[blue_pulsar]

Car: Maruti Suzuki Ritz
Variant: VDi
Fuel: Diesel
Color: Glistening Grey





Decision:
I previously owned a used Hyundai i10 that I had bought about 8 months back. I was somehow not very happy with the car because of few reasons. Firstly, it ran on petrol and petrol prices were going through the roof. Secondly, it wasn’t giving good FE in the city. The maximum FE it gave me in the city was 11.7 and on an average, around 10.5. On the highways though, it delivered an excellent FE of around 18-19. Thirdly, I was not happy with its ride and handling.

Two days before the petrol price hike happened, there was some news on a local TV regarding a Rs. 8 hike on petrol. That was the final nail in the coffin. The decision was made that evening. I was going to sell my i10 and buy a diesel hatch.



Requirements:
My requirements were very simple.

1. It had to be a diesel hatch.
2. It had to be cheap. I’m looking for a big investment and this is not the time to spend big bucks on a car.
3. It had to be readily available. I wasn’t willing to wait.
4. I decided to do without ABS and airbags for the time being. My i10 didn’t have them anyways. A petrol hike meant I would be taking my trusty old Pulsar to office on majority of the days. So, a diesel hatch without ABS/airbags is comparatively safer.
5. Wanted a tried and tested formula.

My mind began to think of the options.

1. Maruti Swift: I love this car but ruled out because of its waiting period and the price. At ~7.35L for the VDi, it is not VFM anymore. Plus it doesn’t have stereo/speakers etc which meant I had to spend another 15K on it.
2. Fiat Grande Punto: Good looking hatch. Ruled out this time around because I wasn’t willing to experiment with my money.
3. Chevrolet Beat: It is a funky and youthful hatch. Ruled it out ‘just’ because it had a 3-cylinder version of the MJD. It would have been a strong contender if it had a 1248cc MJD at that price.
4. Volkswagen Polo: IMO, this is the best looking hatch that is currently in production in India. Ruled out because it has a 3-cylinder engine and it is not VFM at that price.
5. Hyundai i20: The new i20 looks chic but is way too expensive. I’d be paying for features I never need. Era would have been a strong contender if it had offered rear power windows and was priced 50K cheaper.
6. Ford Figo: Sorry Ford, this car looks at least a couple of generations old. It is known for its amazing handling capabilities. At that price, it is real VFM. Only if Ford had made it a little modern looking. (OT - I just love the looks of the Ka. Why can’t Ford get it here?)
7. Tata Indica: This option was ruled out as fast as it came to my mind. Sorry to all Indica lovers, I do not like a Tata.
8. Maruti Ritz: This is always a second option for people who visit the Maruti showroom. Swift is and always be the first preference because of its personality, charisma, handling etc. But one look at the price list and you begin to realize how VFM (relative to other cars) this machine is. At 6.68L OTR, it costs almost 70K lesser than the Swift, for the VDi variant. Right now, I am in a situation where those 70K matter to me.

Just one thing was bothering me at this point. The new Ritz was around the corner. Fortunately, Suzuki had released the Japanese Splash version by then (at least the pictures). There were minimal exterior changes. No changes to the interior; just minor changes to the front, probably to qualify for enhanced pedestrian safety norms in Europe. I somehow felt that the current Ritz front looked better.

So, the decision was made overnight. It had to be the Ritz.

Coming to the color selection, it was a rather quick decision. There are 8 colors available in the Ritz. I don’t like the colors Red and Brown. Blue and Green are too dark and difficult to maintain. Silver was too common in most cars. Black was considered inauspicious. I would have bought white if it was ‘Pearl Metallic’ like the Swift and SX4.

So ultimately, it was Glistening Grey Ritz VDi.




Buying Process:
Armed with all this information and my decision, went to Kalyani Motors at Mysore Road and ORR intersection. I showed genuine interest in buying a Ritz and asked them to evaluate my i10. It was a pretty straight forward process. A person from their True Value division took about half an hour and figured out various stuff according to their procedure. After a brief conversation with his manager, he offered me a price which was obviously much lower than my expectation. They had this 20K exchange bonus offer running on the Ritz. I showed my disappointment and told them that I would be checking with other dealers too. The person who evaluated my car went back to his manager and offered me 10K more. The final price including 20K bonus was close to my expectation. So, I agreed to sell my car to them; sold it on the spot. I feel this is a trick used by dealers. Evaluate for 20K lesser and then offer the 20K exchange bonus.

