This review is not after purchasing the swift but after test riding it. Looks are either you love it or hate it and I had witnessed both in short span though on personal front I would say its unique from Maruti stable and I like it.
External Fit & Finish is quite good and typically Martui like though I would like to have as that of Honda’s.
Interior........this is camouflaging due to shrewd dark grey colours and may look impressive to masses, but have a look closely and you will agree that it is not class leading. Fittings are also not that impressive. Lots of thing has being said about it being a hatch back and spacious etc......but the fact remains that Maruti has not being able to get past its cramped seating space image even in swift.
Here the front seats are OK but rear is not satisfactory and nowhere if you compare to competition. Overall if you are 5 in number, you can’t travel long distance in a relaxed and comfortable position. The only reason why this car may appear to be spacious is due to some intelligent space carved out by designing the sides and you will notice it when you sit and appreciate what I mean to say. The luggage space is well below expectation and at times one feels that its even less then that of Wagon R. Modifiy the engine, length, breadth and width of Wagon R and pour some different colours both inside and outside and I bet you have a better swift then whats available in market as of now.
The car that I was testing had barely done 560 kilometers and the amount of rattling it was doing shattered my confidence. The plasticky interior were rattling from three areas while the rear hatch was the loudest and kept on giving discerning noise. AC is the best part of the car and there’s no matching for it irrespective of class. The engine is quite smooth and takes up the task no matter what you give it. We were five with average weight of 75 Kgs and height of 5 feet 11 inches and I was quite surprised with how composed the engine was even when fully loaded with guys like us. The tires of LXi and VXi was really appearing very skiny in front of the Zxi and we drove the ZXi version. The Shock absorbers bottomed out whenever we hit speed breakers and this was really dissapointing.
Now the worst and this questions the transparency of Maruti. The dealer was bold enough to ask a booking amount of 50000/- INR which even the Hondas and Toyotas (Innova) are not asking. The delivery they said was anytime in end July 2005. But the bottom line is people are queing for it as its an excellent value for money.
All said and done, I would like to wait for 6-8 months for Honda Jazz, Fiat Panda, GM-Aveo etc. etc. to be launched and hope by this time swift’s true picture shall emerge and the dealers change their attitude!!