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Old 24th July 2021, 08:40   #31
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Re: My tryst with the Maruti Ritz

I always loved the Ritz for the package it offered. The facelift Z variant with the spoiler and rear wiper didn't look so bad. I wanted to pick up a Ritz ZDi in 2015 but it was about to get discontinued and the dealers kept pushing me for a VDi. When I bought a used Figo, I only managed to find 2 ZDis in MH for sale. One of them was flood affected and the other one meter tampered. I had to let go off it yet again. I find this ignis equally good. Ritz was practical, well built and most importantly a proper family hatchback unlike the overrated Swift.
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Old 24th July 2021, 08:40   #32
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Re: My tryst with the Maruti Ritz

@Vigsom, nice write-up there. The Ritz, like the A-Star was a competent car from the Maruti stable. Though Swift & Dzire are very popular, I thought the prev two were the best, as with the S-Cross.

The rear of the Ritz is what has put me off - but looking at the pics again now, I think it was the extra large rear lamps. If that had been toned down, things would have been different.

Hope your friend's Ritz is back to it's normal self.
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Old 24th July 2021, 09:05   #33
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Re: My tryst with the Maruti Ritz

Quote:
Originally Posted by vigsom View Post
.....The Maruti Ritz was a practical alternative to the Swift in its time, and these posts are my small way of acknowledging the many virtues of this unsung hero.
.....
Nice ode to an unsung gem from Maruti stable
Enjoyed reading every bit of it.

I too have a soft corner for Ritz. I learned driving in a Ritz (diesel) back in 2015. After getting my license, I hired a Ritz from Zoom (it was a Zdi) for my first highway trip. The car was flawless throughout the trip, it was soothing to my newbie-nerves. Soon after, in early 2016, when I was hunting for my first car, my first option was pre-owned Ritz. But I could never find one. Plenty of Swifts (most of them rattled badly) but not a single Ritz (neither petrol nor diesel). Even used car dealers were bemused when they saw me prefer Ritz over Swift. Anyway, I ended up buying a new Zest in 2016. During my commutes in the city, I often see the Ritz I learned driving, being used by the same driving school even now. Always brings a smile to my face.

Last week, my neighbor sold his 9 year old Ritz Vxi (running perfectly fine) saying that he is upgrading to a new car. Few days back, I saw a new current gen Swift in his parking lot. I couldn't help but think that it will feel like a downgrade in a year or two's time.

Last edited by srvm : 24th July 2021 at 09:07.
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Old 24th July 2021, 09:17   #34
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Re: My tryst with the Maruti Ritz

Quote:
Originally Posted by swiftvxi06 View Post
The same car was rebadged and sold as Opel Agila in European markets and as Vauxhall Agila in UK.

Neither Suzuki nor MSIL now a days design cars which makes them stand out from the rest
Thank You, @swiftvxi06. The old WagonR and the Ritz being rebadged Agilas is news to me.

On the design part, I think MSIL understood that their designs weren't catchy like Hyundais and Hondas, and so decided to design better looking ones, starting with the Ciaz, then Brezza, even the 2017Dzire.

Quote:
Originally Posted by RaceHorse View Post
This was the first car which I booked as a Taxi, to ferry me from Pune to Mumbai , the guy at the wheel was driving it madly in a pot pouring rain, but the car was stable at speeds above 100kmph.

Immediately after returning to my home town, first thing we did was to exchange our old Santro and book Ritz Vdi. It served us for 10years without any issue.
Wow, @RaceHorse. This is the first time I've seen someone make a purchase decision based on one helluva ride. On another note, a ride like what you had in pouring rain would give a better perspective than a short TD in normal weather.

Quote:
Originally Posted by amitayu View Post
had a Ritz VXI from 2012-2019; truly multi-purpose in nature
Thank You, @amitayu. The Ritz was indeed a multipurpose car.

Quote:
Originally Posted by shrinz.vivek View Post
Ritz VDI was my 2nd car after a bare bones Santro (Non A/C manual steering). We were able to accommodate 5 big bags with 10days luggage for 5 adults on our south India trip. Some skillful packing and compact military supply bags did the trick perhaps.It ran on factory clutch till 120k kms
Thank You, @shrinz.vivek. Stock clutch till 120k and maybe longer is again, a record. Agree with your views on boot adequacy. It is deep, has the 60:40 capability too, and yes, in compact boots, skilful packing helps.

Quote:
Originally Posted by asbshyam View Post
the Polarizing rear, I guess Maruti never thought of this as a problem.can' find a used automatic Ritz in Chennai right now
Thank You, @asbshyam. I feel since Marutis were exporting this car, they didn't do much to address domestic requirements of design changes.

On the Ritz AT, it's extremely tough to find one. But be warned that the FE will be rather low. The A-Star AT returns only 10-10.5kmpl in the city, but the gear box is trouble free.

