I researched(including reading very useful reviews here) for almost an year before I finally took the plunge to buy my first car. Got delivery of Ritz Vxi around mid-July from Spectra Motors. It cost me 4.88 lacs on-road Mumbai, including octroi. Have driven 2500 km so far and am quite happy with my decision.
The car is sprightly and easy to handle in choc-a-bloc city traffic. On the highway too, it does not lose composure and responds well to the press of the pedal even at speeds above 100 km/hr. I have driven it up to 130 kmph and it still had a lot of grunt to go higher. When not worried about guzzling gas, you can comfortably speed up to 60-70 kmph on second gear or 100 on third. However, cornering ability is not as good as Swift due to its taller stance and feels more composed on straight drives. Have driven swift also for a few months. Ritz is far more smooth with a much more linear torque distribution and pick up. But the swift makes up with better driveability on highways and easier cornering at high speeds.
On the mileage front, however, Ritz scores well above. My brother’s swift used to return 11 km in Bangalore traffic after the run-in period. The Ritz, on the other hand, ran 11.95 km to every litre in the last two tests(top up method) in Mumbai traffic, which seems much worse than Bangalore. Both measures with AC always on. Without no AC, Ritz gave me 14 km/litre in one test.
Interior space in Ritz and Swift is almost the same in front seat. Though the driving stance is slightly better for swift. But rear space for ritz is way better than the claustrophobic swift. That was an important reason for my decision to go for the ritz instead of the swift as ingress and egress alongwith the drive is much more comfortable in the ritz, which was a major plus for me since it provides for a comfortable rear seat ride for my parents.
As I said earlier, the mileage for swift is also lower and I had heard horror stories here about some owners getting just 8-9 km. That was absolutely unacceptable for me. How much ever the drive quality of the swift may be better than the Ritz.
I am just hoping the 11.95 I am getting, rises a bit more(given the claims Maruti made) by the time I complete 5k km. But even if it doesn’t, it is acceptable, even if not as great as the claims. Is anybody of you getting better mileage, would appreciate your views on this.
Also, Maruti is in the process of changing over to K series engines for all its models. Today only, they stopped production of the SX4 to relaunch it in a few weeks. Swift is also expected to get a new K series engine by January with perhaps 100 bhp instead of the current 87 to differentiate it from the ritz and target it at pure driving enthusiasts.
On top of this, the newer K series engine will obviously stay in the market for longer(at least 8-10) years and will have better resale value. So for me the Ritz had all the pluses and made a clear choice rather than the old(though still funky) G-series esteem engine in the swift.
I had also looked at the i10, which felt overpriced despite a 30k discount. On-road Mumbai price was 4.04 lakhs for era model with 1.1 litre engine and front power windows, 4.34 lakhs for magna with 1.2 litre kappa engine and four power windows. Both post discount. Even at this price, the car didn’t make sense as it is much smaller than the ritz and doesn’t offer any exceptional driving pleasure as well. The interiors though are much neater and better crafted. You have to admit, the workmanship is certainly better than Marutis. But not good enough to demand such a high price. And then Ritz has almost made up for these shortfalls. Plastics used are pretty neat and nice. The storage space on the dash(top) is also VERY useful. I use it to keep change that comes in handy when paying for parking or using the Bandra-Worli sea link. Don’t have to take off seat belts and then twist and bend to reach for the wallet. Simply keep some money in the stowage.
Further, Ritz and Swift have 14 inch wheels, while i10 still sells with the 13 inch wheels(i think these are used in the santro too). So road grip is not that good. The i10 engine, however, is very smooth and responsive, but frankly the space and the price are the big deterrants. It doesn’t feel any bigger than the santro.
And then the introduction of the kappa engine in the same old i10 body is really disappointing. There were people who bought the magna with the 1.1 litre engine at the same premium over the era only as recently as an year or so before. They would be really disappointed, specially because i10 claims the kappa engine is much better in terms of power and mileage. I felt this was gross injustice by the company, which is unable to price its products appropriately and the customers are bearing the brunt.
The Wagon-R is now due for an overhaul with the k series engine. Wonder how long the Santro will run. Hyundai doesn’t seem to have learnt a lesson and have just facelifted the Santro with some minor interior tweaks. I think the company will be forced to use the irde(era) engine in santro soon to compete with maruti. Though this is just my opinion or you could also call it speculation if you are a die hard Hyundai/Santro fan, I felt buying a Hyundai was not a good long term bet, specially because I wanted to extract every penny of value out of the money spent. And then Hyundai mileage and maintenence are not as good as Maruti.
So i10 did not make sense for me. And must add here that even though I have read several i10 and ritz/swift comparisons, don’t think they are in the same league with the Marutis way ahead in terms of overall performance and space.
Back to the Ritz, have only done two highway drives so far, one to Pune where I got 16 km/litre with mostly AC driving.
The drive quality is excellent. Just hope it remains like this for years to come.
Gears are the same as the swift and are smooth enough, though feel slightly notchy in comparison with the Hyundais. But they are reasonably good and can’t really complain much except for the reverse gear, which needs a lot of getting used to. Getting on to reverse gear, really requires precision and expertise with the Ritz. But I have kind of got used to it, and know how far exactly to push to place the gear. It gets easier with time. Hyundais are much better on this front.
Looks wise, the Ritz looks fresh and sober from the front though the back is not that great. But can live with it because i10 was no great looker either. Swift is really funky but it has other drawbacks.
The headroom is fantastic in Ritz, compared with both i10 and Swift.
AC is good in all three.
Well, I have already gone quite long. But just wanted to do my bit since I have gained a lot from your reviews. Hope you like my first review. Do let me know if you want to know anything about the car. Am not too tech savvy, but will try to place pictures soon. And hopefully, write more updates as I drive more.