I have been a Maruti Wagon R user for the last 2 years. I had the top end of the Wagon R model i.e Wagon R with ABS and Dual air bags. I was very comfortable with the car .Then I got a chance to get a car thrugh the company lease scheme. So I finally decided to go for the car always admired . "The Swift" . As I and family were used to car having the safety features mentioned above , I decided to go for the Swift ZXI(metallic sunlight copper) . The main factors were for choosing it :-
1) Safety ( The kind of driver I am ) : ABS, Dual Air Bags, nice big tiers, taut suspension.
2) Value for money :- get a car for 5.18 lacs(Blore) + RD tx and all and you get stereo system free and many of the features like alloys, tubless ABS and dual airbags, automatic climate control . I do also like to mention that I had earlier apprehensions on the "Nippon Audiotronix " integrated audio suite but after investigating on the product found that it is a Kenwood system( NipponAudio is the supplier of Kenwood in India).In my Wagon R I do have the Pioneer system which was really good but the Kenwood came close to that though I felt my earlier Pioneer was better. All the ppl who traveled with me on the car felt that the system was good. Wht I liked abt the system was the ability to control music from the steering (a.la..American cars or top end models..) .
WHT I compromised on : - Boot space:-not much bootspace , even my Wagon R has much better boot space than Swift , but I dont travel everyday with a lot of bags ( an assumption in a year maybe max 5 to 10 days ).
The dealers Sagar Automobiles were able to deliver the car on time with the only added accessory I asked for ( Lumar sr35 steel sun control film : a very good film ). I and my wife had a drive with the car and the front seats were supportive and the performance of the car was more than adequate. ( nice weighted steering gives u a feeling that the steering is connected to the wheels dirctly which I did not have on WagonR (it was kind of very light).The power is good even eith AC in full blast( it doesn’t jump like the Verna CRDI though) but the handling was very good . ALso had a chance to test with the car fully loaded (5 properly fed ppl )and found it had a problem with low ground clearance ( I had thuds 2 or 3 times I went over bumps) . Other than that all in all a good comfy car with auto climate control cooling the car quickly. Summary :-If you are not the type who is fussy abt the music system and the type of alloys you want and do not go every weekend on long tips and like the safety features made available the Swift ZXI is a good value for mony . Wht I would really like is to continue with a review in an years time ( a long time review once the brand new car honeymoon is over ...:)..till then Ciao.