Maruti Suzuki Swift was launched in India in 2005 and nine years down the line it still remains one of the best selling cars across all segments! It has seen upgrades from time to time and that has kept the car to hold its own amidst the latest launches from competing manufacturers.
It’s the whole package – good looks, fun-to-drive, reliable, and low cost of ownership – that makes it so endearing to the buyers in this segment. Now, the latest facelift, considered to be just a cosmetic job by many, is certainly more than that. Let’s take a look.
New Swift’s engines
The Swift retains both the petrol and diesel engines of the outgoing car but there are subtle, but important, differences. The 1.2-litre petrol engine now makes 83.1 bhp instead of the earlier 85.8 bhp in the interest of fuel consumption which now stands at 20.4 km/l against the outgoing car’s 18.6 km/l. The peak power is now produced at 6,000 rpm which is 200 revs less than before. The drop in power is compensated by an increment in the torque output which is now 115 Nm. It’s only a gain of one unit but it has to be mentioned. It still comes at 4,000 revs and there are no changes made to the five-speed manual gearbox. Yes, no AMT for now.
There are no power or torque changes in the new Swift diesel and it continues to put out 74 bhp at 4,000 rpm and 190 Nm at 2,000 rpm. However, Maruti claims that it has fiddled with the ECU and also reduced friction to achieve 10 per cent higher fuel efficiency, which is now 25.2 km/l. The outgoing car used to yield 22.9 km/l (all ARAI figures).
New Swift’s Exterior and Interior
What’s a facelift without a new face, right? The new car gets a new honeycomb front grille and the front bumper has been redesigned too. Silver L-shaped inserts around the fog lamps are a nice touch while the bigger air-dam lends aggressiveness to the frontal design. New alloy wheels on top-end petrol and diesel and new wheel caps on the base and mid-variants comprise the changes on the outside.
The interior sees more in comparison, as other than the existing features in all variants the new car gets the following:
New Swift Prices (ex-showroom, New Delhi)
Swift Petrol:
Swift Diesel:
Eagle-eyed (and price conscious) readers would have noticed by now that Maruti has thoughtfully kept the price of the base variants unchanged while the middle and top variants have become pricier by around 25 thousand. But you get additional equipment too, which, to be fair to Maruti, is worth more than those ‘extra’ 25 grand that you need to shell out now. Still, I really cannot understand what stopped them to give ABS in VXi! That being said, the top-end ZXi (petrol) is even cheaper than the mid-level VDi (diesel), so petrolheads should try and pull out all stops and go for this one.
Oh yes, I did mention that the Swift petrol has become even more frugal than before! Okay, even the Swift diesel has, but you won’t be able to justify the one-lakh-rupee price difference (between the ZXi and ZDi) unless you drive your new Swift diesel DAILY for 100 kilometres for the next two and a-half years approximately. I’ll take the petrol, thank you.