I test drove the Maruti Suzuki Ritz ZXI (Petrol) last weekend. I am comparing it to the Swift as I think customers will find it tough to decide between these two cars from Maruti.
Exteriors:
- I like the front and the front 3 quarter view. Looks like a mature grown up Swift !
- To get used to the rear I may have to start drinking something stronger than non-alcoholic beverages and quite a bit of it as well till my vision blurs. The rear doesn’t look too bad when the car has wider tires (like on the ZXI) and also when it is on the move. When stopped and up close it does look a oddish nice kind of strange.
- The side view is interesting till the C pillar – then almost like the designers ran out of paper/screen space while making the drawing they stopped with a vertical line and ended the rear !
- You will tire of hearing about the “boomerang” shaped tail lights from the dealer sales person very quickly. You would wish you had a real boomerang to fling at the sales guy. The tail lamps are pulled inwards and a strange window lineof the side windows is seen when viewed from the full straight rear position.
- The exterior door handles, ORVMS are the same/very similar as the Swift. Rear bumper fog lamp looks similar.
- The bonnet seems higher than the Swift. Good for gently tapping errant pedestrians and accounts for better pedestrian safety for sure.
Here is a side by side comparison of the Swift (my own car) and the Ritz exteriors.
Interiors:
- The seating position is a bit higher than in the Swift and seats feel the same. Almost like sitting on a cushion and driving the Swift.
- The front quarter glass was a nice touch and helps a bit with visibility up front but there is still a huge blind spot at the A-pillar. Otherwise front visibility is good.
- Visibility from the back will take some getting used to as the rear glass seems a bit small.
- Rear wash/wipe & defogger only on the ZXI (just like the Swift).
- The space saved by moving the gear lever in front isn’t used for anything.
- The outside rear view mirrors are well placed, right sized and useful.
- Lot of the interior is borrowed/shared with the Swift but still some cost cutting seems to have been there. Indicator/Wiper stalks, steering wheel, door locks & power window switches are all the same. Ashtray is the same. Gear lever knob is almost the same. Interior roof light seems the same.
- The open glove box in addition to the closed one on the ZXI with the airbags is very useful – something the Swift ZXI doesn’t have and wastes space because of the airbags. The coin holder and storage space on the top of the dashboard is also good. Glove box seems similar in size to the Swift.
- The front door pockets have storage space for bottles. There is only one central console mounted cup holder.
- The steering mounted stereo controls are good but a bit annoying till u get used to them since they are in the spot the horn is on my car. Instead of honking I found myself increasing the stereo volume or muting the stereo without wanting to. The buttons seem a bit delicate and fiddly. More video game like than car like.
- The increased head room allows 3 people to sit a lot more comfortably at the back than in a Swift. Legroom in the back was more than adequate. Feels more spacious than the Swift.
- Luggage space was almost the same as the swift. If you want to carry a lot of luggage you should look at other vehicles possibly sedans. The 60:40 split is possibly the only saving grace of this car – I really wish the Swift had this.
- The two tone dashboard was of a slightly vague light blue-grey color. I didn’t care for it too much. Matching colors to the exterior would have made sense but someone at Suzuki likes that weird color of blue.
- The front under seat storage is a joke. Very small and without a lock. A newspaper and a magazine may just fit into it. If it were metal it could have been used to bake brownies – it was shaped like that.
- Air conditioning seemed just about adequate (maybe the larger glass areas and lack of tints on the Demo car and the hot summer sun was a factor). I may have been spoilt by driving around with climate control and dark tinted small windows in the Swift. Blower fan gets noisy at “3″ position. The side vents close fully and are a design different from the Swift. The climate control is the only key feature missing on the Ritz that the Swift has.
Drive & Handling:
- It took some time to get used to the gear shifter because it is positioned almost a half a foot ahead of the gear shifter in the Swift/most cars. The gear shifter felt really good and the shifts were very precise – even better than the Swift. For people with multiple cars this gear shift will be a difficult to get used to, especially when you have to switch cars daily. On the move the car is very silent and the engine barely lets you know it is on and running and at idle it was very silent. It did make some minimal noise when pushed but for it to move you have to push it past 3000 RPM. The older Swift engine would be screaming a nice song at 3K RPM.
- Clutch, brake & accelerator pedals are the same as the Swift. Clutch is light and easy to use.
- First gear seemed ok enough but the 2nd gear seemed a bit lethargic and the 3rd gear seemed pretty decent. I barely managed to get to 4th before I had to shift down because of traffic. By then the TD was over and we were back at the dealership.
- The separate tachometer was a bit distracting in my view. Maybe since I am used to a tachometer next to the speedometer.
- The ride was smooth and handled rough patches of road without too much noise and without losing balance. It didn’t feel top heavy like the Wagon-R does when taking turns at speed. The wider stance has to be thanked for it.
