EACH CAR GOT A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PERSONALITY!. Review on Maruti Suzuki Swift VDi

This review is not to tell anybody that I made a superb decision and the rest of the cars available are not good in anyway. Infact I found that all the cars I drove in test-drive are good in one way or another. The difference is that they are suitable to different characters.

I was impressed by the Chevy Beat’s modern looks. It look funky and stylish from outside as well as inside. The space inside is just adequate for a family of two adults and two children. The dash board of the car gives a luxury feeling. The beat is certainly a value for money car. The car was silent too or superbly refined. BUTIt doesn’t perform like a 80bhp car. Even the smallest uphill’s in road demanded the car to downshift the car to 2nd gear. I was upset and rejected it. One more drawback I felt is the poor visibility as the dash serve as a hindrance for road visibility. Again this car is excellent in terms of refinement and suits much good for city drives and it got the 3 year maintenance free package too as bonus.  

Next I took the test drive of Maruti Ritz Petrol. The car looks Ok from the front and sorry to say it is not good looking from the back. The interiors of the car looks nice and it got good space more than that of Beat but much less than Indica Vista and is comparable to Figo. I did’nt took the test drive of swift separately as both cars are from same company, Maruti, and share same engine and gearbox. But I got inside the swift too and personally I love the interiors of the swift more than the Ritz(I love round ac vents). The space inside Swift is also adequate and both cars will accommodate 5 members comfortably. It is more easy to get in and out of the Ritz as it got a higher seating position. Hence if you got old people in your home go for a tall boy design car. This car is much more powerful than the Beat and the power delivery was good. But again the K-series engine lacks outright acceleration in the low range and the power delivery improves if you press the acceleration fully. This is a car that must be revved harder. As the rpm climbs the car becomes better and better. My wife was against the looks of Ritz and Kept this under consideration.  

The next visit was to test drive the i10. The i10 got the best interiors among the three. The 1.2L kappa engine is a Gem. I love this car. It suits my character in all the way. The engine is refined and smooth(not as smooth as the Beat though). Space inside is adequate to accommodate 4 persons. I almost finalised the i10. But my wife wanted a bigger car and according to her the i10 is smaller compared to swift and she made me look in to the i20 instead. The i20 is a gorgeous among the hatchbacks. Even though the interiors of the car is the BEST among the hatchbacks, I didn’t like the LOW seating position. The low position of the seats made my knee bruising the steering and made me uncomfortable. Seriously guys this car is not for old people.   

The twist in the story:Until now I had the misconception that the petrol engines are more good to drive than the diesel engines. Then I test drive the Fiat Punto Multijet. After the test drive many misconceptions began to change. The diesel engines may not be as refined as the petrol engine of the beat but it wasn’t that noisy. You cannot identify whether it is a petrol or diesel car when you are sitting inside the car but once you are outside the car the diesel engines make slightly more noise than that of a petrol engine. Now regarding the Punto, she is also a good looking car after i20(for me) and the interiors are not as impressive as that of a Hyundai(for its cost were comparable to i20). This car also got a low seating position but not as low as that of the i20 and hence was acceptable. What disappoints me is the World class engine. Come on Fiat this car is so sluggish compared to the competition. I was looking hopefully at the speedometer, but no response from the side of the engine. The good part is it got the smoothest clutch and a good steering. This car is suited for the city drives especially for ladies(I mean ladies who are not enthusiast) and for those who need comfort more than anything. It got much bigger tyres and you wont feel any potholes and bumps.

I take a test drive of the Indigo Manza. The car is BIG. There are acres of space inside the Manza. It got nice looking interiors too. This car also got the same multijet engine of the Fiat. This engine is a responsive one unlike Punto. If you deploy the acceleration pedal the car moves with elegance initially and once the 1800rpm mark is crossed a sudden increase in acceleration. I got some time to get used to it. After the test drive I decided I am going to take a diesel car itself for the turbo kick. Believe me guys this turbo kick is addictive. Now the only reason I rejected Manza after all the positives( low price, loaded with features, a gem of an engine, best in class space and a sedan) is because of the low reliability of Tata Cars. I read all the reviews of manza in mouthshut(refer the mouthshut reviews of Manza)

The next car I drived was the Ford Ikon diesel. The engine is ok. The car looks good from the outside but CHEAP from inside(even M-800 got better interiors). The engine does not got any turbo kick or is not as refined as the Fiat’s engine but is responsive, again not as good as the manza.  

Then I give a try for the Figo Diesel.It got the same engine as the Ikon. Yes, it is nice to drive in city but no turbo kick again. This car is suitable for people who wanted to drive with a light foot(half pressing the accelerator). The interiors are good and same as the Fiesta.i don’t like the orange interiors though and prefer black. The space is also good and second best after the Tata. This car is seriously loaded and comes at a low price. Even though this car was Ok for me I rejected it as My wife was against the looks of it(GIRLS!).  

The JackPot: then I test Drive the SWIFT DIESEL. Initially I was not that interested as the swift is so common in the roads and because of the long waiting period. The Vdi model got 5 months waiting period and the Vdi with ABS got 8 months waiting period. The way the engine made me feel I got no other choice than to wait for the delivery. This car also got the same Multijet engine from Fiat, but it is made by Maruti itself. There ends the similarity with Punto and Manza. This car got a completely different behaviour compared to the other cars with same engine. This is a lot more fun to drive car and hell it is a rocket among the cars which I test drove. It also got the Turbo Kick at 1800rpms and this time the kick is more addictive. Due to low weight of Swift and may be the difference in other components like the gearbox and suspension this car is much much mush more responsive than the Manza and Punto dosesnt come anywhere close to engine responsiveness.