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?
🙂 Thanks ICB. As of now my Swift has only wider tires (205/60/R15 – not the proper upsize but I wanted a slightly smoother ride than the proper 55 profile). No free flow as yet. What you see poking out below the rear bumper is just a chrome exhaust tip. Plan is to wait out the warranty – I got two more years to go and then do all the engine mods then.
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?
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.
Hi,
I bought Ritz vdi last september.I too had the same thing wheather to go for swift or ritz. As sushil said i flipped a coin ritz was the option, now i feel ritz make a worth than swift.I am fully satisfied with the vehicle it gives me 21kmpl what else you need?
Good to hear you are happy with your Ritz Sachin ! Do post a detailed review if you can.
I read all the comments. I had test drive for both Ritz and Swift and I felt the same experience. One’s choice depends whether one likes the sporty look of Swift(may be younger generation likes), on the other hand Ritz provides more rear space, can sit 3 people comfortably. One needs car to travel comfortably with a family of may be 4 to 5 people. As both cars have the almost the same features, Ritz may be the preferred choice because of the space it provides. Coming to rear look of Ritz, we are not habituated to see that shape on any car. I am sure once we see more Ritz on road, we will feel this shape is normal.
Hope my comments will help few to decide their choice of car.
Raghav – thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Three month back I purchase RITZ VDI It is a new experience for me , early Iwas using TATA INDICA , a noisy car ,I feel proud to have maruti brand but kindly tell me watch which is Inside the speedometer which is not visual for person who are sitting in the car ,Iwish to Instal a watch on the dash board where I can get it must be good looking.
thanks
with regards
b singh
Hi Bhupinder – am not so in touch with the accessories markets – you will have to search quite a bit to find something that goes well with the car. For myself I use the clock that I bought from Maruti Accessories …. sorry to not be of much help.
I Like Swift because it’s Tasni
I m having swift(Lxi) n thinking for buying a brand new Ritz(LDi) due to a vry bad mileage of swift and the other problem is the widness of swift. should i buy Ritz or give some modifications to swift like replace with diesal engine , wide tires etc.
wanted ur advice
would u give?????
Gagan – sorry for the late reply. I do not think it is advisable to change the engine in your swift to a diesel. Its not as simple as a replace. you may be better of changing your car to diesel. You may want to check your driving style and type of commute as well. Swifts petrol give anywhere between 11-14 with moderate driving speeds. If you drive only short distances in traffic your mileage will be poor.
Guys,
Anybody facing this bad odor issue? For long journey it is very difficult to sit in rear seat due to this issue.
http://cars.zimbly.com/2009/06/which-car-is-better-the-ritz-or-the-swift/comment-page-1/#comment-1822
anybody has contact details of Maruti Engineering dept?
Thanks
Mat
I purchased RITX VXI from Berkeley automobiles chandigarh in August 2009. Some weeks after purchase it started giving foul smell. The vehicle has been repaired in workshop twice but the problem still persists. will maruti people listen and sort out the issue.RD Sharma 09417213518
Hi Rajan – what type of smell is it ? you mention that the vehicle has been repaired twice -what was done ?
Hi all,
I bought Astar LXi last month. The first day onwards a bad smell coming from the blower and from the silencer of the vehicle. It’s a kind of suffocating garbage box smell!! some times a sulfur smell and its not on regular basis. Is there any way to get rid of this?
Hi ebey – you may want to get the AC system checked out by the service.
can anyone suggest me which is good – Swift or RitZ
Rajendran – both are good cars – you have to list what your priorities are and I can suggest what suits your need.
I think Ritz is so beter then swift
Hi Sushil.. i m planning to buy swift diesel but i dont thnk tht my car going to use more than 3000 to 5000 km in year.
so is it good idea to buy diesel version.also i heard diesel engine need maintainance aftr some km,and car need to drive evryday around 20 to 30 km is it right ?plz help me in tht
thnks in advance…
Hi Sam – based on the mileage you mentioned I dont think it is really justified to buy a diesel swift – other than just for the heck of it and for the diesel torque. Really all you need is a petrol swift. Frequency of service of the petrol will not be as often as the diesel and nothing will go wrong with low usage.
i think ritz is better than swift. because of its interior,
Hi Sushil…
U seem to have good knowledge about automobiles. last one month i am trying to decide which car to buy. first i went to take a test drive on alto K10. The integrated headrests on the seat did not go well with me. Next i decided upon Wagon R 1.0 VXi and I really do like the model. However, my husband suggested we could go for a higher model so we wanted to decide between Ritz and Swift. But there comes the problem. The Vxi model of Swift and Ritz do not have the features that Wagon R 1.0 VXi has and at a lesser cost. Next I was comparing the features of Swift and Ritz and found that Ritz does not have tubeless tyres, the AC takes time to cool etc. I found that Swift doesn’t have folding back seat, has less space in the backetc. The posts on this site has confused me all the more but I hope you will be able to blow away these clouds of doubt and uncertainty 🙂
P.S. I also heard that Swift 2011 will be launched by March 2011 and I don’t know if it is worth waiting and whether we should go for a Wagon R now since we wish to purchase two cars over next 4 years.
Hi Mani. If you like the Wagon-R by all means go for it. It is definitely value for money with the refreshed design. The Swift is a bad choice since there will be a new one launched early next year like you mentioned. No point buying a swift now. If you have a vehicle currently and can wait – then you can check out the new Swift when it comes out. However if you need a vehicle now – go in for the Ritz or Wagon R with ABS on a minimum and Airbags (ZXI of Ritz or the optional for WagonR) if you can afford it. That will let you enjoy your buy for a couple of years with peace of mind on safety. The vehicle you buy later can fill in any gaps you find over your next few years of ownership.
Do also evaluate other vehicles in the same /overlapping price range .
Hello.
I have been looking for a car for a month now and have narrowed down my search to the Ritz and Swift ZXi versions. I would be averaging about 2,000 km per month and i am unsure which one of the two is good for mileage. i do have to do a lot of highway travelling, so i need to know which one of them would be better. The reason for choosing the petrol versions is because of the Airbags they are offering, so i need to chose between them. Kindly Advice please?
A really helpful blog. I took the TD for both the cars and also of i10 & tata indica saffire. Among all these I liked Ritz the most, coz its riding is very confortable and fully controlable as we wish it to be wether slow or fast. Also the tall design helps to keep an eye on the vehicle which would be at our nearest front and the boot space in the front and back is adquete and confortable. A lot has been said about its rear and I agree that it looks a bit odd, but not that ugly. I just have a question that wheter a guy who buys a car is just gonna look at the car or is he gonna drive it? And I promise that once you drive Ritz the look is not gonna bother you. So whoever will take a TD of Ritz keep the looks the last thing in mind, as looks is not the only thing we are looking for. Isn’t it.
Hi…sushil…
m planning to buy a car..bt m cnfsed which to by. Swift or Ritz??? It wud be gr8 if u cud help me out wid it. Waiting for ur reply..
Which is d better car swift or ritz??? M cnfsed…plzzz help me out..
I recently bought a ritz VDI. Im no
Recently i bought a ritz VDI its giving me a mileage of 13km/l in city and 16km/l on highways. If anyone has a ritz diesel pls update me with the mileage u r getting in both city and highways
Hi, I suggest Ritz,
Ritz is better than swift,
nice setting space with nice suspension.
I suggest Ritz is best choice.