[Abhay.Neelwarne]

Took the delivery of Swift Dzire ZDi on 23.07.08 after 4 months of waiting and shouting. Before this I have owned SX4 , Baleno (3 Nos, most lovable), Swift Petrol, Esteem, Zen, Innova over last 12 years with approx 5 Lakh KMs of driving on Indian roads. Let me come straight to my experience thus far with Dzire ZDi, the new baby in garage.

Dislikes: First. No bottle holders in front door, bottole holders on rear door are odd size so standard 1 litre bottles rock, door pockets good for nothing (they don't exist for me), horn seems to blow more inside the passenger cabin than outside, no electric mirrors, no duration control on wiper intermittant. I would have expected these in a car of almost 8 lakhs on road, but can live without.

Concerns: Would have liked to have more "bite" in the brakes. Car is equipped with ABS but the design of brakes isnt upto mark. There hasn't been any scary situation as yet, but still get a feel that size of disk\drum could be upped. This probably is weakest part of the whole car to me. Tyres are 185\70 R14 and probably I would have liked 195 width. But so far no scare and so decided to continue with them instead of upgrading.

Likes: A whole lot. All those things that matter: engine, gear box, suspension for handling, driver ergonomics, perfect steering feel. This is truely driver focussed and great fun to drive car. At 3660 on odo, it has gone into such a silent mode that it puts to shame the likes of Baleno \ Zen etc which are in fact petrol. Add to it the responsive nature of car and you just want to drive on and on. Among all the cars that I have owned this one is outright winner in terms of driving delight.

Mileage: Given the state of fuel prices, this is crux of issue. And this is why I bought this car. And I am anything but amazed (or rather shocked) to see the mileage. It started with about 18kmpl at the beginning and now overall around 22kmpl. However, today when I clocked 26.8 kmpl between Bangalore-Mysore highway drive, I was numb with surprise and thats why decided to write this reviews. I just cann't beleive it. Have heard of 22-24 on highway, but 26.8 is kind of mad. This was with regular IOC diesel, 100% AC on, me alone, driving at approx 100kmph mark (90-110 kmph band), sometimes giving 3rd degree (gear) treatment, mostly overtaking others, outside temp approx 27C, my normal driving and not any "economy" drive, mileage measured from full tank to full tank (I personally monitored to see that it is brim to brim with no air pockets etc) between outskirts of Bangalore to Mysore (126.4 Kms for 4.72 lit = 26.8kmpl). Bomb, I am yet to recover.

Run-in: I must mention of this. First 1000 kms of car was properly run-in by me. Which means no beating up, no lugging, no overloading, no constant speed for long time, shifting around the gears letting all the rotating \ sliding parts gel with each other perfectly. In a way, all round gentlemen behaviour with car. I methodically did this run-in (break-in) by purposefully taking the car on ring road etc and making sure that first 1000 kms are done to perfection. I am not sure if this run-in has done the trick, but I can vouch that its not just the terriffic mileage, but the entire powertrain has settled down so well that it is smooth, refined and absolute silent, beyond my usual experience with other cars.

And I am loving it. This car is going to stay long with me... sure.

[TOR]

nice initial impressions, great mileage! maybe you could post some photos and write up a bit on the buying(waiting!!) experience.Drive safe.

[gemithomas]

WOW!!! Great REview.

[joe angelo]

ohh!! thats an awesome mileage for the DDis!!! im too planning to calculate the mileage soon!! clocked 2500km!!
but the prob is my running period was only for 500km, couldnt control myself, burst it to 4-5rpm to feel the turbo kick once in a while!!

is it must that u should properly runin for 1000km?????
every1 said its not necessary when its a car!!! hope my mileage is not worse!!

[dkamath]

Congrats, Abhay, on the car as well as its fuel consumption!
A frugality such as this, with 100% AC, and with speeds of 100kpmh, is simply astounding, to say the least! Congrats again, and wish you stretch the litre further!

[diabloo]

• Its a diesel
• Its highway mileage

Good mileage, but I am not surprised.

[hellstar]

100 % ac, 100 kmph and 26.8 kmpl ... great figures , i definitely am impressed. great experience pal , and do keep updating this thread....

[opendro]

In two weeks, you have run 3660 Km, a good running. And the kind of mileage that you are getting. That is really bad, very very bad. A lot of other car owners are going to feel very very bad.

Can you write a little elaborately on the break-in that you followed? I can see that you took smoother roads, rather than lugging bumper to bumper. I want to know how many hours do you run continuously without switching off. How long do you let it cool down if at all you are doing? Have you done the first oil change? At how many Km on odo did you do the oil change? You please write before you forget.

Also I would be interested if you can get the same mileage in the next highway run.

Sorry, looks like I'm asking too much. But you made me really jealous and curious

[Abhay.Neelwarne]

Reg 3660 kms in 2 weeks: Yes, I drive a lot due to business reasons. Whole lot of Bangalore-Mysore and about 1 or 2 Bangalore-Mumbai trips a month. My present 3660 kms included one trip to Mumbai. In Bangalore city, I prefer Auto or Taxi and therefore cann't write much about in-city mileage. Going by the fuel gauge needle though, I guess it should be around 18 kmpl in city.

