[manjot1912]

Finally, I'm about to give you all my very first Ownership Report of my 2011 Swift VDi. This should have happened about a month ago, but I was caught up a bit with some stuff. And also, I wanted to know as much as possible about the car before writing THIS up. I would like to apologize from now itself if it gets boring. Here we go!

I always had a liking for the "old" Swift for the way it drove and handled. I always used to tell myself that in future, no matter how old the model becomes, I will (or in better words - make my dad) buy this car. Dad always used to say - "Not now, not now", and I thank him heartily for making me wait.

The news of a new model of the Swift came sometime towards the end of 2009, and just by looking at the pics I had made up my mind that - I have to get this! I used to visit the thread on the new Swift daily to check for all the updates on the car, and I would like to thank all those who provided the much needed information at that time.

The launch couldn't have been at a much better time. It was the time when dad finally said - "Alright. Let's book it". But I know how much I had to convince my dad to move from a budget of 5 - 5.5 lacs to 6.5 lacs. The car was booked on 1st September, 2011, and the waiting period quoted at that time was 2 - 3 months. Then came the horrifying strike incidents at Maruti's plant at Gurgaon. We had absolutely no clue as to when we would get the delivery. No one at the showroom was able to provide information.

Then, surprisinly, I got a call from the showroom guys on 28th November saying that the car has been despatched from the plant at Gurgaon and it would take 7-8 days to reach. This was confirmed by another call from the Maruti people at Gurgaon. Frankly, I was not expecting the car to be delivered even after 6-7 months, and my dad had started to look at other altenatives.

The car arrived at the showroom promptly on 7th December. Did a thorough PDI, and after getting all the documents ready, we took the delivery on 9th December. Freebies provided were the usual - mud flaps, floor mats, steering cover and a hanging perfume.

Initial impressions -
Likes :
Looks wise, Maruti has done a decent job in differentiating the new version from the older one by making each body panel different. The headlights look good stretched almost halfway through the front fenders. The new tail lamps complement the head lights well. Integrated ORVM turn indicators look cool, and the covers on the indicators won't break off easily. The huge rear bumper won't be of liking to everyone's taste. Seems Suzuki ran out of ideas in making the rear different from that of the old model.

The interior of this car is a total "deal maker". A nice improvement over the old model in terms of both quality and design. It's too early to comment on the rattling department for a new car. But I do hope the panels will hold on to their clamps and clips. I love the black interiors, and the silver accents in between are a good touch. When I sat in the car for the first time during the test drive, it took me a couple of minutes to digest the fact that I was sitting inside a Swift. The resemblance with Kizashi was the reason. Front seats are big, comfortable and provide decent support all around. Rear leg room has increased to noticeable extent, thanks to the well contoured design of the front seat backs.


Dislikes :
Sadly, their are some areas where the new Swift falls short. The major two departments, which most of you are well aware of - braking and boot space. First of all, the boot. It is indeed puny. But, it's not a major issue for me. If ever there is need to carry luggage, it will be done in our Esteem. As of now, I've already eaten up the boot space by throwing in a JBL sub in it.

Now, the brakes. After reading earlier TD reports and new ownership reports about the weakness of the car's brakes, I started to have some serious reservations about it. On a scale of 0 to 100, if 100 is excellent and 50 is average, then in my opinion I would say the brakes on the Swift are at 70-75. I haven't faced any problem in the city yet, but on the highways they fall a bit short. Will up-sizing the tires solve the issue to any extent? I doubt. I saw on a fellow t-bhpian's thread that Maruti will look into the issue for his new Swift. Hope Maruti comes up with a universal solution.

Now, for the other small niggles. The fog lamps are totally ineffective. They barely manage to light up 20 ft up ahead. Rear seats fall a bit short on providing thigh support. The transmission tunnel hump proves a little discomforting for the middle passenger. Plastic quality of power window switches and ORVM joystick is strictly OK. The hatch door takes some effort to close down. The first time I tried to shut it, I took 3-4 attempts to do it.

Driving Experience :
When it comes to driving, it's an absolute joy. The turbo kick past 2k rpm, though reduced now, still gave me goose bumps the first time i drove it. Steering feel is accurate. Perfectly balanced for city driving and highway cruising. Handling is just as sportier as it was before, if not better. The tweaked suspension makes the ride very smooth. Absorbs road undulations without problem. I did a 700 km trip on a weekend, out of which around 550-600 km was done on the highway and maintained a constant speed of 100-120 kmph. In between came a beautiful long straight stretch of empty highway and this tempted me to take the car to 165 kmph. At that point, the tires began to wobble slightly and the moment I pressed the brake pedal, the car took "light years" to come to a halt. The next thought that came to my mind was - "never am I going to touch these speeds again on this car".

