I drove the new Maruti Suzuki Swift DZire for a short distance.
Firstly as far as the looks of the car goes, everyone of you knows, the car looks bad, the front doesn’t gel at all with the rear and the front and rear look of two different cars. They have added a chrome grille which doesn’t do much in making the car look visually appealing. Standing next to the Swift hatch, the DZire is longer from the B pillar onwards. Maruti has increased the length of the rear doors and also of the rear glass to prevent rear passengers from feeling claustrophobic. One of the main reasons why Swift Hatch has been such a success can be attributed to its looks, the Swift hatch looks the part and everyone always wanted one and some even tried turning it into a Mini, not the same with the DZire though.
The interiors are exactly like the hatch, with small touches like chrome rings around the speedometer and tachometer with white illumination. MSIL should have seriously given the DZire the beige treatment as the black and grey interiors have become boring. However even after increasing the length of the rear, the rear legroom is less then adequate. Infact its almost similar to the hatch, which is very disappointing indeed. Considering rivals like Indigo, Accent, Ikon & Logan have much better legroom, i dont know how good a idea is to have a chauffer if you own a DZire.
Coming to the engine, the car comes with two engine variants, one the 1.3L G13BB of the Swift Petrol, which is a tad disappointing again. It doesnot want to move on low revvs and needs to be revved hard to extract the best out of the powerplant, i was seriosuly hoping MSIL would give the M Series engine here but i dont know what the guys at Maruti are smoking, i mean common you cant expect a car with 113NM torque to pull a 1100kg car with ease. On the other hand, the diesel DZire is a gem, with 193NM torque, the car pulls like a locomotive on rails. Its slightly slower then the hatch but thats almost negligible. The DZire just weighs 30kgs more then the Swift hatch. The diesel engine will be the one which will be having the most sales and i wont be suprised if Maruti have a long waiting period for the diesel variant. Expect FE to be similar as the hatch, ~14 in City, ~19 on the highway.
The Braking was very good, similar to the hatch but the handling is slightly on the negative side compared to the hatch. I think a prospective buyer will be comparing the DZire not with the Swift hatch but with cars in its segment like the Indigo, etc & thats where the Swift DZire has a slight edge in terms of A.S.S, VFM, Engine, Fuel Efficiency. The quality of the car is yet to be seen, Swift’s are prone to rattle earlier on in life and hopefully Maruti should have sorted the rattling issues with the DZire. The car has 440litres of boot space, which is adequate for a car of this class. There are six varaints LXi, VXi, ZXi in petrol and LDi, VDi, ZDi in diesel. The latter two are fantastic value for money with loads of features like ABS, Dual Airbags, Alloys, Climate Control, Music System, Audio Controls on Steering Wheel, etc and priced around 50k more then the Swift hatch.
As a replacement for the Esteem the DZire is fantastic, but would i put my money on it, if i was looking for a car in that segment, certainly not, it looks too ugly for my tastes and ill wait till the look of the car grows on me, then maybe i might convince myself to buy one, but at the moment i wouldnot want myself to be seen in something which looks that out of shape :p
Welcome to Motorbeam, We love automobiles to the core and obsessively cover the auto industry. If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. You can even subscribe by email here. With the feed we can keep you updated on the latest auto news, reviews and videos. Thanks for visiting Motorbeam.
March 27th, 2008 at 4:18 am
good stuff faisal. i love your original posts. they’re really good quality content. add some photos soon please!
March 27th, 2008 at 6:22 am
Thanks alot ed, will add some pictures later.
March 27th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I think Maruti have a winner on their hands.
March 28th, 2008 at 5:33 am
Rahul, i totally agree with you, Maruti does have a winner on their hands. The DZire is fantastic Value for money, but it doesnot look anywhere close to what the hatch looks like, anyways the looks will grow on us, i was a bit dissapointed with the lack of M series engine for the petrol variant.
March 29th, 2008 at 6:06 am
I think preference for a certain look in cars is a matter of choice and can’t be generalised. You don’t like it, but I do, and so do most people. Comparison with logan and indigo is not even worth discussing. It is way ahead of them.
March 29th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Ashish, looks are subjective and some may like the looks some might not, but as far as how the Swift hatch back looks the DZire is a bit dissapointing. Surely it looks much better then Logan and Indigo and as you rightly pointed out there is no comparission between the Logan, Indigo and the DZire, since the DZire is certainly in a class of its own with fantastic features like ABS, Airbags, Climate Control, Audio Controls on steering wheel which are not even a option on the Indigo or the Logan. Also it has the award winning Multijet engine, However since the Indigo and Logan are similarly priced, we cant help but make a comparission between them but the DZire does leave the competition in the dust.
