Very good Hatchback. Review on Maruti Suzuki RitZ

I needed a car desperately after relocating to India. I went through every forum and tried almost every car. I started my search with a Honda City, rode a swift, tried the DZire, Fiesta. The list goes on but with Ritz it was love at First sight. I have owned it for 6 months now

The looks:

Extremely unconventional with a controversial boomerang back. From the front the car is very impressive and from the back the boomerang back gives it an unconventional look. Honestly it does not look good in photos but in person it has a personality of its own. I own a white Zxi which has a two tone body color for the door mirrors and the interiors which gives it a good look.

Heart & Soul:

the 1200 cc petrol engine of this car is much better than the 1200 cc i10 I own which is only 2 months old. The pick up is not as peppy as the Swift but it has a good torque at the high end. It does not shut down or drag when the aircon is going full blast. It is gives me a better average than my i10 and I estimate around 19 kmpl with aircon. although I do almost 40% of my driving on the highway remaining 60% is stop and go in very narrow roads of the infotech park at Pune. I have done about 60 in the 3rd gear without the engine laboring, about 100 on the 4th gear without much of labor, I have gone upto about 150 kmh on 5th and did not have the guts to go beyond that :-)

One important thing to add is that above 110-120 kmh the braking is pretty shaky and I have had some uncomfortable and close calls

Handling:

The car is very easy to drive and gives a big car feel. It is a little easy to get carried away in the 4-5 th gears. It is pretty stable while cornering and the taco above the dashboard lets u know if you are laboring in case the music system is blaring eagles or smoke on water at high decibels

Comfort

the front seats are very spacious and comfortable. the back seats are a little uncomfortable on bad roads and you do bounce around a bit. The aircon is pretty Ok but I wud have liked it to be more powerful one but then again it is better than my i10. There is a 60:40 seat split at the rear thanks to which I carried a 6 ft plus aluminum ladder without any pains.  Long drives haven't been many but my boss the VP of the company liked the drive and he said that it was as good as his Honda so I was happy since I paid half the price of that car

Safety

It has front airbags, abs and all the standard stuff which I think makes it pretty safe. The lights on the dash blink if you do not put ur seat belt and for an oldie like me it is good as I tend to forget if not reminded.

Frills

I have the zxi which comes with built in deck, hand controls and all side automated windows. The sound is standard but gets better if you can put some decent after market speakers. I would have loved to see a climate control and automated side glass controls. It is a pain to use the levers to adjust your door mirrors. It gives a long dead ECG sound if you leave the lights on after you have parked for forgetful Einsteins like me it is a boon

Customer Service

Here comes the pathetic part. because they sell good products the company really cares a crap. The dealership reminds me of the premier dealerships we used to go earlier when the premier padmini and the bajaj chetak had 5-10 years of waiting periods. In stark contrast despite the short comings of the car the Hyundai guys treat you like GOD and take care of every small thing and value your time and efforts. I have only horror stories to tell at the Maruti dealerships

Bottomline:

This car is very good. I would have like to see it come with an auto transmission, auto climate control and some more frills and slightly better comfort for the rear passenger. If you can live with the bad customer service the car definitely is good.

I do not belong to any community or support any models. I have benefited a lot from great feedback from mouthshut and I feel it is my duty to give back when appropriate.