I strongly feel that the Indica Vista is a true Competitor to the Swift in all areas, sometimes even better. It is sad to see a good product, that too from a Indian Car manufacturer being let down by lot of Indians.

We'd rather be happy if our money is taken away by a foreign Partner. We yet have to grow out of the "phoren maal" syndrome.

If Honda can retain the Civic/City badges, Toyota the Corolla, Maruti can call a different car, the estillo as the Zen, what's wrong if TATA calls it a Indica (India+car).

No doubt the Swift is a good car, but the rest of them are not bad. Test drive other brands and judge yourself.

Or Subscribe to Team-Bhp!

Rightly said.

Maruti sells only because of their Service network.

But all Maruti cars are true claustrophobic tinboxes, with good engines.

The swift is designed ONLY FOR LOOKS AND PERFORMANCE. Get a family of 4/5 to travel long distances, its a terrible nightmare. Cramped, bouncy, and fragile.

I agree, the new Drivetech4 Vista is leagues ahead of the Swift in terms of performance and the space / comfort it has to offer, also the ruggedness.

For Maruti Building one VFM car like the Vista is unthinkable.

A Nano is more spacious and airy than the Swift.

There are lot of factors other than engine a car has to satisfy.

If not for the Fiat Multijet engine, Swift DDis would never have existed. Maruti Suzuki just cannot make a diesel engine. Ever remember the Zen diesel with the Accent engine.

Buy the fully loaded Vista Drivetech4 and get a pete's box/ or Get one re-mapped ECU from Race Dynamics. Final value of the Vista would still be hugely lower than the base model of a Swift DDis. and the Vista's performance will be eons ahead of the Swift DDis.

[clevermax]

Originally Posted by pgsagar

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.

Then the only question comes to mu mind is why did that friend of yours bought Punto in the first place if he didn't want to get smoked by a similar car on highway. How come extra features offered by Punto became a priority for him over having the fastest diesel hatch? May be he didn't think about all these things while buying the car, only to realize Punto D is slower than Swift D while he got smoked for first time.

Originally Posted by pgsagar

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?

I got your point now. It is all about the non-availability of a faster diesel hatch to beat Swift isn't it.

On the lighter side, Swift D being faster is just an accident I guess. An engine having decent power mated to a lighter body will obviously make a faster car

I wonder how many people in the existing Swift D customer base bought it for mere performance reasons. As everyone is writing here, the BIGGEST reason for many people to buy a Swift D is just that it is a Maruti. Can't believe it? Imagine a company like Fiat or Chevy trying to sell the exact same car.

[nurni76]

Originally Posted by .anshuman

The biggest reason for Swift diesel's sales is the Maruti brand. If we consider Swift as a product nobody would buy it if it was sold by Fiat, Ford or Chevrolet.

Not that i hate Swift D, i have owned this car and absolutely love this car. I still recommend Swift D to friends and relatives who are more concerned with after sales support and resale value.

I just can't understand why everyone just gives credit to only the Maruti Tag. Surely it is a factor, but definitely not the most important. If that were the case why have models like Baleno, A star, Estilo etc failed. They all had Maruti tags. Moreover, people buy brands and not products. Would you have bought Punto if it was made by Sonalika?

So please do give credit to other aspects of the car - performance, FE, looks, cost of ownership etc. These too play a major part in making Swift what it is

[DRIV3R]

Originally Posted by PAVAN KADAM

A Nano is more spacious and airy than the Swift.

Ever remember the Zen diesel with the Accent engine.

If you can imagine the Accent with that engine, why can't you imagine the Zen with the same?

And where from do you think the Accent got it's engine? It was from Peugeot. A little updation will do!

If not for the Fiat Multijet engine, Swift DDis would never have existed. Maruti Suzuki just cannot make a diesel engine.

And where from did the Vista get it's Quadrajet? Same case as Swift. The Vista would not have got all the attention it gets now, if it was provided with only the TDi option.

[clevermax]

Originally Posted by DRIV3R

And where from do you think the Accent got the engine from? It was from Peugeot. A little updation will do!

That's right and it is the legendary TUD5 engine. That one with Zen's lighter body made that car incredibly fast according the standards those days.

Only issue with that engine is its irritating loud diesel clatter - it sounds like a boat engine.

Our old Zen-D's engine is currently running trouble free in the 12th year of its faithful service, thanks goes to Peugeot and not to Maruti Suzuki who doesn't still know how to make an oil burner.

[sonirohit]

Originally Posted by clevermax

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.

well - the reason why maruti brand is valued -
a - Terrific A.S.S. network - only comparable A.S.S. network is tatas.
b - Image attached to their A.S.S that the services are cheaper.

My neighbor once wanted to buy a hatch. The shortlisted contenders were punto & ritz. The only reason he opted for maruti was the perception that punto is fiat - and fiat still carries the premier padmini tag, and as a stop gap arrangement tata is servicing these vehicles, whereas maruti is here to stay.
These are the thoughts of most of the junta who buys hatch (read middle or cattle err class)

[blackstallion76]

Exactly 18months back I had similar thoughts going in my mind. Compared to Swift, what next. Indica Vista & Punto came very close.
But, at the end of the day I decided on Swift Diesel. No regrets with all the rattling.

Because of following:
Good FE, Resale Value, M.A.S.S and a good looking car which is custom made for modifications. After 3-4yrs, resale and buy a better car in the market.

Each car has pros and cons depending on individual. Things are changing in Diesel segment in last few months.
Moreover it is the Indian mentality to buy which sells the most & durable.
As most people mentioned, very few buy the car for performance.