The DZire doesnot seem to be built to a price but the Logan/Indigo do and the quality of those cars is nothing to talk about with panel gaps. The DZire sure is a fantastic car, there is no doubt about that. Are you buying it? If yes which variant, the ZDi seems to be fantastic Value for Money. Maruti is now going to launch the new SX4 once the New Honda City is launched.
March 31st, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Compairing the looks of Swift hatch and Dzire is absurd in my opinion. Offcoure Dzire cant be a mini.. its a 3 box for god’s sake.
Also the performance difference b/w the Swift hatch and Dzire is a lot more than “negligible”.
March 31st, 2008 at 4:03 pm
The Swift sold for its looks and still does, hence the comparission.
Secondly considering there is 30kgs difference between the hatch and the sedan, the performance difference is negligible taking the extra weight in mind.
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:44 pm
I feel DZire is better looking than the hatchback. It is a matter of personal choice.
April 4th, 2008 at 11:14 am
I have heard many people say they dont like the looks of the Swift hatch, actually the looks of the Swift hatch is either you love or you hate it types.
I respect your opinion and i totally agree with you its personal choice.
April 8th, 2008 at 2:55 am
It seems you are pretty impressed with Dzire.I am planning to buy a entry level sedan and considering Dzire,Indigo CS and Logan. Pretty confused but probably go for Dzire. My budget is around 5 lacs and considering that I think I have to go with the cheapest option of Dzire. Do you forsee any immediate price drop in the auto market considering the fact Steal prices are expected to be reduced in the range of 10% in near future. Some people also suggested to go for it now as the introductory pricing by Maruti may be increased. Any advise on that?
April 8th, 2008 at 11:23 am
Hello, Thanks for the opinions posted. I took the Diesel Dezire for a test drive yesterday. As I see the car is not a replacement to Esteem exactly. May be yes on price.
In case of looks, yes, the car’s front looks just dont go with the rear looks. It is like putting halves of 2 cars together. The car does rattle beynd my expectations. Driver’s sitting position was not comfortable. We end up paying the price for the frills and not for the technological improvements.
April 14th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Interesting comments and good insights. This car is a compromise in reality, but its a good compromise. You get something that the cat threw up but its great VFM.
A matter of personal choice as some of us say.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:09 am
What makes you think it is a compromise, when you yourself are saying it is a VFM. Well looks are good, interiors and features are better than other cars in the same price bracket, and it comes with Maruti’s reliability. What else do you want? And I don’t think it rattles. No not at all. In fact the ride is very smooth.
August 21st, 2008 at 5:23 am
Could not agee with you more..
September 1st, 2008 at 6:59 am
I do not like the swift dzire because it has degraded the looks and grandeur of Swift. Can’t maruti & other companies stop adding spaces to hatchbacks?
December 15th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Hi,
I am driving enthusiats and I own a swift diesel. I booked the car immediately after the test drive. After the car broke in 800kms, following with a test drive by another friend from Europe who was visiting suggested, I remap the ECU on the car as per European Standard since he thought it was far more sluggish compared to the car he had driven in Denmark not too long ago. He mentioned the difference were two door, better looking rims but same engines there.
After much looking I found a small company KIIRUS (www.kiirus.in)around navi mumbai, but very experienced company that helped me remap the car to full 95 bhp output (they mentioned the gain were from 75 to 95 and torque increase from 125-179lbs…dont know at what rpm etc). I have about 12000 now and I just cant believe a simple remap and no other physical mods had completely changed the driving performance. The dealership cant recognize and the car’s still on warranty….which is the best part. It’s quicker and has better mileage, was quiet and now even better. I suggest you try their demo, you’ll be amazed.
I have been there happy customer and I jut thought I add a note to this topic since we are talking about the diesel performance and everything else overall. Wonder why they dnt keep the same specs for India. Would have saved me the additional tuning money.
Thanks
Abhijit
December 15th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Abhijit remap is a good idea but under engine scan you can get caught and your warranty can get void. Thus its best to opt for plug and play devices like the Petes Tunning Box. We have tested them and they are fantastic. Checkout http://www.petes.in
For several reasons they haven’t kept the same specs for India. Fuel quality is one of them. the Swift sold abroad has less power and torque than the Indian Swift so they haven’t exactly de-tuned the car for Indian roads.