Review : Well, though I started to hear the hype a little later than others, sure this SWIFT fever caught me. Having spent 5+ years overseas and having seen Maruti 800 for longer peiod in India, I never beleived that Maruti Udyog can bring out a decent car. All those myths were proven wrong when I test drove the new Maruti Swift. First of all, though many disagree and be hypocratic about this, all of us give importance to a Car’s look. In this segment, the Swift gets 5 out of 5. Boy! they have done a great job make this car look neat, not even one angle looked shabby. The next part is the interiors and comfort, ie height of drivers seat, seat position adjusting, reachability of the shift stick, steer wheel comfort, space in the rear, inside carpets, seat fabric, inside door panels etc. etc. In this, Swift gets 4.5. I should say it again that these guys have done their home work very well. Air Con has 4 variant fan speeds, I felt most comfortable in the second speed itself. Suzuki Swift has the best interiors on par with its competitors. Its amazing that they are able to offer this in the best price possible. So I grabbed the wheel and reversed out of the show room to test drive it ( I test drove the Vxi). Reversing was alright, But I should admit that the brakes are very sensitive (this could get adjusted, and party because you are driving this one for the first time) and when shifted to 1st gear and moved with a very little throttle, I almost felt no noise from inside, then I had thought that the engine was off (this is partly due to seat belt warning was on) and asked my friend sitting next to me. He said, it cannot be the case....this is when I realised that the car made absolutely no sound. and Power Steering was awesome, I almost felt no stress as against my Santro. But I believe this one is a electronic power steering and not hydraulic. As we moved forward negotiating the traffic in a real crammed road, I started to feel that the drive was absolutely effortless. I also noticed that you can rev up quite a distance in the second gear itself and the car would not cry. The bumps were handled easily, I could feel the Mcpherson’s struts. There’s a little bit of distance between the horn pad and the actual mechanism..that is when you honk, it’ll give click click sound along with a horn beep. I should say manouverability is good, but I didn’t drive at higher speeds though. Air con is excellent. Sporty feel shift stick is awesome...absolutely no hassles at all. I guess the other controls were easily manageable. So this gets 4 out of 5. As we had returned, I had to park the car on a little raised ramp like kerb. For some reason the Car’s clutch did not respond well, ie if you release the clutch to an extent and rev the accelerator up, it should go up, but this one started pulling me back, I tried it couple of times and gave up. This wouldn’t happen with Santro...but again it may be the way that pavement was laid. After we came back, I talk to the sales guy about the Mileage, this guy wasn’t sure how much it was offering, I guess this is still a grey area for the next 3-4 months. I spoke to him about the engine as well, this one is a re-engineered esteem engine, with 1.3 ltrs of capacity (1290cc). Good about this is that this is a well tested engine in Indian conditions, the same might turn out as a bad thing as well, as some may think that this is old wine in a new bottle. If you are a city dweller, I don’t think mileage would be any better othe vehicles in today’s market. So this part gets 3.5-4 out of 5. Colours, I would say some decent selection. Few colours like Mint Frappe would look real good apart from the standard ones. If the red was a metallic one, it would be the killer of all. The missed to offer the yellow in this one, what a blunder. Yellow could have been a ripper. This section gets 4 out of 5. He said there’s waiting period of 1.5 months for the Vxi and Lxi while 3 months for Zxi. I personally would go for Lxi, cos. its the best value you can get today. Zxi, ABS, EBD, Climate Control, Rear wiper and demister, 14’’ alloy with tubeless radials, Driver & passenger airbags, definitely looks interesting but I don’t think its worth 1 lakh difference. I guess you can get the alloy and radials for 15k outside if you exchange your new wheels after the delivery. Major issue with the Swift is that there’s no Stereo given as an accessory even in the tope end Zxi, what a joke. But again, this makes sense with other things are coming with the car, Overall Build quality is excellent. This part gets 5 out of 5. In total, I give a big thumbs-up to the new Maruti Swift. I am going to book mine sometime this week.