- Visibility out front is very good and maneuvering the car in traffic is easy. Of course it is not an 800 but easy enough to drive.
Dealership/OEM Updates:
There seems to be sufficient interest in the car at the dealership and there was a steady stream of people coming to do test drives. Was almost knocked down by an 80 year old man and his wife who were rushing to TD the Ritz. This couple was doing the TD after finalizing the deal for buying the car !!!!! The people coming to TD the Ritz seem to primarily be ones who are married and have a family.
The dealer also mentioned that Maruti is forecasting long delays on all other vehicles other than the A-Star, Ritz and SX4 to make sure the sales of these continues. They are also trying as much as possible to not take bookings of any vehicle other than the above mentioned 3 cars. Even test drives of other vehicles are not being done ! I think this may backfire and cause people to defect to Hyundai , Tata and other manufacturers. Need to wait and see how well the Ritz is received and also if Hyundai and Tata sales go up because of Maruti.
Which one is better ?
There is no binary answer to this question. The Ritz is better than the Swift because of its fuel efficient, lighter, newer engine, interior space, features. The Swift is better than the Ritz for its looks, sporty responsive drive, slightly better trim level and features. Both seem to have their good features.
- If you want a new car that does everything well, has seating space for 5 and will offend no one – take the Ritz.
- If you have dreams of up-sized/wide alloys rims, low profile tires, spoilers, body kits, vinyl stickering and sports tuning then go for the Swift.
Test drive both and then just flip a coin and choose whichever one. You win with either of the two !
PS: Thanks to Senthil for the photos !
A great apple to apple comparison of Ritz and Swift.For me Ritz’s design especially the rear doesn’t digest.I prefer Swift to Ritz.
Thanks George for echoing my sentiments about the rear of the Ritz
.
Fantastic post yet again Sushil. I think the Swift looks absolutely stunning more so when modified. You have modified your car pretty well. The 15″ tires look spendid. You running a free flow? And the tires are 195/60/15?
When i saw Ritz LXi and Vxi, i saw the significant difference between the the seats in both varaints. I THINK THE SEATS IN LXI VARIANT IS BIT HARDER THAN IN VXI.
Also while the car is moving if we change the gear from first to second with high acceleration, it takes some time to back in to normal condtion.
has anybody noticed that these facts?
Mat – you are correct- the seat fabric is different on various trim levels. Not sure about seat hardness as such. Maybe due to different fabric/seat covers.
I am not sure I understood the part about shifting to second at high acceleration. I have done it many times without any issue – unless you are redlining the engine where it would lose power and sound like it will stall.
The rear of the Ritz will kill the deal for most people. Otherwise, it does not look very different from the Swift. But overall, I still feel that the Swift looks better.
hey Sushil, i had a TD of the diesel version and i pretty much had the same experience. the gear position is good. Ritz claim to have a bigger boot (need to check tat). like what u said a person will have to really flip a coin. for me i’ll go for SWIFT for the muscle sport look.
Any body knows the actual millage(petrol) is getting for ritz in city and Highway? Company says 17.7, i am sure that will not get in real life…
Sushil,
Thanks for you replay.. regarding of the gear shifting at high acceleration. i am not sure you have done it on Ritz. i did it on petrol variant and i found that it is taking some second(but it’s long) to come the engine sound to the normal stage. I am not sure is it like in all new cars(MPFI). Perhaps you can try it…
Hi Mat. I did push the Ritz Petrol hard and so did my friend but the engine was super silent and made some noise only after 3K RPM was very silent before. Maybe the vehicle you drove had some issues.
As for the mileage the 17.7 for sure is under ideal utopian test conditions. For the 1.2L engine in city traffic I would put it more like a realistic 13-14 at most. This is with proper sedate driving and correct shifting. If you wait for a bit the stats will be published by one of the car magazines. Will check Team-bhps and if I come across any reports will post it here. The KM series engine is supposed to be much more efficient than the older 1.3 engine currently in the Swift. The Swift Petrol is known to give around 12 kmpl in the city.
Yup! you are correct.. millage of Swift petrol is very bad.. is the millage you mentioned above with A/C ON? also the weight of the vehicle is bit high compare with i10. Kerb-weight is more than 1000, that’s why i am bit doubtful in that.
One more concern i would like to mention here is related to ABS. For Swift’s (especially for diesel variants) it is not good to drive that with out ABS. sometimes it is skidding due to the power generated by it’s sporty engine. Many of my friends are advising to either go for Swift with ABS or wider tyres. What about to Ritz. it’s petrol Engine also 1.2 and generating massive power. Can we handle with out ABS?