Quote:
Originally Posted by kkunal.shah View Post
Well Ritz vxi was my first car, kept it for 12 years & 1.5Lac kms
Thank You, @kkunal.shah. Well used car, I'd say, and one of those few petrol hatches that I've seen with such a high odo reading.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ajay.singh.83 View Post
exchanged my 2007 Swift ZXi, after 1.23lac kms, with the last batch of Ritz ZXi manufactured in Jan 2016
Joy of life indeed, @ajay.singh.83. your car looks best without any of the wrap, and the LED fogs look class.

Quote:
Originally Posted by headbanger View Post
The success of Ritz lies in finding the number of unsatisfied customers. I have found none till date of such folks; have a 10 year old Vxi model that has run around 1.7L I have spent approx 50paisa per km for my Ritz till date for services
Thank You for those stats, @headbanger; another 1.5 lac plus example. The maintenance cost per km is a revelation. I however calculate my costs including every penny that I've spent - on fuel, maintenance, insurance and so on. The numbers then begin to give heart attacks.

Quote:
Originally Posted by landcruiser123 View Post
Two neighbors who owned the car - a diesel (with 1.3 lakhs km in 2017) and petrol (with 1.1 lakhs km in 2017) never had a single rattle despite driving on notorious Bangalore roads.

If I needed a cheap city runabout today, I'd snap up a Ritz with a jiffy - love the tall boy design and I'm one of the few who like the boot.
There you go, @landcruiser123. Two more cars over 1 lac kms that bore the brunt of Indian roads.

Quote:
Originally Posted by asit.kulkarni93 View Post
I find this ignis equally good. Ritz was practical, well built and most importantly a proper family hatchback.
Thank You, @asit.kulkarni93. I am sure if you'd picked up the Ritz ZDi, you'd have still been using that. As you said, it's a very practical family hatchback. When my friend in Mumbai was examining options a few months ago, he came across a 2010 Ritz ZXi that had done just 10,000km. But the car demanded a few jobs, so he wasn't confident of going ahead. Plus the car was 11.

Quote:
Originally Posted by condor View Post
The Ritz, like the A-Star was a competent car from the Maruti stable, as with the S-Cross.

Hope your friend's Ritz is back to it's normal self.
Thank You, @condor. I think the threesome you've just mentioned are competent because they're built for overseas. Right?

Yes, Little Red Riding Hood is going fine.

Quote:
Originally Posted by srvm View Post
Anyway, I ended up buying a new Zest in 2016.

Last week, my neighbor sold his 9 year old Ritz Vxi (running perfectly fine) saying that he is upgrading to a new car. Few days back, I saw a new current gen Swift in his parking lot
Thank You @srvm. The Zest is my favourite car from the Tata stable after the Safari Storme. I'd ridden in a Zest cab just once, in 2017, and was bowled by its solid build, great back seat and overall NVH.

With most cars, the itch to upgrade sets in, and 9 is a good life to let go of a car, but yes, one will always yearn to see one's old faithful car a few months after one has parted with it. Reason - the new one never touches one's heart as much.

Last edited by vigsom : 24th July 2021 at 09:34. Reason: multi quotes
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Old 24th July 2021, 09:22   #35
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Re: My tryst with the Maruti Ritz

I still remember the time when I read, in a magazine - prolly WhatCar?, about the name change from Splash to Ritz, and wondering why on earth anyone would come up with “Ritz”.
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Old 24th July 2021, 09:36   #36
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Re: My tryst with the Maruti Ritz

Quote:
Originally Posted by vigsom View Post

Thank You for those stats, @headbanger; another 1.5 lac plus example. The maintenance cost per km is a revelation. I however calculate my costs including every penny that I've spent - on fuel, maintenance, insurance and so on. The numbers then begin to give heart attacks.
Even if I do Maintenance + Tires + Insurance, the total cost will be roughly 1INR per km. And Ritz has been on XM2s for last couple of times. My car runs 70:30 highway to city ratio and at a conservative estimate, I can't think of anything less than 14kmpl.

So every year, I spend 4k/2.5k on major/minor service, fill the fuel and I am good for another 10k. The last XM2 gave me more than a lac kms and I had to replace to newer XM2s due to road noise only.

The point that I am trying to make is that it's very frugal. It has its share of shortcomings but all said and done, the pluses far outweigh the negatives. The spiritual successor to Ritz in my understanding is Ertiga/XL6. That car is also difficult to emulate at the given price point.

