I am searching for a car in 5-6 lakh car segment, and hence the i started to began by test driving most of the cars in this segment.
To begin with I was least interested in Swift Dzire since I personally think it looks ugly and most of my friends thought similarly. the most common perception is that it looks like swift has been extended. But looks can be deceiving and one should never judge the book by its cover as they say. Anyways I thought let me just try the car and judge it w.r.t performance and hence I went to RNS motors, yeshwantpur, Bangalore showroom to take the test drive of the vehicle.
So the first dampener even before taking the test drive was that I was told that Dzire has a waiting period of 9 months! Can you guys believe it. I was shocked to know it and thought may be it was a marketing gimmick to just urge early booking from customers since i refused to believe that any vehicle can have such a long wait period given the tough competition in todays market. but later I found that it is true.
Nevertheless I wanted to take a test drive and the model was Swift Dzire Zxi(diesel) a top end variant.
The first look to the interiors and I was impressed. the backside of the car is good its only the front side with which I personally had a problem as far as looks go.
The top end variant comes fully loaded with music system, power windows, remote locking etc. The vehicle is spacious and even the dashboard looked quite good. the moment I started the car the feeling was good. Hmm it was very smooth and it showed no signs that it was a diesel car and behaved much like a petrol car. There were hardly any vibrations.
The road we choose was the real bumpy tumkur road in Bangalore which is full of potholes especially one small stretch where I chose to test drive.
I was first of all amazed by the smoothness, torque and pick up. I doubt if any other diesel car in this segment will be that smooth. Infact I was wondering how can this diesel version feel almost like a petrol car. The pick up, control and drive was really too good. inspite of the road being full of potholes I cud not feel them which means that the shocks-ups are really good.
The response to the gas pedal was amazing it is similarly to a petrol vehicle. I must say maruthi has done a damn good job. At 75 bhp the pickup is damn impressive too. I was told that the mileage is around 15-16 kms in city driving conditions with AC which I think is quite good for diesel car though it is not the best compare to other cars.
Even my wife was absolutely thrilled to have a comfort drive on a bad road. Anyways the waiting period has proved to be a dampener since 9 months waiting for a vehicle is not practical at all. I guess since the demand is so high maruthi shud increase their production of cars somehow to solve this mess otherwise they wud be loosing many potential customers like me.