This is true in general, in Indian cars. When they replace petrol engine by a diesel engine in same model, adding about 100Kg of extra weight on front wheels, changing the weight distribution of the car, manufacturers do not appear to compensate it by retuning the suspension or with wider tyres. Causing diesel cars to understeer more, skid more in adverse weather conditions and front tyres wear out faster.
I hope diesel Ritz will give nearly same mileage as Swift due to same diesel engine. But petrol Ritz will give 1-2 mile more than Swift, rather than 20kmpl as claimed somewhere.
@Mat – sorry missed your comment due to a lot of crazy work. Saw it only today. On a minimum make sure you get ABS as an option. Do a proper tire upsize afterwards. You can handle all cars without ABS but getting it will help you steer out of a crash most of the time. Not all the time. Having ABS doesnt make you invincible. Take care. The Swift and Ritz are not so powerful that they are unmanageable. The driver has to be the first safety feature – then ABS and airbags after that.
Manoj is correct – very few owners realize the value of wider tires and the trade off of additional braking/steering/cornering insteadof just high mileage figures. The mileage figures published are usually of the LDI/ LXI trims since they are the lightest and have the skinniest tires. If you noticed my comments I mentioned 13-14 only.
Nice comparison of Ritz and Swift. Ritz has a new powerful engine and the package of features by Maruti Suzuki is brilliant giving another choice for customers. How many times do you pick up friends at airport/use the boot? With a 40:60 backseat buckle option it is one of the neatly designed car inetriors with huge legroom.
Thanks Subra and welcome to this blog – I agree the 60:40 makes the Ritz very practical.
Welcome back, Sushil. Hope you had a fun time. Which jungle did you go far retreat, which is free of Internet bugs – just kidding?
Lot of water flow (data) under the bridge of car world during your absence. Many new people are visiting your web site and I guess your chart is the key. As I mentioned before your chart is a very important contribution in this confusing auto world. You might be having lot of catching up to do but some time chart is to be updated to incorporate many suggestions – take your sweet time.
Recently, I came across this professional TD data about Ritz. It appears that Ritz may not prove to be as successful as Swift. Tall boy may set any new benchmark, except height. Particularly, I was disappointed by 80-0 data of 40+ meters which is much much higher than Swift and will leave driver much to be desired in emergency breaking.
http://www.carwale.com/research/roadtests/view.aspx?id=26&pageId=7
http://images.zigwheels.com/alfresco/INDT/Reviews/Road11_20081217_images/img21p.jpg
http://images.zigwheels.com/alfresco/INDT/Reviews/Punto12_20090616_images/Petrol-Ratings.jpg
Take care.
Hi Manoj – glad to see your comment. I didnt go to any jungle retreat went to Aluva and Kottayam for 4 days
. It had internet just that I wanted to spend time with family and not be away from them for the few days I was there.
Your links as always are very informative. I will go through them asap.
I owe you guys a long list of updates – havnt forgotten – just have been really busy at home and at work. Wil ltry my best to get the changes done soon.
Sushil, Many thanks for refelecting my sentiments about the rear of the Ritz
very very ugly…
Thanks Francis – strangely now the rear when seen in certain angles looks good.
Hi can all of you hold your opinion about the rear shape of RITZ. Did you all like the chariot shaped SWIFT or a Jelly Bean Zen or a tall boy Santro when they got launched. It took a while for people to get used to the shape and contours of them. After all, Over every thing, Ritz has Maruti brand equity like Swift. To boast Ritz has the K series engine which maruti is mulling to introduce for swift also going forward 2010. Ritz is very roomy (leg, head etc)and not claustrophobic like many hatchbacks in this segment. Its a future car with stunning new-gen aerodynamic looks, better mileage, driving comfort and with a decent price tag. It is a hot pick among the new candidates. So spin your coin now.
Ya. I agree with ur view vjs. When I bought my Santro in 2000, the only factor against it was its looks, the rear looked like that of Auto-rickshaw. Then I said to myself, I’m going to be INSIDE the car, its going to irritate people who follow my car, why should I bother! Even now, the front view of SWIFT looks to me like ‘Thunder-thigh’ed Tamil actress Ramba coming runnng! Then you may call it “Sexy”?!
Hi,
I bought Ritz VXI. A bad smell coming from the back side(from silencer) of the vehicle especially when i drive above 70km/h speed. it’s a kind of suffocating some times as it is coming to inside of the car. is there any way to get rid of this? Show room people say that all new cars have this problem due to new emission norms.
yesterday I checked RITZ VXI AND SWIFT VXI, I FEEL REAR SEAT SWIFT HAS MORE SPARE THAN RITZ. CAN ANYBODY CLEAR THIS DOUBT.
REGARDS/BINU
i have recently checked ritz vdi wat i think is boot space is better than swift in all angles and choosing ritz makes a worth for spending money on it.and can anyone suggest me to which vehicle i should choose ritz or swift.