Team-BHP - Review: 2nd-gen Maruti Swift (2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by fiestarry (Post 2768699)

The Swift is a car that sells; that in my opinion is the only USP of the car. This and the Maruti name will ensure a higher resale value.

That is an interesting perspective you have. As an owner, I can assure you that one does not buy a car just because 100's of others are picking it. People pick it because others have overall good ownership experience. We have test driven/seen in person all hatchback top end Models; Jazz, Micra, Polo, Fabia, Punto, i20/i10, Liva, Beat, Swift. Fabia ruled out due to expensive Maintenance experience with Octavia

Jazz will be the option if we were to get a petrol car.

Now coming to diesels, we realized that even though we are spending more amount for the Swift along with the painful waiting period, none of the cars ticked all the Major boxes. My rating for cars

Interior: Swift, i20, Polo/Beat/Micra, Liva/Punto
Exterior: Swift/i20/Polo, Punto/Beat, Micra/Liva,. We did not consider Figo at all for its dated looks (neither is it classic look). It reminded me of Fusion
Drive: Swift/Punto/Micra, i20/Beat/Polo, Did not even want a test drive of Liva after sitting in the car
Maintenance: Swift heard lot of good experiences. My first and second service of Swift is cheaper than my Bullet. i20 we have Verna in Family so will not touch expensive Hyundai service for some time. Punto dad ruled out outright. We were leaning towards Micra if it is going to be second Hatch

Small Boot in Swift is easily sufficient for 2 weeks of Grocery Shopping. And Can carry bags for 4 people for 3-4 day trip comfortably. A 60:40 Split seat would have been really good option to cover for the small boot.

Overall Swift is one car which will be Top 3 of the list for many people. The delivery period was it Achilles Heel. Once that is rectified, Maruti will sell a lot more.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fuel_addict (Post 2766568)

Try pre-selecting the recirc. mode before you hit the Auto button. The Auto mode will not cancel even if you manually toggle the fresh and recirc. modes. The system is same in my Altis too.

The only difference I see in the Swift's ACC is that the blower does not start off at max speed when you hit the auto button even when the car is parked in the sun. The ACC in my Altis and older Swift ZXi both would start off at full blower speed and gradually reduce as the cabin cooled. Not in the new Swift. It has a funny habit of starting at 50% (even if ACC preset temp and outside temp are 15C apart) and dropping down when the temp. drops.

I think the blower select and recirculation mode buttons are independent of the ACC. I can change these settings even with AC switched off, and ACC has never changed any of these settings for me yet.

Yesterday, I too noticed the blower starting in half speed when I turned on the ACC after the car was parked in hot sun for an hour and inside temp set to 23. But if you further reduce the temperature to "Lo", the blower goes full blast.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fiestarry (Post 2768699)

The Swift is a car that sells; that in my opinion is the only USP of the car. This and the Maruti name will ensure a higher resale value.
This fact apart, the Swift is a poor performer on virtually every front compared to its competitors. It has a petrol engine that is so lethargic that it ranks 149th in the Autocar 0-100 km timings. Can you believe it. 149th. A time of some 14.5 seconds. Even the Chevy UVA which is considered slow is quicker.
The Swift has a smaller boot, cramped rear seats, and poor visibility for short drivers.
Talking of the Diesel, The Figo diesel is in different class when it comes to driveability. It has no turbo lag and is a refined engine. It has no pretensions to be the King of the Highways and quite rightly so. No midsized hatch should. The Renault diesel in the Micra and the Pulse is terrific for driving as well. Coming to the Swift, its diesel is nice but has irritating turbo lag that even recently graduated from Amby Dsl drivers complain of having to slip the clutch often.
Talking of highway driving how many times does a normal ( not petrolhead) user traverse the highways. And if he does is the 120 kph, that the far better equipped Figo ,comfortably cruises at not enough. Does anyone want to commit harakiri speeding on a Swift which has the poorest brakes in the segment.
Like I said in my opening line, the only reason you may buy the Swift is becos others buy it.

