the Swift has been a major success story for Maruti. Ever since it was launched, sales of the Hyundai Getz has plummeted and the car has come in for praise from all corners of the country. It sweeped most of the Indian Car of the Year awards for 2006.
The new diesel version has been launched in two variants. The LDi version priced at 4.68lakhs and the VDi version priced at 4.96 lakhs. The VDi variant comes with Anti Lock Braking system. Interestingly, the prices have been described as `introductory' and would be revived after a while, according to Maruti.
The Swift diesel uses the 1.3 litre multijet engine from Fiat. This engine is considered one of the best small diesel engines in the world. It is being used in cars made by Fiat and Suzuki. Suzuki have an agreement with Fiat regarding the usage of these Multijet engines in their cars. Maruti claim that it has the smallest four cylinder diesel engine for passenger cars in the world.
"The demand for diesel cars is growing in India and Suzuki Motor Corporation and Maruti Udyog have made major investments in diesel facilities to serve its customers needs," Jagdish Khattar, managing director, Maruti Udyog said in New Delhi.
The 1.3 litre engine develops 75 bhp of power and 190Nm of torque. The engine has 4 valves per cylinder.
The engines would be manufactured at Maruti's plant in Manesar near Gurgaon. While launching the car, MUL managing director Jagdish Khattar also announced a huge investment of 2500 crores in the Manesar plant to make diesel engines.
The plant has a capacity of 1 lakh engines a year. Maruti claim that it will be increased to 3 lakhs engines a year by 2010.
Swift currently comes in eight, mostly vibrant, colours. The three new colours are Arctic white, Ozone blue and Iridium blue.
The approximate price difference taking into acocunt the various options and everything is a premium of about 70,000 Rs. over the regular petrol engined Swift. This is the introductory price according to Maruti. This hints at a future price revision. It is a bit overpriced in my opinion. If Hyundai launch the Getz CRDi cheaper than the Swift diesel, they could have the last laugh afterall.
And when the Logan is launched, the Swift diesel's sales would drop even more. The on road price of the Swift diesel VDi would be touching 6 lakhs in many cities in India. This is a bit too much to pay for what is basically a small hatchback. Some cars like the Tata Indigo from a segment higher are cheaper than the Swift. And they offer more space and comfort over the Swift.
