2024 Maruti Suzuki Swift AGS: Buying process & alternatives considered

In a nutshell, the new Swift is not a scorcher. But it is a well equipped beater hatch which has good ride, decent handling and fabulous economy.

BHPian fhdowntheline recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Ok, I just took delivery of my Swift ZXI Plus AGS yesterday. This comes after a month or so of pondering over the fact that I made a mistake in buying a manual hatchback. For the past month or two, using the manual in Pune city proper has been torturous to say the least. I actually started having knee pain in the left knee. It doesnt help that the Tiago's clutch pedal (all pedals in general) are a bit raised than usual. My family's plea to go for an AT back then (2 years ago) were not heeded to. The choices within my budget back then were all AMT cars. But its only now and at the cost of a few lac that I feel that its better to have AMT than MT for a city like Pune, which I will explain. So-warning that it will be a bit of a long post.

Once the germ of the idea was implanted about going for an AT option, I looked around thinking, this is 2024. Surely there must be decent choices within a 9-10 lac budget. Sure there were- AMT and EV. For the longest time, I debated whether to finally take the EV plunge. In this context, the first car I looked at was the MG Comet.

MG Comet:

Positives

1. Looks the part - it is designed ground up as an EV (I think) and so it has that chic futuristic demeanour.
2. Very convenient for city - This is like a sophisticated golf cart. You can virtually park it anyplace where you need 2 large two wheelers. Its as simple as that.
3. Decent range of 150-170km.

Negatives

1. The biggest one was the 2nd row seating. It would be impossible to take parents around.
2. Drudgery involved in taking the primary car (Verna) out of the covered parking to the open parking to make way for EV charging very few days.

So while the car was cute, I couldn't take this up any further. Nevertheless, I looked at the next option - Tiago EV

Tiago EV:

I looked at the options from the TML stable now. First up, I actually sat inside the new Punch EV and was shocked to see that I had virtually nil legroom with driver seat in my position. What they have done to achieve this, I cannot fathom. So the Punch EV was out of question. So looked at the Tiago EV. At least there was no space issue being virtually the same as the manual Tiago. But by this time, I was already having second thoughts about EV. Primary reason was the drudgery involved as mentioned above. The second was the need to "prepare" the car for any usage, the time for which takes multiple hours (i.e. charging). Your beater car should be one that you just sit down in, drive off, get the job done, no other fuss. EV cars do not fall within this ambit. Even if your beater car is low on fuel, it is still a matter of only 5-10 minutes at the nearest pump. Somehow the convenience of a ICE car still overrides everything else. So, it was back to the AMT world. The first one to be tested was the Exter.

Hyundai Exter:

Positives

1. Feeling of good quality interiors.
2. Pale green color looks premium - it would have been my choice if I took this car.
3. Very comfortable, easy AMT although I must say that it holds on to D1 for a bit too long even on a level road.
4. Familiar instrument cluster (like the Verna) and controls.

Negatives

1. The car felt sluggish at higher speeds (above 50 kph).
2. The biggest issue was that the door sill is pretty thick and presents a challenge to the elderly while exiting the car.

I also briefly considered the NIOS - but I had the same problem as that of the Punch EV - lack of rear space with driver seat adjusted to my position. So the Hyundai's were out of the question.

Next stop- Maruti!

I first enquired about the new Swift and was told that they did not have the AMT version from the 2024 lot for test drive. My Car arranged for the previous gen AMT Swift just so I could get a feel. I test drove it and liked what I felt. I then also took a test drive of the manual 2024 version. Quite frankly, I did not feel any issue with this whole 3 cylinder business. It has been unnecessarily highlighted in various reviews. Also to my personal surprise, the Swift was ok from my driver ergonomic perspective and left decent legroom in the rear for my parents. So some thing was better than the TML and Hyundais in terms of the interior layout.

I then also had a look at the Ignis, from the Nexa stables. I must confess that I have test driven the Ignis now umpteen times, and to my both pleasant surprise and chagrin, the positives and negatives have been unchanged. The engine is still smooth, the instrument cluster with the side buttons is simple and easy to use, the car is small and yet seats 4 adults comfortably with a good boot capacity. The biggest negative is that Maruti has made virtually zero changes in the car since it was launched, except for the addition of ESP. The third issue I felt was that the rear had an uncomfortable bounce even while being pussyfooted over small speed breakers. So net-net, my family said "go for the Swift and close the matter- its a new model, is comfortable and has 6 airbags -for what its worth".

With that in mind, I went ahead and booked the car. I got a very decent offer for the Tiago considering it was still new, and then it became even sweeter with a 15K discount from MSIL. We all know about the unsold inventory etc.

I decided to go in for the the Magma Grey, a different sort of colour. To me at least, it seems dirt friendly. The car was readily available in stock and I did not have any finance related formalities. So got the delivery done relatively quickly once the booking was done. The only delay was for a couple of days whereby MSIL was upgrading its system to reflect the new extended warranty. I have been offered 3+2 years or 140000 km. They do not have the highest (Solitaire) package in their system yet. I am told I can opt for it later as well.

Driving Experience

Its just been a day old, but I can already feel a certain comfort in driving the car. I had a huge amount of skepticism about AMT, but I kept my expectations in check and I now realize its not a bad deal at all in city traffic. The head nod is minimal, and downshifts are seamless. The Swift AMT gear knob is smooth- a bit too smooth I say. I like firm "notches" of the PRND type.

The seat comfort is very good and the car is spacious without feeling so. Another interesting personal observation is that the analog meters feel very relieving and soothing. The car also masks speeds well, which is surprising considering that much has been made about its drop in bhp figures.

The music system is easy to use, has decent sound output and the wireless Android Auto is seamless (so far).

The one negative I think is with respect to the central MID in the cluster. Some of its settings cannot be used on the fly- one needs to get into Ignition ON (before starting) mode and then use one of the knobs, long press it to open up sub-menus. The one thing I disabled was the turn by turn guidance from Google Maps. I don't need multiple views when I can glance at the fairly large 9in screen on the side. You cannot do this change while driving.

In a nutshell, the new Swift is not a scorcher. But it is a well equipped beater hatch which has good ride, decent handling and fabulous economy.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.