Maruti Suzuki Swift

Maruti Swift’s success over the last decade is great. In the 12 years of its existence, Maruti has sold over 1.7 million units. This is despite it being not the most practical, comfortable and it even lacked features as compared to the competition.

Now we gets the third generation of the hatchback. Let’s start with the design and Maruti has done a good job of differentiating the Swift from the Dzire. In profile it looks exactly the same as the Dzire till the B pillar, post which the rear door and tail section is all-new. The unusual placement of the rear door handle, makes it look like a sporty three door. At the back, Maruti has kept it simple and the big flat boot section is also great thing for buyer. Based on the new Heartec platform the new Swift has shed around 85kg as compared to the old car despite it being a larger car.

As expected the Swift gets the dashboard from the Dzire, but Maruti Suzuki has made differentiate, the two small changes and different ambiance. The Swift gets an all black cabin which surly helps it look sporty. You also get round center vents and air-con controls, and silver accents as not coming in Dzire. Style is smart, with the large touchscreen infotainment system dominating proceedings. The automatic doesn’t come in the top variant so you get a traditional music system which looks outdated. The same can’t be said about the rest of the cabin. Plastic quality and fit and finish though decent, is not as nice as the Hyundai Grand i10.

The front seats are accommodating and offer good support. But back seats are not as good as front, as compared to the old car. The new Swift offers much more kneeroom and the wider cabin gives it an airy ambiance. The bench itself is well shaped and comfortable. There are plenty of storage spaces in the cabin in the form of multiple cubby holes and even the glovebox is of decent size. The boot at 268 litres is much bigger than before but like with the old car the lid opening is quite high and narrow, which makes loading heavy bags harder for shoulder.

In the top ZXi plus trim the Swift comes equipped with touchscreen infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Also it comes with navigation and bluetooth telephony. Apart from this the Swift gets all the basics like climate control, key-less go, reverse camera with sensors, auto headlamps, daytime running lamps and a comprehensive trip computer. In terms of safety, Maruti is offering two airbags and ABS as standard across the range.

The new Swift comes with the same 1.2-litre naturally aspirated petrol motor generates 83bhp with 113Nm torque. The petrol-only Swift has a claimed ARAI-certified mileage of 21.21kmpl. The on-road performance though is a lot better thanks to the lighter chassis. The motor is responsive and has a linear tug from low engine speeds, which makes it great for city commutes. In fact, the motor’s drivability is really impressive and you can get away in third gear from as low as 20kmph without any judder or vibration from the motor. This engine revs quite freely and when you arrive at the 6200rpm red line, you hear a nice sporty snarl. Zero to 100kmph is executed in a quick 12.26 seconds which makes it much quicker than the outgoing car and even drivability test time of 13.09sec for 20-80kmph in third gear is impressive for a naturally aspirated petrol motor.

Maruti Swift Rivals: The Maruti Swift rivals the likes of Hyundai i10, Nissan Micra and Ford Figo.