Looks, Interiors, Design

The first thing that strikes you about Swift even before you get into it and drive is its design. The styling is almost concept car like and in profile looks a lot similar to the Mini, especially the area around the front pillars.  The styling is awesome with some interesting styling cues, like stacked and wrapped headlights and tail lights, high waist and almost vertical nose. Swift is wider than any car in its segment which gives it a very squat stance when viewed head on… very sporty.

Suspension up front is McPherson struts with anti-roll bars and semi-independent torsion beam at the rear. The tyres are higher profile 165/80-R14 which make for a softer ride but at the expense of handling. There is no ZDi aka ZXi for the petrol, so no wider tyres or air bags but ABS can be had in the VDi for 25k’s extra.

The quality of plastics, steering wheel, fabrics, controls and instruments, although good are still a notch below the Getz especially the flimsy door trims. The interiors are driver centric and it shows with good headroom and controls that fall easily to hand. The rear seats are well shaped too and are comfortable but a bit tight on the legroom. Another problem is the narrow rear windows due to a high waistline and a combination of general black theme of the upholstery and plastic making the cabin feel somewhat claustrophobic. The Suzuki designers here have overlooked practicality aspect in favor of styling. The boot is too small for a car of its size. The suspension towers intrude into the boot space and the parcel shelf is narrow too.

Performance, Ride & Handling

The 1.3 litre engine in the Swift is a true gem. Drive it for extended periods, there won’t be an iota of doubt in your mind for it being the engine of the year in its class in Europe.
The engine is free revving, just prod the accelerator a little when standing still and the
tacho needle goes crazy, making you think this is something special. The engine is hardly audible at idle, though a little vibration does makes its presence felt through the steering wheel and the pedals, its not disconcerting at all and even this is all but gone once the engine is fully warmed up. The engine is silent even outside with little of the typical diesel clatter, but what the heck, who cares as long its that fast, that refined and that economical and that quiet inside….. Read further!

Time to hop on to the driver seat. The ergonomics are almost perfect for someone like me (5 7″). I just pushed the seat a little forward and voila, that’s about it. The steering wheel, the pedal placement is alright, the gear stick falls right in your hand, you sit high enough to have good visibility all, around compared to the Palio 1.2 ‘in’ which it feels like sitting on the floor. The gearshift in itself is great, nice clicking feel when the gear is engaged, though it takes a little more effort than usual. Time to engage the first gear and move on and find out how the engine and performance is. The thing that strikes you first is how refined and vibe free the engine is when on the move, suddenly all the other diesels that I have sat in feel as if they are from the stone age with the possible exception of the Innova (Ford Fiesta is a wee bit more refined). The clutch is light compared to other hatches in the market and the car rolls forward smoothly even if you don’t press the accelerator. In heavy city traffic the car is nicely drivable and I just move along with the flow. Standing at the red light in the first row, I press the accelerator a little more than to just start the car rolling, the tacho registers 2000 rpm and the car lurks forward as if somebody banged a child’s behind with a stick and a wide grin plastered on my face in anticipation of what’s to come. I was now consciously trying to hit 2000 rpm, every opportunity I got and every time I did so the grin only got wider and wider.

Outside the city limits and out on the highway this car is a different animal altogether. Keep the rev over 2000 rpm and boy o boy does she accelerates. As soon as the tacho registers 2000rpm (any gear mind you) the engine suddenly wakes up, your are pinned to your seat and cars lunges forward as if its headed for horizon. The tidal wave of torque after 2k’s rpm is pure adrenalin rush, addictive to say the least and we are talking about a humble 1248CC diesel engine. Past 2000rpm the acceleration is amazing.
People driving behind you or by your side would be thinking, “What hit him” as the swift just flies and becomes a dot in front. You love highway cruising, this is the car for you, at barely 2500 rpm the speedo registers 100 kph with the turbo fully spooled up and the car in its torque band, overtaking is a cake walk, it doesn’t get easier in a hatchback save for the Palio 1.6 no other hatch comes even close. Even at 120 KPH the tacho is still below 3000 rpm!!! (2900 to be precise), overtaking still a breeze though it requires a little more pedal press. The sprint from 80-100 KPH is done in no time at all and I touched a brief 150 kph on the speedometer  with a little effort and some juice still left in the engine. We reckon it will touch 170 kph atleast.

To check the straight-line performance we stopped the car on the highway in the want of a proper drag launch but with so much torque available and weedy 165 section tyres, I dropped the Idea and gently started the car rolling before flooring the throttle and I shouted “Awesome”. For this kind of acceleration in petrol swift, I had to redline the car in each gear, with the engine sounding as if its blowing its guts out, while the diesel wasn’t even close to being redlined. Its not about the absolute BHP and torque figures, its about how accessible those horses are under everyday driving and here the diesel just pounces the petrol engine. The engine looses a bit of its refinement above 3000 rpm but it never gets to a point where its even remotely rough or feels strained.

 While the performance is blazing the steering feel at speeds left a lot to be desired. The steering is a little slack around the straight-ahead position and you really need to force it to point the car into a curve. Electric steering to be blamed here, its rather imprecise and lacks feel.

The handling is good too with its combination of short and wide wheelbase and stiffened suspension. The front suspension has been firmed further to accommodate the higher engine weight. Ride as a result suffers at low speeds, it’s edgy and a little harsh on a broken road but it improves considerably as speeds build up and is more plaint compared to the Petrol. The car feels stable going on to a curve but hard braking or a mid corner bump will unsettle the tail.

Verdict

The combination of looks, performance and fuel economy makes it a very desireable car. Its sporty to drive and feels very solid for a Maruti but there are a few rough edges to the whole package. Its not very practical: the boot is small, the rear seats are not generous and don’t provide the split option, the build quality isn’t so good at places especially door trims plus you don’t get Air Bags even as optional extra’s. Maruti would do well to have a ZDi model on the lines of the Petrol ZXi with all the bells and whistles. Overall the car is a very good buy if you can ignore the rather high difference in price compared to the petrol model.