I booked a brand new Ritz VDi. I confirmed again if Ritz VDi was in stock in my choice of color. The Sales Executive (SE) replied in affirmative. I paid Rs.5000 as booking amount. Tried to haggle for some accessories, but they wouldn’t give any. They even charged for basic accessories like mud flaps, floor mats, God’s idol. I guess the news of petrol hike was already doing rounds by this time.

Finally, time to look at some accessories. I decided to fit only basic electrical accessories from MGA as I didn’t want to void the vehicle’s warranty. The recent fire incidents scared me pretty much against fitting electrical accessories outside the showroom. Saving about 3-5K isn’t worth taking a chance when you have spent 6.7L. I ordered the following accessories from them:

1. Integrated Stereo for Ritz. Made by Alpine. Cost: Rs. 9,500
2. JBL speaker for 4 doors. 135W I guess. I’m not an audio person. Just went by brand. Cost: Rs. 5000.
3. Nippon MGA security lock.

I got ~2K discount on accessories.

[blue_pulsar]

Pre-Delivery Inspection:
I went to stockyard to do a PDI a day before the car went for registration. Did some basic checks; looked around for scratches and dents. I also requested for the key and did checks on interiors. Everything looked good. Made a note of the engine and chassis number. I verified that the car was a 2012 manufactured car. Finally, for memories, took some photographs. Gave them thumbs-up.


I normally do this for all my new cars. Stockyard visit server two purposes for me: i) PDI ii) Meeting your car for the first time.



Delivery:
Payment was made to the dealership a day before the car went for registration. At that time, I also got to see a Ritz fitted with the stereo that I had ordered. With Sony speakers, it sounded real good. I was assured that my audio system will sound even better with JBL speakers.

On the day off delivery, we went to the showroom at 1000hrs. Delivery was supposed to happen at 1040hrs because of favorable planetary position. BHPian pevpavan drove me and my family to the showroom. Obviously, having another BHPian along and another set of eyes would be extremely helpful, had things gone wrong. I’d like to give a big shout out to him! We patiently waited for the car to come out from its hiding, fully cleaned and decorated. In the meantime, made payments for accessories and had a look at the documents.




Once the car was out, both BHPians checked out the car and found that there no glaring errors from the dealership/company. It was finally time for handing over of the keys to me. The first thing I checked out was the audio system! I just loved it! I was briefed about the car by the service advisor. Most of what I heard was known to me beforehand.

Finally, drove out the car from the dealership. First thing I did was to fill-up diesel. What a relief! I was finally happy that I could fill-in fuel so cheap! The torque is so addictive. Driving a diesel vehicle really feels manly!

Got the car blessed from Dodda Ganesha temple that evening.

[blue_pulsar]

Review of the car:

Exterior:
If the Swift has curves and muscles, this one has more straight lines. And more height.




The front looks rather imposing and has a purposeful stance. It does not look ‘angry’ but isn’t ‘smiley’ as well. I like the way the grille is made up of horizontal lines rather than the ‘mesh’ kind of grille used in Swift/SX4.



I like the (in)famous rear. It looks good on the car and gives it a dramatic and distinct personality. It is a unique and original design. I would have liked it better if Suzuki would have placed the number plate on the bumper. Also, the bumper would have looked better if it was flat rather than curved. A rear spoiler will give the car a better look. Maruti should be giving it as standard at least on the VDi variant.



The car comes across as a better built Maruti. No, there is no ‘THUD’ like the European cars. It is just that the sheet metal thickness has apparently gone a notch up from the older Swift. When compared to the i10, the doors feel heavier, but only slightly. The paint quality is top notch as is the case with new-gen Marutis.

Panel gaps are inconsistent as with most Marutis. The worst panel gaps are the horizontal gap above the grille on either sides of it, the gaps between the boot lid and the tail lamps, the gap around the boot hinges.



I hate the way the boot door hinges are placed. Looks extremely cheap.

[blue_pulsar]

Interiors and Instrumentation:
The first thing that you notice when you step into the Ritz after driving the i10 is that the interiors are bigger.