Last edited by headbanger : 24th July 2021 at 09:40.
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Old 24th July 2021, 09:43   #37
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Re: My tryst with the Maruti Ritz

My first car which I brought in 2010 with my savings and 11 years later I have not regretted buying it. I had relied solely on team bhp first review of Ritz and went ahead to buy it without even proper test drive.
Still running on stock clutch at 130000 kms and gives good fuel economy in the range of 16-19 kmpl in mixed driving conditions.
An underrated car which is still known for its sheer practicality, excellent front seat & the ergonomics, good & reliable engines (K1.2 and DDIS 1.3) , good handling (with 185/70 tyre size), good fuel economy and reliability factor .
I don't think we will see such an amazing tall boy diesel hatchback in future from maruti suzuki stable.
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Old 25th July 2021, 12:08   #38
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Re: My tryst with the Maruti Ritz

In 2010, sometime around March, we needed a second car as I was in a different city and Dad was at home. We drove down to the Maruti showroom with a desire to pick up a Swift. Myself, my brother and parents as well as my Mama (who sadly passed away last year) went ahead checking the Swift. In a corner, we saw another car, the Ritz standing tall. We all checked it out and it was decided immediately and unanimously that this is the car we have to buy. We found it to be a very practical car and much better than Swift in any respect except maybe the design as it was not liked by many people. But we were quite comfortable with its design.

I would rate Ritz as the best built car by Maruti in India, S-Cross and Brezza come later. It was taut and nimble. Our VXi was delivered on 14th April 2010 and it stayed with us till 14th September 2018. Ours was the one without the VVT engine. That purring sound from exhaust which would turn into a mild growl on redlining always brought a smile on face. You could drive it through the waterlogged roads without batting an eyelid. It was hugely practical too. The car was super efficient, with always giving an average of over 17kmpl in Gurgaon. The best mileage achieved was 22+ on a long drive. Sadly, no car from Maruti's stable comes close to it right now in overall performance. We would have held on to it for longer had it been ZXi.

My tryst with the Maruti Ritz-img_20210725_120239.jpg

My tryst with the Maruti Ritz-img_20210725_120228.jpg

My tryst with the Maruti Ritz-img_20210725_120253.jpg

My tryst with the Maruti Ritz-img_20210725_120309.jpg

My tryst with the Maruti Ritz-04082011979.jpg

My tryst with the Maruti Ritz-03082011977.jpg


The Ritz made way for the S-Cross in September 2018.
My tryst with the Maruti Ritz-img20210724wa0005.jpg

Last edited by BoneCollector : 25th July 2021 at 12:22.
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Old 25th July 2021, 23:31   #39
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Re: My tryst with the Maruti Ritz

As usual, an excellent thread.

My first diesel was a Ritz LDi.
Was used as a beater up until it clocked 2.5 lac kilometres, at which point the gearbox gave up and we had to let it go.

For some reason, it felt more a bit more stable and sorted at highway speeds compared to the Swift LDi we had then.

Maruti really had a great lineup back then.
Hope they improve on quality and safety.
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Old 26th July 2021, 21:51   #40
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Re: My tryst with the Maruti Ritz

I often wonder why Maruti stopped manufacturing the Ritz. I have a VDI trim from 2012, and it has taken me across states, mountains, forests, on roads and on dirt tracks. I have enjoyed marathon long-distance rides because of the comfortable driver and front passenger seats. It is also a car that is neither too small (to be ignored on the road) or too large (to find it difficult on the city roads.

Whenever I hear a story about Maruti relaunching its earlier models, I always hope that it will reintroduce Ritz, so that I can move from my present one to the new one. My car has done more than 106,000 km.
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Old 27th July 2021, 09:07   #41
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Re: My tryst with the Maruti Ritz

Quote:
Originally Posted by ChocoRitz View Post
I often wonder why Maruti stopped manufacturing the Ritz.
Ritz had most of its parts in common with Swift/Dzire (Engine being the main one) and was competing with Swift for both - Value conscious clients as well as production capacity.

Maruti at that point was making huge profits on Swift/Dzire combo and had a long waiting list due to the same. The lower profit margins on Ritz compared to Swift/Dzire combo made them ditch this one. The month numbers for Ritz were good, not bad at all to be honest. But it was simply about optimizing their profits.

Ritz was and still remains more VFM product compared to Swift. I was desperately looking for a well maintained one when I bought my first used car. But couldn't find good examples. Except for boot space, everything about Ritz was good according to me.
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Old 2nd August 2021, 18:53   #42
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Re: My tryst with the Maruti Ritz

Boy...i can so much relate to this Thread and echo everyone's thoughts. Here's my Handsome Tall Boy...2012 Ritz VDi Refreshed model. Still going Strong at 1.04L Kms. Would have easily crossed 1.2L by now, if not for Covid. Solidly built with no rattles and no major maintenance costs as such. Just have had to replace the Suspension Bush Rods a couple of times due to Squeaking Noise. Am contemplating my next Car Upgrade next year and it will be a tough time letting it go. It truly lives up to its Tagline - "Joy Inside".
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