Reg break-in: Is it required?? Well, I beleive so. All parts of powertrain are made in different factories and these parts don't know who they are going to be rubbing shoulders with in a real engine environment. It is advisible that you let them settle properly so that all rough edges are smoothened in presence of lubrication and heating-cooling cycle is done with and they gel with each other smoothly, particularly the rotating and sliding parts. Once you are done with this 1000 kms, engine will give you a fantastic service whole life and engine ready to take the beating the way you want. In fact if you read Swift Dzire manual, you would see MSIL recommending 1000kms of run-in. I have also heard many people saying that these are modern cars and do not need run-in, but if you think of the intent of run-in, I think you too would rather like to do it than not.

Reg Break-in: How?? Well, bumper to bumper drive will not serve the purpose. I did mostly in thin traffic without signals where I could run though the entire range of speeds and gears. In fact I did such hours of run-in on ring roads etc and did not let my friends even touch the car during this nurturing period.

Reg mileage: Yes, diesels are efficient and usually give more kms per litre. So, if I got 26.8 kmpl at 80kmph on a test track, I would accept. But these figures after driving 126 kms on state highway in 90-110 kmph band is beyond my imagination. I consider 110kmph as most useful speed on Indian highways and thats where this car seem to do a great job. At higher speed mileage will surely drop, but it seems to give me the best where it matters me most.

Duration of contineous run?: I did Mysore-Pune 970kms in 15 hours with 3 breaks. I usually turn off AC some distance before I take a break and wait for about 30 secs before completely turning off the engine. Single contineous run of say.... 5 hours???

Will keep updating as I put on more mileage. Another trip to Pune-Mumabi is round the corner.

Bye the way, anyone here taken Swift or Dzire on Manali-Leh road?? I have taken Esteem (once) and Innova (twice) and wondering if Dzire can take the beating. Any experience??

Oh forgot to reply about "waiting" experience. It was real horrible. I am used to walk into show room and walk out with car. This one made me wait for 4 months even though I was the first to book in town. It was painful and many times I took Maruti Regional office at Bangalore to task. In spite, I did not cancel the booking because I was convinced that this car is worth and I am glad I did. However, MSIL must buckle up. This is too much expecting customers to wait this long.... just not acceptable.

Note from Support: Posts merged. Please use EDIT.

[blue_pulsar]

You are measuring mileage for only 4 ltrs. There is a scope for error here. Its will be more accurate if you measure for atleast half a tank.

The mileage I get on my Swift VDi on highways has been a max of 19, that too only once. Normally its around 18.

[Abhay.Neelwarne]

Originally Posted by blue_pulsar

You are measuring mileage for only 4 ltrs. There is a scope for error here. Its will be more accurate if you measure for atleast half a tank.

The mileage I get on my Swift VDi on highways has been a max of 19, that too only once. Normally its around 18.

Well, I always measure tank full-empty-full sequence. I never fill 10-20 lits. Anyway, my experience during initial stages, when engine is still settling down, has been that I got min of 18kmpl (while I was running-in during first 1000 kms) which is steadily climbing. I got 22 during Mysore-Pune-Mumbai-Mysore which involved 3 tank fulls. Now I think the machine has settled down so thought of checking highway mileage, just for the heck of it. Yes, you are right that 4.72 lit is not large amount of diesel, but since it was done tank full to tank full, I guess the error is not much, if any. The other way to look at it is not 4.72 lit but 126 kms of highway drive??? Anyway, I will again monitor tank full-empty-full sequence during my next trip to Pune which is just round the corner and update.

Originally Posted by blue_pulsar

You are measuring mileage for only 4 ltrs. There is a scope for error here. Its will be more accurate if you measure for atleast half a tank.

The mileage I get on my Swift VDi on highways has been a max of 19, that too only once. Normally its around 18.

Here is my log book of fuel consumption:

Date\kms\lit\mileage\comment

28.07.08\594\33.13\17.93\Running-in, working around with all gears.
31.07.08\401\22.3\17.99\End of running-in of 1000 kms.
02.08.08\721\40.27\17.9\Mysore-Pune-Mysore run avg 130kmph speed.
04.08.08\853\40.5\21.06\Mysore-Pune-Mysore run avg 110kmph speed.
08.08.08\922\5.11+40.86=45.97\20.04\City+110kmph highway drive
08.08.08\126.4\4.72\26.8\Bangalore-Mysore highway drive @100kmph.

I will report once again at 5000 or 10000 kms depending upon how quickly I get to reach there..


Note from Support: Please use MULTI-QUOTE / QUOTE+ to quote and respond to multiple posts.

I agree the mileage is good. but its not that crazy. it would be close to real life if measured over 20-30 litres rather than 4-5 litres.
but it is undeniably good mileage.
Best I've got is 23kmpl on the highway. that was economy mode. over 200km I think.
I get a very consistent 18kmpl, inspite of drag race type starts from every traffic light, but I hardly ever go beyond 100kmph.

AC is on full time, and there is usually just me in the car.

[wanderernomad]

Off topic but why do you drag race from every traffic light when its only you alone in the car? Trying to escape a roving eye repercussions?

[speedzak]

That's really great. Amazing actually.
In highway runs, the 1.3DDiS is known to deliver very good figures. But anything above 24 is phenomenal. Congratulations!
Would love to hear more from your side.

Originally Posted by wanderernomad

Off topic but why do you drag race from every traffic light when its only you alone in the car? Trying to escape a roving eye repercussions?

I like the acceleration. even if its just my car alone at the traffic lights,I race away. manufacturing defect, i guess