Punto,Vista or Swift

@ Prasanna 

You take a TD of all the cars here mention, of course with your family (require as rear seat observation only noticed by your family members, also they comment real not a sales man talk) and decide.

My suggestion is to take Punto, if local service support is available, if local service is not available, stick with Swift, but you have to wait for booking.

Ritz Petrol (i never tried) is ok, but Diesel offering great vibrations,  Maruti is unable to manage the Great Fiat engine or the car is not consider for Diesel.

In Punto there is a push kick on 3rd and 4th gear, it gives you feel that you are setting at cockpit.

punto must be the choice..swift is quiet an oldie now.if not brand conscious just go for the punto.it is far better than the swift and is in the category of premium hatchbacks like the fabia and the i20.

to go for punto you should have its dealer in your city as the network is not as of the maruti.

there's nothing more to explain in the engine and interiors and comfort and convenience as punto is premium hatch and swift doesn't fall in this category

Bhardwaj ji..

You rightly said then every one should go for maruti.. and virtually if you see on roads .. out of 10 small cars .. 6 are marutis, 3 from hundai and 1 contains the rest. You dont know about the indian public. They go on a straight line given to them. They dont think much about the power, design, tarque, PS, interiors etc.etc... So you can check that Alto is the best selling car in all segments and the second is Wagaon R.. and none of us are talking about them. Because we all hate to discuss these cars.. But the truth is these two cars really doing well. I am not a maruti fan but i am sure it will take another 10 years to shift mind from Maruti. AFterall its history is about 25 years old and what a success they have got. They entered in the market when only two well settled cars were in market ... The Ambessador and Fiat (PAL).. The PAL is only one responsible for detrioration of Fiat in india. Otherwise Fiat is a well known brand world wide. But if you dont get aftersell service.. What the public do. They will just avoid buying the products.

Hi

Its not that Fiat is not providing ASS it is but not the best

when we all not given chance to give the service, how they will show.  

If you compare with swift <> punto.  Fiat did lot of R&D and produced the best in this segment at very competitive price.

Also every company indent to give the there best service.  Non of car manufacture having direct service center.  All service station are operated by dealers.  So dealer are not offering good service & not keeping stocks to give instant delivery of spares.

It is only the dealer management part lacking not the service.

In maruti lot of dealers are under performer but maruti chaps are removing and adding the new. so all the time we are getting good services.

In Jaipur > Fiat dealers are quite old say 15+ years,  and maruti changed 3-4 dealers in last 15 years.

Maruti getting new dealers in ease as selling highest numbers, so every body is ready to take dealership,  but i know, they are not making any money for selling,  only service part some how they are managing.

so other car manufacture need to look into the dealer management, not for sales, if service is good, it will automatic convert towards sales.

As i am thinking.   

Only thing we cant do here is rewind the time...

We cant go back in time to see whether other manufacturers would have had the same fate as Maruti-Suzuki,

All we can hope is to wait for these manufacturers to understand that ASS is equally important...

Maruti didnt produce great vehicles except for in recent times...even though they still managed to climb up the ladder...

And they are climbing it up...

No one has in my knowledge provided as good an ASS as Maruti...[they did the right thing at the right time,suzuki was a very small company back then,hard it was but they chose not to give up on customer satisfaction]

Masses need VFM,Whether its 800/Alto/A-star/Swift or Ritz or Sx4...

Its not just about buying a Car here...it needs maintenance,and how cheap or VFM every service or repair, is what decides a success of a vehicle here...

[in other words, how consumer concious a company is,that translates directly into treating your customers as consumers,who are possible faithful customers]

I strongly suggest the Fiat Grande Punto against any car from Maruti and Tata (and it really has nothing to do with the fact that I recently bought myself the GP :P).  On a more serious note, everyone above is right about the Vista--ditch it. I even had the (mis)fortune of test driving it and it seriously is not a car you would like to keep for five years.  Swift is a good car, but it is way past its prime.  It has a preppy engine, but lacks space.  Beyond that, it is a Maruti--and almost everything Maruti creates has a "built-to-a-price" feeling; over 2-3 years, you will hear a wide range of noises from your car (and I am not referring to your music system!).

The only thing you should think of before getting a GP though is how good the service network is in the places you will travel to.  As long as it has Tata coverage, you are in good hands.  Fiat has also tied up with TVS motors to provide service in the areas where Tata-Fiat service is unavailable.

Test drive the cars before you take a decision, of course.  On a separate note, have you checked out the i20? That might be a little bit above your budget, but still worth it.  i20 is a bit less on pick-up than the cars you have shortlisted though.

Best of luck!

Punto fits in nicely with all the points Saptarshi has mentioned except the one which i dont agree at all...

That is the noise!!!

I claim to have not coming across a single owner of Swift/Ritz/SX4 complaining about the rattles!!!

Or did i miss something out here...

Swift/Ritz/SX4 are in leagues apart from other cars Suzuki sold earlier...

They just dont produce any rattles...

Its just a myth like GM produces only Low end vehicles in india!!!

unlike Cruze which screams of lot more than just aggression...

Only time can tell how good the Punto is...

"Jusy being as cautious as you who considers Maruti-Suzuki to be too small a company to tackle issues like rattles..."

Had it been true,Swift nor Ritz /SX4 would have been a hit in countries like europe and USA...

By the way SWIFT is more of a Brand now for that matter...

A BRAND that gave indian AUTO manufacturers a nightmare for over 5 years...

And i think thats fair enough...

Hi Prasanna Kumar

Do update us 

I had a test drive on Hyundai i10 sportz.... Simply awesome..

I like the interiors & AC very much when compared to swift and ritz..

Now i have narrowed my option with i10 and punto..

Price should not exceed 5 lacs..

I'm from salem , having service centers for fiat punto..

I need a petrol car with less maintenance in considerable mileage..