There is huge space on the dashboard. The dashboard by itself looks good and funky. But the quality is not up to the mark; you feel the lack of quality apparent, after owning the i10. There are decent plastic bits, okay bits and really bad bits as well but nothing excellent. In comparison with plastic quality of the old Swift, it is definitely a step-up for Maruti in the right direction. The plastics feel well put together by Maruti standards. The new Swift plastic quality is half a step up from Ritz, although the design is stunning. I also like the way the gear lever is positioned as a part of dashboard.


The steering wheel is a standard Maruti three spoke steering from Maruti. It is the same one equipped from the WagonR to the SX4. The quality of the steering wheel is good. I love the feel of the steering wheel in my hands. The size is just about right. Steering adjustments for rake and reach are missing, even on the top end diesel variant.

The door panels are a design disaster. The black plastic is of bad quality. The fabric inserts look totally out of place. The ‘inserts’ look good only if the upholstery is made up high quality leather. Add to that the ‘aftermarket’ looking power window panels.Feels like they were stuck as an afterthought. In comparison, even the Estilo’s power window panels look better. The buttons are not of good quality either. The door panels of the LDi/LXi look much better with the grey color plastic in place of the fabric inserts.



Check out this picture for the door panels. I'm appalled to see the finishing in the highlighted area.


The front seats are extremely comfortable. The cushioning is just right. You feel that you sit ‘into’ the seats rather than ‘on’ them. You can feel the seats hugging you.


In contrast, the rear seats are flat and offer minimal support. The backrest is a little upright too.


The fabric quality is pretty bad. It feels like an economy sofa cloth. I particularly hate the grey and blue combination. These two colors don’t go well together. Black and a brighter shade of blue would have looked infinitely better. The legroom is pretty good; feels enhanced by the fact that the rear seat is placed higher than other cars. I would say it is on par with the i10 or couple of cm more.


The instrumentation is standard fare. Nothing ground breaking. The large speedo seems to be inspired by the Mini and the aftermarket-ish tachometer looks cool. There are various warning and info lights around the speedo.


At night, the whole instrumentation looks amber. While I like this color, Maruti gives us an overdose of amber; to an extent that even the speedo and tacho needle are amber in color.


I would have liked the inclusion of a temperature gauge. What I really miss is the rear defogger and the rear wipers. How much would it cost Maruti to install these? Why did they deny the diesel car owners of this ‘privilege’?
AC is superb and cools the car in couple of minutes in Bangalore summer. I never had to put the AC blower beyond ‘2’ point. In this day and age, a climate control is sorely missed.



Alpine(MGA) Integrated Music System: The Alpine integrated music system is really good. The four JBL door speakers sound excellent. The bass is good and distortion is controlled. The Alpine offers CD, USB, FM, AM, Aux-In functionalities. It can play Audio CD, MP3 and WMA formats. The buttons on the HU are not very ergonomically placed, in my opinion. It would have been a better idea if they had provided a button each for ‘CD’, ‘FM’, ‘AM’, ‘Aux’, ‘USB’ rather than a single ‘Source’ button. The plastic quality on the HU is of decent quality except for the volume knob. The volume knob feels more or less like the plastic cap on half liter soft drink bottles. The backlighting on the LCD is of amber color to match with the rest of the backlighting on the rest of the instrumentation. This HU is not same as the factory fitted one as the ZXi. That one is better looking when compared to this. Just that this one has the brand advantage of Alpine over Nippon (my personal preference).

Notice how the Sandisk Cruzer Fit looks awesome on the stereo. It is available in 4, 8, 16 and 32GB and is almost invisible!

Maruti should learn to take car of simple design aesthetics. For example, see the below picture. Here, both the black colored plastic and the silver color plastic have a 'split'. See how they are not split at the same place.

I feel it looks totally ugly. This should have been like (altered in paint, excuse for the mod quality):


At 236L, the boot space is not that great but is better than the new Swift. The boot space is completely usable though. The boot lip is not too high unlike the swift. In this price range, only a Figo can beat it.


Maruti has cleverly provided with split seats in the ratio of 60:40. If you have three people on board, travelling with lot of luggage, pulling half the seat down will generate enormous amount of space.


