Suzuki Swift diesel test drive & review

Maruti Suzuki Swift was and is a hot cake in the market since its launch. The looks of the car were liked by some, some hated it. It was launched way back in 2004 in India. The car also has a sedan version of it  which is known as the Swift Dzire.

Now, in 2011 the car has been re-launched. This generation is all new, so Maruti is calling the car as the “All New Swift”.

The new car has its wheelbase extended by 40mm over the previous second generation avatar. The car is powered by two iterations.

1)1.2 K series Petrol

2)1.3 DDiS Diesel

The Petrol motor produces a power of 87Ps and has a torque of 113Nm. It now gets a Variable Valve Timing, which helps it to get the additional 2 Ps.

The diesel motor is the same Famous 1.3 Multijet aka DDiS under the hood producing 75Ps of power at 4000Rpm and 190Nm of torque at 2000 Rpm.

The test drive vehicle we got was the diesel one.

The Engine-

Crank the engine and you’ll see a noticeable difference in the NVH (Noise-Vibrations-Harshness). The car is quieter from the inside now. The engineers have done a great job in this department. The 1.3 DDiS motor is a very rev happy diesel as we know. There is a significant amount of turbo lag if we compare it with other diesels such as Nissan Micra D and the Ford Figo D. The turbo boost is milder compared to the previous generation car. The punch of the previous gen is surely missing in this generation.

You can hear the diesel clatter in the cold mornings but it settles down as the engine gets warmed up. The power delivery is much more linear, but still the turbo lag affects the drivability. The 0-100 timings claimed by the company is 14.86 Secs which is the same as before. The engine anyhow doesn’t feel as aggressive as the previous iteration.

The car on the highways is fairly good and doesn’t require any down shifts. At 100Kph the rev counter hovers around 2300 Rpm. The engine pulls all the way up to the redline i.e. 5100 Rpm but the rev band of the multijet is from 2000Rpm to 4200Rpm. So, it doesn’t make any sense to rev it further.

After 4200Rpm there is just no more power, the motor just makes more noise, but there is no increment of the speed. Overall the motor is fairly refined is good for highway overtaking and a bit painful for city driving due to the lag. The gear shifts are positive too with perfect gear placements, you never slot in the wrong gear.

The Looks-

The car is 90mm longer than the older gen. The car is now built on a completely new platform which doesn’t share anything from the previous gen. Maruti have changed each and every external component but still anyone can tell its a swift. Suzuki have kept the same type of styling characteristics just as before.

The increased length is obvious when viewed from the side. This along with the wider stance makes the new Swift look more substantial. The large headlamps are stretched out, while the ORVMs get integrated blinkers and the rear gets new tail lamps which are now clear lens and looks classy as compared to the older one. The new Swift is bigger, yet lighter thanks to several weight saving measures such as a plastic fuel tank, super-thin window glasses. The petrol car is 30Kgs lighter than the older gen and the diesel one is 15Kgs lighter, as we move from variant to variant.

The Suspension-

The Swift has always been known as a good handling car. In this gen too it retains it. The car handles fairly well and the ride is decent too. The car has minimal body roll around the corners and the steering provides good feedback too being an EPS. The ZDi variant gets 185/65/r15 tyres, but the other two variants VDi & LDi get 165/80/r14 tyres. This applies for the petrol siblings also. The 165 profile tyres are very skinny and do not provide good grip, so tyre upgrade is recommend to atleast 185 profile’s found on the ZDi variant.

The Variants-

There are 3 different variants in both petrol and diesel.

Petrol	LXi	VXi	ZXi
Diesel	LDi	VDi	ZDi

This time MSIL have provided the ZDi variant which offers extras like ABS with EBD, Driver / Passenger Airbags, Audio with Radio / CD Player, Aux / USB inputs, 6 Speakers, Rear wash & wipe, Driver seat height adjustment, Climate control and 185/65 tyres on 15″ alloy wheels over the VDi variant.

The equipments-

The top “Z” variants get

• ABS with EBD
• Dual Airbags
• Climate control
• Integrated Music system with USB and Aux (But Bluetooth is sorely missed)
• 6 speakers which include two tweeters
• 15″ Alloy wheels
• Rear wash and wipe
• Turn indicators on wing mirrors
• DIS (Driver Info system)
• Powered ORVM’s etc

The space-

MSIL claims an overall improvement in space from the previous gen car. They claim 20mm increment of space in the rear leg room and the front leg room remains the same. The headroom is inadequate. For a passenger with a height of 6ft will find it crampy in the rear seat. The boot space is reduced to 204 litres, compared to the Older Swift which had 230 litres of space.

The pricing-

MSIL is always perfect in the pricing department, but with the launch of the ZDi variant the pricing is little over the head. The swift is priced at 4.22 – 6.38 Lakhs. Which for ZDi turns out to be almost 8Lakhs of rupees on road in Bangalore.

Overall the car is good buy for this segment and booking have already crossed 1lakhs+ and counting.

Verdict:

The Swift still commands the numero uno position. The New Swift has lots of new features and the overall the fit and finish is much better than the previous gen. If you want to buy one then you will have to wait for atleast 3 months.

Review By Jishnu