Took the delivery of Swift Dzire ZDi on 23.07.08 after 4 months of waiting and shouting. Before this I have owned SX4, Baleno(3 Nos, most lovable), Swift Petrol, Esteem, Zen, Innova over last 12 years with approx 5 Lakh KMs of driving on Indian roads. Let me come straight to my experience thus far with Dzire ZDi, the new baby in garage.
Dislikes: First. No bottle holders in front door, bottole holders on rear door are odd size so standard 1 litre bottles rock, door pockets good for nothing(they don’t exist for me), horn seems to blow more inside the passenger cabin than outside, no electric mirrors, no duration control on wiper intermittant. I would have expected these in a car of almost 8 lakhs on road, but can live without.
Concerns: Would have liked to have more "bite" in the brakes. Car is equipped with ABS but the design of brakes isnt upto mark. There hasn’t been any scary situation as yet, but still get a feel that size of disk\drum could be upped. This probably is weakest part of the whole car to me. Tyres are 185\70 R14 and probably I would have liked 195 width. But so far no scare and so decided to continue with them instead of upgrading.
Likes: A whole lot. All those things that matter: engine, gear box, suspension for handling, driver ergonomics, perfect steering feel. This is truely driver focussed and great fun to drive car. At 3660 on odo, it has gone into such a silent mode that it puts to shame the likes of Baleno \ Zen etc which are in fact petrol. Add to it the responsive nature of car and you just want to drive on and on. Among all the cars that I have owned this one is outright winner in terms of driving delight.
Mileage: Given the state of fuel prices, this is crux of issue. And this is why I bought this car. And I am anything but amazed(or rather shocked) to see the mileage. It started with about 18kmpl at the beginning and now overall around 22kmpl. However, today when I clocked 26.8 kmpl between Bangalore-Mysore highway drive, I was numb with surprise and thats why decided to write this reviews. I just cann’t beleive it. Have heard of 22-24 on highway, but 26.8 is kind of mad. This was with regular IOC diesel, 100% AC on, me alone, driving at approx 100kmph mark(90-110 kmph band), sometimes giving 3rd degree(gear) treatment, mostly overtaking others, outside temp approx 27C, my normal driving and not any "economy" drive, mileage measured from full tank to full tank(I personally monitored to see that it is brim to brim with no air pockets etc) between outskirts of Bangalore to Mysore(126.4 Kms for 4.72 lit= 26.8kmpl). Bomb, I am yet to recover.
Run-in: I must mention of this. First 1000 kms of car was properly run-in by me. Which means no beating up, no lugging, no overloading, no constant speed for long time, shifting around the gears letting all the rotating \ sliding parts gel with each other perfectly. In a way, all round gentlemen behaviour with car. I methodically did this run-in(break-in) by purposefully taking the car on ring road etc and making sure that first 1000 kms are done to perfection. I am not sure if this run-in has done the trick, but I can vouch that its not just the terriffic mileage, but the entire powertrain has settled down so well that it is smooth, refined and absolute silent, beyond my usual experience with other cars.
And I am loving it. This car is going to last long with me. sure.