There is plenty of space to keep your stuff. The glove box is sized on the smaller side and takes in only your important stuff. Then, there is a large sized cubby hole (not sure what is the right term) above the glove box. It is pretty useful to keep handy stuff for short period of time.

You also have an ash tray holder near the parking brake lever. There are bottle holders also on the door panels easily take in 1 liter bottles of most shapes.


I had the Nippon security lock installed from MGA right out of the showroom. The remote doesn’t look that good compared to the older generation Nippon remotes. The keys sometimes need a second press to lock/unlock. I like the way it locks automatically at ~20kmph. One more gadget that need to come as standard in this day and age. Surprisingly, Maruti offers the immobilizer as standard across all models and variant starting from the 800.

[blue_pulsar]

The drive:

Much has been said about the Fiat MJD engine on this forum. It is a brilliant piece of engineering and even after 5 years of getting it to India, we still love it! I would like to highlight my observations with the older Swift engine. My family owned the old Swift which was bought within 4 months of Swift diesel launch. Comparatively, I feel that Maruti engineers have tweaked the tuning of this engine a little bit. The car now pulls cleanly from 1400-1500 rpm on flat roads. Inclines require the turbo boost. Start the engine and you immediately know that there is an oil burner under the hood. You can hear the typical diesel clatter. Once on the move, the noise smoothens out. Out on the highway, the engine is a real gem. It can cruise all day at 100kmph in 5th gear. That’s at a ~2400 rpm.


The gearbox is a sure-shifter. The gates are well defined and the slotting is crisp. The i10’s gear shift is in a different league altogether. The gear ratios are pretty well designed. 2nd and 3rd gears are perfect for the city whereas 4th and especially 5th are well suited to highways. Overtaking on highways is a breeze. If you fall below the turbo band and need to overtake, downshifting to 4th will have you right in the turbo band. I have just one complaint on the gear ratios. Couple of times, I felt that the 1st and 2nd gear ratios are a little far apart. I’m guessing this will go away once the engine opens up. Wouldn’t have been a bad idea to include 6th gear, which would enable the Ritz to cruise at 100kmph at ~1800rpm.


The ride quality is really good. It is definitely better than the i10. Whenever you go over a pothole, there is a soft edge to the ‘shock’. The ride is sorted at the front. At the back, things seem a little different; the ride is a little bouncy. I was not able to completely judge the ride at the back, just got an idea when my friend was taking the car for a short spin. All my tires are inflated at 33psi and filled with nitrogen. Filling nitrogen probably made a very, very slight difference in ride quality. Or maybe, that just my illusion, can’t say for sure.

The flip side of the good ride quality is that the handling capabilities of the car have taken a beating. The Ritz is not a sweet handler like the Swift, even though it is based on the same underpinnings. The car handles well for most everyday situations and a little better than that. I feel that the handling is couple of notches better than the i10. Body roll is well controlled for a tallboy. Bottom-line on handling is - Ritz is THE best handling tallboy in India, thanks to the versatile Swift platform.

High speed stability is really good for a tallboy. On straight expressways, cruising all day at 120 should not be a problem. Exceed the speed of 130 and that’s when things seem uncomfortable. At saner and safer speeds, around 90-100, the car is stable, rides flat and pretty much hugs the road (not to be compared to European and American cars). Doing 120 on the Ritz gives the same confidence as doing 90 on the i10. The shakiness of the i10 at 100-110 is felt around the 130 mark in the Ritz. That said, strong crosswinds do unsettle the car a little bit. A really fast vehicle passing zooming past your car can be disturbing.

The EPS does its job well. At parking speeds, the steering is light. However, at highway speeds, the steering is light in the center position and becomes as you turn. This feature aids in better handling. However, enthusiasts will be disappointed with the response. I feel that the softened suspension has taken its toll on the steering feel as well. Similar EPS system (assuming) on the Swift provides more positive feedback. The disconnected feeling is more in the Ritz. It is definitely better than the i10 though.

In the braking department, the Ritz does pretty okay. The brakes have decent bite and are effective. It is more or less like the old Swift. I had to emergency brake just once till now and the brakes performed quite well.

