What strikes your mind when you hear the word “FUN”! An amusement park? Football with friends? Or maybe even your favorite TV show! Ask a petrol head and you are most likely to hear a list of their favorite cars and the drives in them.
So if you are looking out for an affordable, easy to maintain, exciting, fun to drive diesel hatch look no further than the Maruti Suzuki Swift Diesel.
Engine & Performance:
This car comes with a 1.3L DDIS diesel engine awarded as “The Best International Engine of the Year 2007”, a gem of an engine which puts out a decent 75 BHP of power and 190NM torque. Commuting within city is easy and with the amount of torque on tap available for a vehicle of this size it makes driving in the stop and go traffic a lot easier. The tune of the turbocharger translates the driving more fun than just city commuting, the turbo lag is evident especially when you want to accelerate hard but once the turbo kicks in, it revs all the way to the redline with a very strong midrange which makes highway drives a pleasure. We @ MotorKind describe this turbo as “The only turbo amongst all turbo’s that acts as a turbo”! Acceleration is decent with triple digits reaching in about 12-13 seconds and can reach top speed of 180k per hour. The engine is a long termer and can last up to 3 lakh kilometres if taken care of. Coming to efficiency it’s a very fuel efficient motor, in real world driving conditions it can drive about 17 km in city and about 22km on highways for a litre of diesel.
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| Crisp 1.3L DDIS engine. |
Ride & Handling:
First in segment independent suspension system makes this car a very sporty handler. The suspension tuning is a mix of good urban drivability and fantastic highway manners, the steering wheel communicates well with the driver making high speed cornering a habit With the car running on 165/80 R14 tyres for the Ldi/Vdi variants a tyre upgrade is seriously recommended preferably 185/60 R15 and above. Coming to braking this is one area where swift really looses out, the non ABS versions are unsafe at high speeds, and for a car of this weight (1060 kgs) the braking provided is below average.
Comfort & Convenience:
This midsized hatch is quite comfortable for the driver and co-driver with decent legroom, with the seating position on a higher side compared to other hatchbacks. Ingress and egress is easy and also visibility from the driver seat is neat. At the back, legroom and knee room is a bit cramped especially with taller people in the driver’s seat; the seats are soft and provide good back support so travelling long distance isn’t a strain. Now talking about convenience there aren’t many features to boast about except in the ZXi/ZDi variant. Climate control AC, Steering mounted Audio controls, driver seat height adjust etc are missing on mid variants and that’s not what you call ‘Convenient’.
Interiors & Exteriors:
When launched in 2005 in India it turned a great number of heads towards it, a funky looking hatch and very contemporary during its time. Stunning headlamp design, big doors and wide stance appealed at many. Stepping inside you notice the interiors are rather plain compared to the exterior design language yet it’s functional. With the black and gray color combination it makes the interiors look sporty and not airy unlike beige interiors which are good for a car which carries a sporty image.
Likes:
• The best selling B+ segment car EVER in India. 18000 p.m. average sales.
• Excellent fuel efficiency and suspension set up.
• Enthusiastic drive even on open roads.
• Maruti’s after sales service and network.
• Cost of maintenance and repairs comparatively least expensive.
Dislikes:
• Long waiting periods for the diesel. Up to 6 months for the ZDI.
• No optional ABS on the VDI variants.
• Limited luggage space compared to competition.
Judgement Day:
A person came up to us and said ‘I like the SWIFT but there are so many of them on road. How can I be different?’ The simple response to this, famously inspired by Mr. Henry Ford is ‘Buy any diesel hatch as long as it’s a SWIFT’. So if you have 6-7L in your pocket and looking to buy an affordable yet fun to drive car swiftly get it.
Other options to counter waiting period: Swift LDI/VDI (3-4 months), Swift LXI/VXI (2-3months).
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