Maruti kills another best seller - Maruti Suzuki New Swift DZire User Review

Maruti will always get orders due to their track record - no major technical problems with their products, excellent after sales support at affordable price, and their commitment to customers.

Though opinions might differ fomr person to person for different models, there will always be lot of takers for all models from Maruti.

Tomy

I agree with Manishbajaj, on this one, but i still need to add, that its too early for us to say, just how much the sales would effect the Dzire. Let us see how it does, in the near future, and then i can comment on the sales of the car. It reminds of the way NANO was doing when it initially came into the market. The sales were top notch then, and now, its down in sales.

Regards,

David

 There is no question about the fact that the new Dzire could've been a better car in many ways. But lets face it, the competition was getting too much for maruti to handle, tata and hyundai were gaining market because they had more feature rich cars at the same price while maruti was left with all but traditional low maintanence and economy. 

 So they went about to get back their market, and they did make a car that is premium, but people buy maruti for one reason alone, low buying cost and low maintanence. Else there are tons of options in the market, so inorder to maintain the low budget car, they had to compromise boot space and rear comfort. Now you get a premium sedan with a lot more features than its older version at no increase in price. 

And this is for the SX4 lovers, in comparison, what SX4 had to offer compared to previous version of Dzire was that it was more premium, and feature rich. But look at the price now, you can get a full option Dzire below 800k while the SX4 with same features will cost u near 1 million. The only advantage being the boot space. Is that really worth it ? While you can buy a verna or nissan or many other vehicles at the same price which pushes past SX4 at such a margin that Sx4 looks like a decade old sedan.

In over all, maruti did a messy job of imprving this most loved sedan of india. But hey, you get what you pay for. Try and find me a better car with the same price with all features that you get in the new Dzire.

P.S : My opinion applies only for the diesel version, because, as for petrol variant, there are a lots of option. 

I agree with Balu on this one, but still i have my opinions and reservations. Indeed the auto market had quite a tough competition, with Hyundai and Tata, but i was then talking about auto markets in Pune. We do not see many Verna's or Nissan's on the road here as much as i see Maruti. Moreover, Hyundai's approach to get a strong market share, was not at all, working. I agree that if you ever visited any of the Hyundai stores here in Pune, you would see lines of cars out side for purchase. So desperate was the Hyundai sales guys, that they never let us go out of the showroom until we booked one. Luckily Dad was quite strong to say, "NO, Not now!", which gave us some ideas as to what Hyundai's policy was.

SX4's gained much ground here, because people wanted space in Pune more then any other place. Back in Hyderabad, its a mixed bag totally, and so is Bombay too. But Pune, has a always been a Maruti supporter right through. Better after sales service, more options in the fray and also easy accessibility, all made Maruti gain much ground here.

But if you really ask me, at least for my family, SX4 does serve the purpose. We do not want a sedan, which was more for show off and social status. Our basic need was highways, and yes, lots of space was indeed on the cards. I agree with Balu that Maruti messed up the Dzire this time. But premium features are not always the one thing that people look for. If that had been the case in point, then Nano wouldn't have had a strong base since its launch, intially.

I agree SX4, may not be all that premium , jazzy and tech savvy, as most cars are in its class, with the state-of-the-art, gadgets and gizmos. But nevetheless, its indeed something though. Anyways, Maruti needs to pull up its socks on this one.

Regards,

David

Guys, 

I was never a big fan of Dezire ever on design front and hate new dezire even more with third quarter of the car. However, I would like to reiterate that old dezire was most practical no nonesense car with good boot, easy to maintain and fun to drive. 

Maruti created/increase gap between SX4 and dezire and new car in cheaper roughtly by 30 K and to me this strategy will work in favour as this segment is price sensitive otherwise Ford Fiesta Classic would have sold more than 10 K per month not Dezire. 

In most cases boot or 300+ liters will be sufficient if it was a hatch because one can remove parcel tray and place more bags but in car with boot this is not possible and hense call for bigger boot or folding rear seat. Maruti should add folding and split rear seat, hence blurring the boundry between hatch and smart urban sedan. If this is addressed, car will sell like a hot cake i.e. Swift. 

@ Tomy,

 I agree with you completely, car has same engine and interiors have improved except boot. 

To me car will sell in good number due to maruti brand name, no Dezire brand name and maruti's service network and cars bullet proof reliability

If I were to take a decision at Maruti on the Dezire, I would have had two options: -

1. Make it bigger and bring it closer to SX4
2. Make it slightly smaller and thereby even cheaper.

The first proposition would have hit the sales of my another car. In second case, I am moving to a cheaper price band and cheaper price bands typically attracts more buyers. Given these two scenarios, I would have chosen the second the option, and I feel this is exactly what Maruti has done.