I was pleasantly surprised to see my Ritz shod with Bridgestone S248 165/80/R14 tires. The tires don’t feel like soft compound tires though. I’m not a tire expert and I feel that these tires are definitely better than the JK Tornados. Tire noise can be heard on the highways. I plan to upgrade to softer compound tires like a Turanza after completing 20k kms.


The headlamps are mediocre in low beam mode. Neither the focus is right nor is the power. I tried to use the headlamp level adjuster to get around this problem but no avail. The fog lamps, to some extent, help. The dual horn is really loud. I see irritated expressions of people’s faces when I honk.

Rear visibility is not great. The RVM is crippled by the thick C-pillars.


The side RVMs are decently sized. I prefer the slightly bigger ones on the Swift though.



I shall update FE figures in my review shortly.

[blue_pulsar]

Other bits:

• When closing the tailgate, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Maruti has included a handle to close the door.
  
  
• The side mirrors fold almost completely in the other direction.
  
  
• The interior lamp stays on till you lock the car. Nice reminder feature according to me.
  
• If you take the key out before turning off the headlamps or parking lamps and open the door, the car alerts you by beeping continuously.
  
• I feel that the rear fog lamp is a nice safety feature. The rear fog lamp needs to be explicitly turned on by a ring next to the headlamp switch. When the headlamp is turned off, this ring turns off automatically.
  
• Ritz has a hidden tray to store stuff below the front passenger seat. Quite handy but should have been slightly bigger. Doesn’t take in A4 size documents without folding.
  
• Maruti has skimped the day/night mirror on the Ritz, in spite of the Swift & Dzire having it. How much $$$ did they save?
  
• A boot lamp is missing.
  
• Parcel tray is missing, even in the VDi variant. Again, how much $$$ did they save.

Planned Accessories:

1. Parking Sensors: Does MGA have parking sensors that display the distance on the mirror?
2. Seat Covers: Want to put on custom made fabric seat covers. Would like fabric in areas of contact and art leather in other places. Also need to cover those awful fabric inserts with art leather.
3. Spoiler: MGA spoiler costs 6.5K. This will go to the backburner for now.
4. Side mouldings: I’m still thinking whether to put these on or not. The side mouldings are too thick. I will look out for a good aftermarket one if available.

[blue_pulsar]

A note on the dealership:
I bought my car at Kalyani Motors, Mysore Road and ORR intersection. I would like to highlight few points on the dealership:

1. The dealership opens at 9 a.m. I went to the showroom at 9:15 a.m. to take PDI. All showroom staff were just arriving and were rushing to make their attendance entries, I believe. One person asked us who we were looking for. When I told them the SE’s name, the person just said okay and walked off. All sales staff sat for a sales meeting. We waited and waited endlessly for our SE. Apparently, they have a sales meeting every morning between 9 and 10. Till then, you will not even be offered tea/coffee. We were offered our coffee that morning only at 10 a.m. So, if you plan to buy your car from this showroom, please do not walk in before 10 a.m.
2. The car delivered to us was not clean. I could see smudges of water near the fender.
3. The car had a parking brake issue. Apparently, the parking brake was ‘overtightened’. So every time I applied brakes, I could hear a kat kat kat sound. Had to make one more visit to the showroom to get it rectified. Although, I must say they didn’t take much effort to diagnose the issue and fixed it promptly. But the question is, shouldn’t this issue been identified during their PDI itself?
4. When I went for first service, my bill was Rs.100/- . I saw that the bill had an item ‘Consumables’. On inquiry, I was told that they charge for grease and similar stuff. The question is not about Rs.100. It is about their ethics. Do you folks think it is ethical to charge for ‘grease etc’?
5. When they delivered the car to me after first service, the front windshield had smudges of water wipe marks. Both side mirrors we so badly wiped that I couldn’t see anything through them that night. Had to stop the car and wipe the mirrors.
6. When I was dropping my car for first service, I asked the service advisor if they would change engine oil. I was told that oil change would be only done during 10K kms service. This is what Maruti recommends since their K-series engine. I was confused for a moment. Told the SA that this is a Diesel Ritz in case they missed it. Got a pretty rude reply that before Maruti used to call their engines MPFI, then it’s called K-series. I asked what DDiS is. She said that DDiS also comes under K-series. I was surprised to hear this.
7. The only good point on the dealership is that they delivered my car on time. No delays whatsoever.
8. The accessories guy was a very nice person. Sales staff need to learn a lot from him.

