Maruti Ritz : Test Drive & Review

[tarunmadhok]

Some time Back, i was waiting for the launch of Splash (Ritz in india). But then i could not wait for long and bought a Swift VDI and frankly now after see real pics of Ritz I am felling happy that i bought Swift and not waited for Ritz. Shape from back is too bad or i should say shapeless a bit like Wagon R.
From front also it looks like the combination of Swift/Astar and few other Maruti models. These are my views, I know many people would be liking it but then every one has a right to share his views.

[Pashin]

Great Review GTO. The car looks great except for the motorcycle tyres that spoil the show. It seems Maruti is going the TATA way. Grest looking cars, excellent exterior, and super cheap interiors. Any news on the pricing? I think the ZDI would be too expensive and

Frankmehta : I fully agree with you. I drove a year old swift a few days back and by God, the doors rattled like they were about to fall off.

[Volt]

Superb (or should it be 'ritzy') review GTO. And hopefully the rumors that you heard about the pricing being lower than the Swift should be true .

I may be in a minority here, but I quite like the shape, looks modern and the front end does have an element of style. Dont know if it will age as well as the Swift though.

[d3mon]

A little Off topic !

It just struck me that the dash mounted tacho might actually be saving Maruti some money after all!

In mass production, volumes are everything. So instead of having to go with two different instrument clusters for the lxi and the Vxi, they have the same ones.

Cheaper to source, and better to look at!

And as far as mounting the tacho is concerned, it only requires stamping out a hole in the dash !!

Brilliant, right?

[PAVAN KADAM]

GTO a superb report, Thank you

Looks like Maruti's have started a new segment "Hunchbacks"

Ritz looks rather ugly, i liked the Wagon-R better.

Maruti's are just riding on the Fiat Engine wave so far.

Sorry Maruti, With great engines you need to produce good looking cars too.

[schitre05]

I have seen the car in person! and for me it does not look bad at all infact it has a "I am different appeal" which i am sure will be loved by many once it rolls out on the road.
I was a bit disappointed to see the overall size of the car and expected it to be a bit wider and roomy.
The interiors look good and the finish is better and improved over previous models in maruti stable. Whether it rattles or not? only time will tell.
Just wanted to ask whether Euro 4 norms specify ABS as a standard safety fitment in cars?

[rajneeesh]

Schitre05,

Euro 4 norms are for emissions . They are not safety norms . NCAP norms are for safety. However, I am not sure about the NCAP rating of the Ritz.

[tinnieboy]

Yiiikes !!! what really did happen to the rear end of a beutiful nosed car. The rear end seems to have been kicked hard to bear a linfelong dent it seems. Though might still be accepted with time if the mileage and performance score as suggested in the review. The tyres upsize seems to be a mandatory exercise one will have to adopt to while buying this one it seems. Over all I would have expected this as a Wagon R replacement with a premium of maybe 30k but it seems they intend to place it above Swift that might be a little too much to shell out for this dudette (The curves make it look very feminish in my opinion. Just my perspective.)

[vivekanand005]

wonderful review thank you very much.

[mahadev_kc]

You know who is in trouble now? Guess....

Autocar, overdrive, bsmotoring etc..
So in very much detail.. much more than the magazines available in the market..

[Jeep]

Thanks for the review, GTO. Good to hear that the petrol engine is a gem (who wants to rev up beyond 5k after all in a tall boy?).

The rear for sure looks very ugly to me. My initial thoughts were: This will not fly. Swift looks way better. But then, I thought of the original zen, Santro the same way and then was proved terribly wrong!

Pricing will decide the fate of this car.

The rear seems to have taken inspiration from one of the Renault models that sold in decent numbers in the UK.

p.s. Seems the rear seats do not offer enough thigh support?

[finneyp]

Superb review there GTO!
I guess T-BHP should publish a Auto mag, it will be a success!

Another average job by the Maruti Suzuki design engineers, the rear of Ritz looks ugly!
A practical family car indeed.

[BMW-X5]

Great job GTO !!!

I liked the car except for those skinny tyres. Back doesnt look so bad either. If was about to buy my first car I would have defenitley thought of it.

[manish7]

Great review GTO - covered all that I wanted to know. You mean the test car itself had aftermarket touch-screen ICE? I thought that was standard! :(

I didn't like RITz much - the rear is plain ugly. Swift looks much better - I just hope they come up with Swift ZDI with two tone interiors (no blue please), steering mounted controls and Alloys. If they rpice it around 6.5 L OTR, I am queing up with my cheque.

Now, waiting for GP to launch - I hope it will be better in flesh.

[guptad42]

About 25- 30K above the WagonR should work wonders for Ritz demand. I don't think Maruti will try to do anything as spupid as placing Ritz above Swift. This is good time to pick up the latent demand - all the deferred car buying due to the econmic slowdown- and actually increase marketshare profitably. Not many people are keen on paying a premium these days at the mass consumption end of any market these days. Applies to small cars as well.

I found the design interesting, and the package will appeal to families if priced well. The lack of security features as standard is a strong negative in my book, but does not affect sales in India.

Absence of a remote boot release in difficult to understand. It's very common to have security open up the boot while entering an office block or a shopping area these days. Having to shut-off the engine, get down/hand over the key, get the boot checked and then restart the engine for the last hundred meters to park the car -this one is a major nuisance. The scenario applies the most to young professional families - the primary market segment for Ritz.

Maruti, please add the remote boot release.