I can give you my perspective of why I chose swift over the others. My main requirement was a fun to drive diesel which is responsive in the city as well as highways. I didn't care about the boot as long as it could carry a couple of duffel bags. Heck, I could throw some stuff at the rear seats as well. 90% of the time, there will be 1-2 people inside the car, so rear seats are rarely used. I feel visibility to be good, since I am not short, at least by indian standards. You can adjust the seat height if you are too short.

Coming to the engine, as GTO pointed out in his review, swift still has the best application of our national engine. If you drive keeping the rpms above the turbo zone, you can smoke a figo diesel any day. I test drove the figo diesel, and the power it offered did not strike a chord for me. Out of the 5000 kms I did in the car, atleast 4000 are highway clicks, and I'm sure only the punto-90hp can outclass a swift in the highway, in this segment. I've had some :Shockked: moments in the highway and the zwift brakes were confidence inspiring. (I'm talking about ZDi). Equipment wise, ZDi has more to offer than titanium.

Agreed I paid more compared to Figo, but it strikes the chord at the right places most of the time :) (I miss the bluetooth feature sorely.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by AWD (Post 2769827)

In case someone is finalizing on a Swift diesel, which variant makes the most sense, is Zdi worth the extra money...?

ABS & wider rubber are important feature that sways me in favour of Zdi but its almost a 1lakh premium over Vdi. What other features are worth it in the Zdi?

It is definitely worth the extra money. The biggest among the plus are airbags and ABS which you cannot put a price to.

In addition to these you also get:

Fatter rubber
5 alloy wheels
Audio system ( great for a OEM)
Steering audio control
Climate control
Brake assist (There have been reports of l/v variants having poor brakes)

The only negative with ZDi is the increased waiting period. If you are willing to wait, and can stretch to get the ZDi, its the one you should book.

Quote:

Originally Posted by funkyp (Post 2769840)

If that so, swift Zdi in Bangalore cost 8.31L & igen i20 costs 8.59L. For 30K more, you get the following additions in igen i20 against swift ZDi :
Electrochromic (autodarkening) inside rearview mirrors with park assist camera in it, Rain sensing wipers, Bluetooth connectivity, telescopic steering, auto folding rear view mirror, six speed transmission & two tone interiors looks luxurious. It has additional 15horses with 22kmpl arai mileage.

But ZDi scores over igen i20 on passenger side airbag, sporty drive and handling & most important is cheap maintenance.

I am still confused between two and again Figo comes over between these two for good VFM.

Quote:

Originally Posted by funkyp (Post 2769840)

worth the extra money. biggest among the plus are airbags and ABS
Audio system ( great for a OEM)
Brake assist (There have been reports of l/v variants having poor brakes)
The only negative with ZDi is the increased waiting period

Thanks a lot for a very direct reply, clears a lot of points. Please tell me more about the OEM Audio system because I have a bad experience with OE ICE on my Corolla. Also about the poor brakes on L/Vdi, how bad are they actually...?

Im all for ABS & Airbags but would have loved these features as an option on Vdi if not standard, for about 20-30k more. Paying a lakh extra for these important features looks steep.

Actually Im facing a different dilemma here, my Zdi has already arrived at the dealership. Now this is going to cost me ~7.5L on road & if I add another ~ 3-4L, I can get an Innova(base G with AC, PS, PW, CL). Im kind off stuck between the two, which to choose!

I know Swift would give me more mileage & Innova more comfort. Im suffering from back problem & find the Innovas driver seat perfect for my condition, the ingress/egress is to my liking too. Though I won't require more than 4-5 seats. I can stretch to Innova middle variant too(one less than top V)

Quote:

Originally Posted by AWD (Post 2769967)

Actually Im facing a different dilemma here, my Zdi has already arrived at the dealership. Now this is going to cost me ~7.5L on road & if I add another ~ 3-4L, I can get an Innova(base G with AC, PS, PW, CL). Im kind off stuck between the two, which to choose!