Summary: Will I ever visit this dealership again? No! With so many dealerships at Bangalore, I don’t need to stick with such a dealership. Our past experiences with RNS Yeshwantpur were much better.


Summary of ownership so far:
Kms covered: 1,500
Services completed: 1 free
Am I happy with my car? Yeah!
Would I recommend this car to my friends? Yes!

Thanks for reading my review! Suggestions and comments welcome!

[Vid6639]

Moderator's note: Thread moved to Initial ownership review section from Assembly Line.

What a wonderful and detailed ownership review. Congrats on the car and thanks for sharing!

[sameerg001]

Thanks a lot for the wonderful review, your attention to detail is amazing. What works like the cherry on a cake are the pictures, they are too good.

You should've considered ABS as an important feature in your car, VDI + ABS is just 30k over normal VDI, any specific reason behind this ?

Wish you wonderful miles ahead with her, Drive safe.

Cheers
Sameer

[SchumiFan]

The pic of the dash in post#4 is awesome. Maruti can even use that in their website. I wish they would bring in the new Ritz soon enough with the ZDi version.

The Ritz is a great VFM car and a good all-rounder. Wishing you many happy miles in your Ritz

[blue_pulsar]

Originally Posted by sameerg001

Thanks a lot for the wonderful review, your attention to detail is amazing. What works like the cherry on a cake are the pictures, they are too good.

You should've considered ABS as an important feature in your car, VDI + ABS is just 30k over normal VDI, any specific reason behind this ?

Wish you wonderful miles ahead with her, Drive safe.

Cheers
Sameer

Thanks Sameer! I actually wanted to buy the VDi ABS but I had to wait for 3 months. :-(

Originally Posted by SchumiFan

The pic of the dash in post#4 is awesome. Maruti can even use that in their website. I wish they would bring in the new Ritz soon enough with the ZDi version.

The Ritz is a great VFM car and a good all-rounder. Wishing you many happy miles in your Ritz

Thanks for your comments! . I guess Maruti is pushing people to buy Swift ZDi in case they want a combo of airbags, ABS and diesel.

[Vik0728]

Amazing report blue_pulsar, it is comparable to "Official Car Review" bro.

If you ask me, I would probably suggest you to upsize the tires on your Ritzy at the earliest. Since you don't have an ABS, I am pretty sure, this would improve the braking if not anything.

Happy and safe driving.

[carzone]

Originally Posted by blue_pulsar

[*]When I went for first service, my bill was Rs.100/- . I saw that the bill had an item ‘Consumables’. On inquiry, I was told that they charge for grease and similar stuff. The question is not about Rs.100. It is about their ethics. Do you folks think it is ethical to charge for ‘grease etc’?

In my 4th service, I was also charged for the grease, some clips and other small stuffs. It came close to around Rs.70. I agree, such minimal charges should be avoided and it is not at all ethical to charge for 'grease and some Rs.2 clippings'.
Wonder is it only MSIL or all manufacturers charge this kind of stuff!
Neways, congratulations for your new ride and a great review. Nice choice of color as well. I personally like the front end of the Ritz but the rear seems a little out of place (no offense). Haven't driven the car, so can't comment on the driving experience, but have a liking for the center console and the gear lever position. The gear lever fits perfectly in the wrist and is easy to use. I would have liked the tacho in the speedometer console itself, rather than the after-market look, even though it looks a bit unique.

[sumeshmani]

Congratulations blue_pulsar, a very detailed and crisp write up too!!
Did you take auto loan for this purchase? If yes, could you please share the interest details or other offers you might have got form the lending institution?

[GTO]

Got to respect this attention to detail. Congrats on the Ritz and thanks for sharing this beautiful review with us.

The Ritz makes a compelling case for itself (vis a vis the Swift):

1. Cheaper
2. More practical (higher seating etc.)
3. Better boot
4. No waiting period
5. Ritz VDi brakes are way superior to the Swift VDi brakes
6. I prefer the Ritz rear seat (placement, seating position) over that of the Swift.

If you ever wanted to know how looks & image lead to a car's success, consider the Swift vs Ritz sales situation.

Drive safe