I have recently (18 Jan 2010) took delivery of Swift VDi and proudly can say one of a happy owner of this vehicle.
I made the choice of this car after a long and detailed analysis of diesel cars available in the market. The biggest confusion with diesel cars comes is in terms of the pricing. The diesel cars start at a price range of 6 lakhs with hatch back model to 8 and there on for a sedan mode. Initially I looked up for a sedan model, with options like Optra magnum, Verna and Linea. Truly optra magnum was standing out in terms of space, performance, mileage and everything, with additionally a best deal offers from GM. But the required parking space, low floor model and importantly a outdated look on both interior and exterior of the car, made me to change my plans.
Change of plan was to buy a hatch back diesel with options in the market was quite easy with just 3 model. i20, Punto and Swift. i20 and Swift are the only close contenders I would say in terms of performance. But i20 had the usual Hyundai design issue of the front dash board curing well below and it troubles my leg during gear change (Cost also high). With performance, quality and reliability the choice was Swift.
Delivered in about 1.5 months after booking, I took a black color. Even though I wanted for a light shaded color given the dust in Indian roads, since the choice of colors was very limited with Swift, I went with black.
So far the car had been great and I took it on highway to set the engine quickly and as well in a better condition. First 1000 KM are always crucial and so I took for a trip to Bangalore and Mysore driving all way from Chennai. In a week time I drove almost 1300 KM and had the first service done on 28th. The amazing part of the trip was the mileage. It run 616KM for 26 litre disel, an outstanding 23KM per litre mileage within the first 1000 KM run. This is completely surprising to me and really made me one of a happy swift owner.
Nothing comes without some cons and that I noticed was a noice from the suspension while breaking. And the response from Maruti service team also not satisfactory as they "THAT IS HOW IT IS IN SWIFT".
My drive is continuing and I hope to see this car continuing its performance, both in terms of comfort, reliability and fuel consumption. Will make my posting updated after 10, 000 KM :).
21/Jan/2011
Updating my posting after an year of experience with Swift. Its clocking close to 10, 000 KM and I found problems in back door fitting, mileage down by 3-5 km a litre from my initial run (Average in city 15 and Average in highway 18), very bumpy rides due to suspension and to add to it are the bad roads post monsoon. Above these are some noises inside dash board and wind-shields.
Overall, my experience is still at satisfactory or good, would say. But could have been better or expecting better, given the reliability we anticipate from Suzuki products. So early, the fitments getting shaky and giving noises is not at all good. I had been reporting this problem at my service centre, but they don’t seem to get it fixed. It could be the service centre problem on those in car noises and bumpy rides, or it may Swift itself is like so. To check on this going to change the service centre and see if some of the problems gets fixed.