Rear was always cramped in Swift and in Dezire. They have tried to increase the leg-space slightly in the new dezire. They have reduced the boot to give the buyers a lower price point.

Plus, this is probably the best and most frugal deisel engines in the Indian car market right now. Add to it the buquet of features, that are not there with the competition. Last but not the least the assurance of cheapest and most easily available Maruti service/spares.

That will still woo more buyers than ever towards the new dezire. It will sell much more than what is used to be earlier. Plus it will not hurt the SX4 sales, rather will help it indirectly to some extent.

Of course, whenever there is a change, some people will always dislike it. But that is part of the game.

+1 to Himanshu,

Dezire's engine is Fiate's 1.3 Multi Jet with very good gear box, handling has improved, rear leg room has improved with added features. 

Again I wish, and I am sure Maruti will provide sooner or later, rear folding seat with 40/60 split, this option will negate the disadvantage of small boot in most scenarios barring few.

Car had no problems or issues. Its complete no-nonesense vehicle and will take people from place A to place B with confort and safely

First in reply to David's comment , yea i guess you have it right, i dont know how the market is up there, am from cochin and since kerala always had bad roads, once it always used to be maruti's and ambassadors , but in past 10 years, the car market has completely changed, people here arent ready to live without leg rooms, power windows or watever features these premium vehicles had to offer, eventhough largest selling vehicles from maruti still is WagonR and Alto etc in india, people here doesnt buy tat anymore, cars like eon and i10 is selling more in small car segment, at the same time, people who still love maruti's aftersales support buy only 3 cars, swift, Dzire, and SX4, and while SX4 was gaining market at first, suddenly people realized that they can get better deal by buying an Etios or Linea at the same price (actually less, with all features including Airbags ABS etc), maruti really do need to step their game up, cos first i hear swift got a bit longer, i thought maybe better legroom in the back, it didn happen, and as for this Dzire, when they made the car feature rich while cutting the boot space, i think Dzire can have a better sales cos swift sales went down cos its starting to sound like an over priced car. So its a smart move i guess, cos they did offer a better car at the same price.

I dont see much maruti's here anymore, so i guess what you say might be right there, cos u hav highway needs, while we dont have tat kinda need, and people are buying SUV's more than sedan's here which offers lots of space, but ppl like us who cant afford such fancies, will always love a better priced car which is capable of delivering the luxury tat they can offer, and that's why i think Dzire sales wont go down, while SX4 will be dead. Cos people who can spend 10 lakh on a car will go for a toyota or hyundai or nissan or linea as they offer better cars at the same segment and with same or better boot space. and as for the boot space, i guess i will miss it for sure, cos i already own one Dzire, and ive jus booked another (new version) which will make it annoying to adjust to less space.

P.S. : Dzire's waiting period after booking for Vdi and Vxi versions are 7 months already, while Zdi and Zxi versions are 4 months. Which means it is selling like hell. no one is byuing the automatic as far as i know. but the thing is, i mean i dont know if ill be alive after 7 months to recieve the car if i do book a vdi, so why wait while u can get a car in utmost 2 months and get it over with !

After reading Balu's comments, i have indeed enjoyed the discussions. You know what, you and i, should be on a car show on T.V, can provide excellent advice and different view points to each argument.

So then let's face it. Maruti is indeed under constant pressure of sales after so many freebies are provided by other brands. The irony here is, in spite of so many changes with state of the art, features to cars, Maruti has maintained a low profile in cars and still managed to get good results. When the old Swift and Dzire were in the showroom, indeed the waiting periods ran into months, some as long as 6. But people did not get disappointed. I have seen my neighbour's Dzire from Pondicherry, which they, had to wait for 8 months. So, indeed the demand was already huge.

The question is, just how long is this honeymoon period for Maruti Swift and Dzire last? People as you know, have varied interests as far as cars are concerned. For me as i was saying last time, i wanted a car, which was easy and smooth on the road, good boot space, awesome power and just the usual features. Moreover, Tata in Pune has a very bad reputation as of now! Tata's leading dealer in Pune shut off, leaving other small dealers to take over Tata cars. In return, more people started having after sales service problems, so much so, that people even cancelled cars belonging to Tatas.

Then comes accessibility, because, mostly on highways, you don't see any other showroom except, Maruti. Thus Matuti gets a better and resounding vote as the most easily accessible car. Honda, Nissan, Fiat, all still have a long time to really establish themselves, that is what i feel.

Regards,

David.

MODS: Please DO NOT post in bold. Read Rules and Regulations before posting further.

MS is very lucky here. i dont know why there is a waiting period on swift when other hatch back is ready at showroom, like (Figo, Liva, Punto, Micra, Vista, Pulse). Also, if we compare price & features, Swift is not cheap.