Regular readers of my blog know I am fond of driving. I haven't driven high-end cars for long distances. I have read both professional reviews and user reviews of almost all the cars sold in India. Until Hassan Trip, I never thought of writing a blog post on a car, let alone Maruti Suzuki Swift.
My friend Jagga has a Swift Vxi, 2009 model (1.3L, not the new car which is 1.2L). 5 of us went to Hassan to attend a marriage and also visit some of the places nearby. Having driven for over 600 km in 2 days, I fell in love with this car and thought of writing a few words about the car.
Car has good power and I managed to keep consistently with 135-140 kmph with 5 people and their luggage on board. While coming from Chitradurga, I even raced to 160 kmph for a couple of minutes before slowing down as the car, I thought was not designed for such speed because since it was becoming unstable. This time, we were only two people and so, the weight was less.
A month back I drove my friend's recently bought Skoda Fabia diesel. I always thought diesel cars have better power though a little less acceleration. When I drove the Fabia diesel, I was very disappointed with it's acceleration. If someone, regularly drives a petrol, test drives it, he won't buy it. However, I didn't drive long distance, so I can't tell how it's power is distributed among different speeds (gears).
My cousin bought Ritz diesel and I happened to drive it from Chitradurga till Bangalore a couple of weeks ago. I was a little skeptical about it's power because on spec, it is 75 ps and 190 Nm torque, which matches that of Fabia's. However there was a surprise for me - the acceleration. Ritz diesel's acceleration is much better and almost comparable to petrol similar sized engines. Both are common rail direct injection technology diesel engines but stark difference in acceleration, which makes me believe Fabia's engine was not refined (or rather fine tuned) for initial acceleration, which people like it very much in India to race when the signal becomes green!
Now, I need to drive more cars on different road conditions to compare them better.
PS: Views expressed here are based only on my personal experiences and the particular cars I drove.
My friend Jagga has a Swift Vxi, 2009 model (1.3L, not the new car which is 1.2L). 5 of us went to Hassan to attend a marriage and also visit some of the places nearby. Having driven for over 600 km in 2 days, I fell in love with this car and thought of writing a few words about the car.
Car has good power and I managed to keep consistently with 135-140 kmph with 5 people and their luggage on board. While coming from Chitradurga, I even raced to 160 kmph for a couple of minutes before slowing down as the car, I thought was not designed for such speed because since it was becoming unstable. This time, we were only two people and so, the weight was less.
A month back I drove my friend's recently bought Skoda Fabia diesel. I always thought diesel cars have better power though a little less acceleration. When I drove the Fabia diesel, I was very disappointed with it's acceleration. If someone, regularly drives a petrol, test drives it, he won't buy it. However, I didn't drive long distance, so I can't tell how it's power is distributed among different speeds (gears).
My cousin bought Ritz diesel and I happened to drive it from Chitradurga till Bangalore a couple of weeks ago. I was a little skeptical about it's power because on spec, it is 75 ps and 190 Nm torque, which matches that of Fabia's. However there was a surprise for me - the acceleration. Ritz diesel's acceleration is much better and almost comparable to petrol similar sized engines. Both are common rail direct injection technology diesel engines but stark difference in acceleration, which makes me believe Fabia's engine was not refined (or rather fine tuned) for initial acceleration, which people like it very much in India to race when the signal becomes green!
Now, I need to drive more cars on different road conditions to compare them better.
PS: Views expressed here are based only on my personal experiences and the particular cars I drove.