I know Swift would give me more mileage & Innova more comfort. Im suffering from back problem & find the Innovas driver seat perfect for my condition, the ingress/egress is to my liking too. Though I won't require more than 4-5 seats. I can stretch to Innova middle variant too(one less than top V)

Swift & Innova cannot be compared, they are in different segments and different type of cars althogther.
Also getting Innova is like exceeding the budget by more than 50%.
And considering your back pain problem you have lot of better options at a lesser price, take time and explore for what suits you best.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HighOctane (Post 2769898)

I'm sure the i20 also has passenger side airbag. The Asta variant surely will if not the Magna/Sportz. IIRC, there is also the option to turn off the passenger airbag in the i20. Not very sure about this. Features-wise, the i20 blows the Swift away. The only negatives are poor handling, less FTD factor and higher maintenance costs going by few ownership reviews. The i20 as a package would have been fantastic if there was no Swift to challenge it. 8.31L for ZDi is very steep. 8.59L for i20 I guess is for the Magna variant? I expected the Asta to be 9+ in Bangalore going by the way cars are priced there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AWD (Post 2769986)

I know but its like that for me! What other options do we have...? I won't consider Scorpio, Xylo, Bolero, Safari, etc.

Saw plenty of other cars but finally kept it between Swift & Innova.

Why not consider the Ertiga if you are willing to wait for few more months? You will have to stretch your budget from the Swift but not as much as the Innova. Swift to Innova is like no comparison. Size and price wise, they are poles apart. The Ertiga comes somewhere in the middle.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AWD (Post 2769967)

AWD, the cars that you are comparing have completely different targets. We own both of them. Given a chance we take Swift first. Innova is easy to drive like a car but you will have parking issues if you are in any of the major cities. Mileage of Swift is more than 60%. Maintenance costs of both the cars are not an issue. If you really have seroius ingress problem in Swift, then you can consider Innova. Both the cars offer good back support. For your requirement of 4-5 seats, Swift is a good buy

Zdi is totally worth the extra dough over VDi. VDi feels pricey for the Features it offers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by geeash (Post 2770062)

Finally my car has arrived in the yard !!. The SA said they will do a PDI yesterday and i will be seeing the car tomorrow to do my own PDI. and then send the car for registration on thursday and probably get the car on friday.

Paid all the margin money and finished delivering the loan amount yesterday.

Had a shocker when dealer told me that it is mandatory to get insurance from the dealer the first time. Had a big fight there and dealer backed off when i said " give me a letter from MSIL that there is such a rule". planning to take future generali insurance for my car which has given me a quote of nearly 2k less. Boy i am so excited

Congrats Man. Also do check with Royal Sundaram I was offered a quote with 35% discount from what Maruti was quoting. (13k quote vs 20k)

Quote:

Originally Posted by HighOctane (Post 2769898)

Features wise i20 look promising. But how often will you be using these. (i am personally not a fan of making calls while driving). Mileage wise both will give you similar numbers. Both are worthy competitors.
In one car you will feel like going on and on while in another you will be just waiting for the destination to arrive. Choose you car based on what you will using the most.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SPARKled (Post 2768675)

No I will not agree with you when you say that dynamics are equally good. There really is a considerable difference in favor of the Figo. Engine wise yes, I will give the swift gets a nod especially on the highway, but in the city the Figo gets my nod. Running costs? I did not understand this point. Yes surely the Swift wins in resale but that is years down the line and really is it so important in this comparison? I have seen good resale value for Ford Fiesta diesels.

I think we agree to disagree on the dynamics bit. I really dont agree that it is different.

Living in Navi Mumbai just like you, it's highways all around! I go to work in Andheri but thats all highways as well! The swift is on its own here. Why wouldn't I prefer the Swift. More importantly, when you want to put your money in a car, you will have to weigh the pros and cons. Trading turbo lag for overall satisfaction, better drive, performance and peace of mind is something that I am definitely okay with.

Running costs simply means cost of maintenance, service costs etc etc. I hope you agree that this is definitely cheaper for the swift than the Figo.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fiestarry (Post 2768699)

The Swift is a car that sells; that in my opinion is the only USP of the car. This and the Maruti name will ensure a higher resale value.
.........
Like I said in my opening line, the only reason you may buy the Swift is becos others buy it.

Disagree on all fronts. If you are talking of herd mentality here, then you are at the wrong place. I believe everyone here has enough maturity to distinguish between a good car and a not so good one. The entire package that Maruti offers is eons ahead than what any of the other manufacturers can offer. But that doesn't mean that the customers do not understand what they are buying and can be fooled into buying a dud. SX4 is an example.