Distance covered till now is close to 3000 kms and I got a good fuel efficiency of 20-21 kmpl during that long weekend trip a few days back. In the city, I'm getting close to 18 kmpl. Both these readings are as per my calculations. But, this is where my problem lies. The digital display showed an average of 17 kmpl during the long trip. And it stays in between 16-17 kmpl in city. It was only during a trip to Puri, a week after getting the car, that the display showed an average of 19.5 kmpl. Can anyone throw some light on this?

So, that's it for now. Thanks a lot for your patience in reading this long post. I'll let some pics do the talking now. Hope you all liked the review.

The night it arrived.






























Maximum instantaneous fuel consumption


Highest overall fuel consumption achieved on the display

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Initial ownership forum. Thanks for sharing!

[souravc]

Congrats on your new car - reading your post takes me back a few years when I bought my Swift. Wish you many happy miles .

On the braking distance , you would see marginal improvement with better tyres like Yokohama , Michelins (though these have softer tyre walls so are susceptible to side wall damage on very bad roads) . I am not aware of your stock tyres though . You can also reduce tyre pressure by a couple of points to increase the tyre patch which should aid in braking .
cheers

[Dieseling]

Congratulations !
She will serve you well, mark my words. Though I am not sure when you mention braking. It was never an issue on my VDi ABS. Infact the ABS breaks have saved my life on couple of occasions. Breaks felt adequate and car always stopped in one single line for me, even from 160kmph. 100-0 breaking distance was also satisfactory at around 50-55 mtrs.

[volkman10]

Congratulations on your Swift !

The white suits well in the Swift. Except for the less boot space and the unconventional lip on the boot ( and higher loading height), it has surpassed the phased out model.
Drive safe and wishing you happy ownership!

Cheers!

[manjot1912]

Originally Posted by souravc

Congrats on your new car - reading your post takes me back a few years when I bought my Swift. Wish you many happy miles .

On the braking distance , you would see marginal improvement with better tyres like Yokohama , Michelins (though these have softer tyre walls so are susceptible to side wall damage on very bad roads) . I am not aware of your stock tyres though . You can also reduce tyre pressure by a couple of points to increase the tyre patch which should aid in braking .
cheers

Thanks Sourav! Will play with tyre pressure values for a while to find the most appropriate one that will balance both ride comfort and braking.

Originally Posted by Dieseling

Congratulations !
She will serve you well, mark my words. Though I am not sure when you mention braking. It was never an issue on my VDi ABS. Infact the ABS breaks have saved my life on couple of occasions. Breaks felt adequate and car always stopped in one single line for me, even from 160kmph. 100-0 breaking distance was also satisfactory at around 50-55 mtrs.

Thanks Dieseling! Indeed, ABS helps a lot. But, sadly Maruti didn't give the ABS option on the V variants this time. And yes, the car does stop in a single line for me too.

Originally Posted by volkman10

Congratulations on your Swift !

The white suits well in the Swift. Except for the less boot space and the unconventional lip on the boot ( and higher loading height), it has surpassed the phased out model.
Drive safe and wishing you happy ownership!

Cheers!

Thanks Volkman! Appreciate it.

[himavanth_m]

Congrats on your swift. Looks like you have added a lot of goodies on the swift.

Since you have installed the ICE on your swift, one of your pics shows that the front speakers were perfectly fit into the slot on the front door. Which speakers model did you use in your swift?
My friend here wants to buy some model from Kicker and his speakers were fitting in, but the ICE installer said that he needs to make some cuts in the slot. Did any such cutting happen in your swift as well for putting the speakers?

If there was no tampering, your help in the model selected for your ice speakers would be really helpful. I will pass on that information to my friend.

[swiftnfurious]

Congrats on the new car man! Based on my experiences on the previous gen Swift D,

1. Anything more than 80 kmph is suicidal on the stock 165/80 tyres! Caution advised. Upsize to 185/70 or 15 inchers with alloy wheels.

2. Try performance brake pads - those cost like 4500/- I guess, should make quite a difference if you go per the reviews [Guess "Hawk" makes some good ones]

3. Could not understand "your way" of calculating the FE - based on the needle position in the gauge? In the MID, I guess it shows average FE, so naturally on long trips, it will display better FE than in city! If you didn't mean this, sorry - I could not get your question properly!

Last but not least, Wish you miles of happy & safe motoring!

[manjot1912]

Originally Posted by himavanth_m

Congrats on your swift. Looks like you have added a lot of goodies on the swift.

