Jul 03, 2005 04:26 PM
6380 Views
(Updated Jul 03, 2005 04:26 PM)
Hello people!
The first time I looked at a Swift I was very impressed. It looked, sleek, muscular, and felt as though it had great character. So I went for a test drive a month ago to delaer in North Mumbai. He had all the three versions of the car which was good.
I first checked out the LXI and I must say that all my initial euphoria died down. I checked the interiors and found them extremely ordinary. It did not inspire a feeling in me that I must buy it. It had a cheap platic dashboard with a slot of a digital display of some kind. But I later found out that it was nothing. MUL did not get that slot out in the Indian car.
I then went towards the VXI and ZXI versions thinking that those will be better because they are more expensive. But to my horror, they were the same. The boot lacked space, the rear seat was small for a 6 foot guy like me(seat taken back fully) and the car felt as though it was imported as a refurbished one from Bangladesh.
I said to myself that atleast for the features it gives in the top end models, it was cheap and that Maruti had compromised on the interior quality to give a good ride and performance. After all this is Maruti's forte. So I decided to take a test drive on it.
This is when I got very disappointed or probably annoyed. I asked the dealer to give me the ZXI model for a test drive. After all, I was thinking of buying the top version of the car which came with some good features such as airbags and climate control. The dealer said that he only lets the LXI out on test drives and not any of the other two models. I was quite disappointed by this attitude. After all I wanted to check out the climate control feature. Anyways, I still took the LXI for a test drive.
The salesperson and me took the car out and started the drive. It felt like a refreshing change from most Maruti cars. It was peppy, responsive and gave good visibility. It took some of the bad roads pretty well too. MUL cars are not known to have a great suspension like cars of Hyundai, Honda and Toyota do. Nevertheless, it felt good to see a Maruti that drove well.
Now there were some things that annoyed me too. The dashboard has a seat belt warning lamp which keeps blinking if you dont wear the belt. This is extremely annoying and they must provide a feature whereby you can turn that light off. The space for the passenger in the front is also limited. I am a bit tall so I had to take the seat right back to get decent space in the front. However, I dont think many people would face the problem. I also found the power steering to be a bit tight when I was at around 60kmh. But I guess it must be a problem only with that particular car. There was also a rattling sound in the back which I did not tell the salesperson about. But I dont think a car should rattle although it is a car meant for test drives.
After getting a good drive we arrived back at the dealers place. At the end of it all I could say that the experience was strictly okay and all my enthusiasm had evaporated. The car felt good to drive and whiz around in Mumbai and everybody gave a second look. But the unplanned, cheap interior quality, problematic electromagnetic boot button, lack of boot space and leg space in the back made me feel disillusioned. The salesperson also told me that the FE would be around 11-13 which I did not mind.
However, I decided not to buy the car and today I own a Getz GLS. I miss the peppiness of the Swift and its sporty looks. But at the end of the day I think I paid more for the Getz for peace of mind with reliability, performance and solid build.
I am not saying the Swift is bad but I cant call it good either. Its okay.I also think Maruti dealers should let the public test drive the top version of the car. Also their 50k demand for booking seems to be outrageous. Not even the Skoda guys ask for that much in the beginning. I hope MUL can sort out some of the problems I mentioned above.