Since you have installed the ICE on your swift, one of your pics shows that the front speakers were perfectly fit into the slot on the front door. Which speakers model did you use in your swift?
My friend here wants to buy some model from Kicker and his speakers were fitting in, but the ICE installer said that he needs to make some cuts in the slot. Did any such cutting happen in your swift as well for putting the speakers?

If there was no tampering, your help in the model selected for your ice speakers would be really helpful. I will pass on that information to my friend.

Thanks Himavanth_m! I have installed Infinity Ref 6530CS components in the front doors. Cutting was done on the ORVM panels to mount the tweeters. But that won't hurt once the installation is done perfectly and will look good. I will post another thread on the car's ICE pretty soon and give all the details.

Originally Posted by swiftnfurious

Congrats on the new car man! Based on my experiences on the previous gen Swift D,

1. Anything more than 80 kmph is suicidal on the stock 165/80 tyres! Caution advised. Upsize to 185/70 or 15 inchers with alloy wheels.

2. Try performance brake pads - those cost like 4500/- I guess, should make quite a difference if you go per the reviews [Guess "Hawk" makes some good ones]

3. Could not understand "your way" of calculating the FE - based on the needle position in the gauge? In the MID, I guess it shows average FE, so naturally on long trips, it will display better FE than in city! If you didn't mean this, sorry - I could not get your question properly!

Last but not least, Wish you miles of happy & safe motoring!

Thanks Swiftnfurious! Tyre upgrade is definitely on the cards, but not now. And will try to source the performance brake pads once the present ones wear out.
I'm sorry I forgot to mention the way of calculating FE . It was done through full tank to full tank method.

[arup.misra]

Congrats on your car dude. You've indeed got yourself the best diesel hatch in the country. Better think of upgrading the shoes to a nice set of alloys and tyres if you intend driving 140k+ on the highways. They will compensate for the poor braking in Vdi. Do inquire about after market brake pads. By the way nice ICE.

[manjot1912]

Originally Posted by arup.misra

Congrats on your car dude. You've indeed got yourself the best diesel hatch in the country. Better think of upgrading the shoes to a nice set of alloys and tyres if you intend driving 140k+ on the highways. They will compensate for the poor braking in Vdi. Do inquire about after market brake pads. By the way nice ICE.

Thanks Arup! Wish I could do constant speeds of 140s here, if we had proper highways on this side of the country . But yes, only after tyre upgrade.

[Turbokick]

Fantastic write up Manjot !
To the point and precise.
I would like to know about the driveability of your new car. As in within the turbo lag period how does it perform ?

[manjot1912]

Originally Posted by Turbokick

Fantastic write up Manjot !
To the point and precise.
I would like to know about the driveability of your new car. As in within the turbo lag period how does it perform ?

Thanks Anil! Glad you liked it. Within the turbo lag period, i.e., below 2k rpm, the car performs really well. Low end torque also plays good role in this. Let me give you an example to explain this - if you remember, near the Forum Mall at Satya Nagar there are two sets of speed breakers, and each one has 5-6 humps which are quite big. Whenever I approach these, all I have to do is slow down, engage 2nd gear and just play with the clutch, without touching the accelerator pedal, and the car goes above them slowly and smoothly. Even while parking the car into my house's garrage, which is elevated around one and a half feet from the road, the car pulls easily in 1st gear without using the accelerator. Also, driving within 2k rpm in traffic is effortless and 3rd gear, according to me, is the most driver friendly gear, if you are driving in city. The car easily pulls from speeds as low as 25 kmph in 3rd gear. I guess all modern diesel cars perform like this these days.

[bala80]

Congratulations on your new car, though we get to see so many of them (especially white) on the roads, she is still a looker!

One suggestion if I may - Please go for good quality leather wrapping for the steering, it will not only feel very good, but will compliment of the looks of the car. The current one looks very cheap IMO.

Wishing you a very pleasant ownership experience with your new car.

[manjot1912]

Originally Posted by bala80

Congratulations on your new car, though we get to see so many of them (especially white) on the roads, she is still a looker!

One suggestion if I may - Please go for good quality leather wrapping for the steering, it will not only feel very good, but will compliment of the looks of the car. The current one looks very cheap IMO.

Wishing you a very pleasant ownership experience with your new car.

Thanks a lot mate! I always wanted to get a good leather wrapping on the steering wheel. But the one that Maruti provides doesn't match my taste in terms of qaulity and I've seen their badly stitched samples too. For the time being, since this was given as a freebie, I've put it on the wheel. The moment I grab hold of a good installer with good quality covers, I'll surely change over to it.