In the light of ever-increasing competition, Maruti has given its big-seller Swift a mid-life update. Now, although this ‘facelift’ doesn’t seem like much, there are a few minor but important changes.
The updated car gets a couple of new design elements. The front bumper is new, with a larger air-dam and there are silver accents for the fog lamp housings. Internationally though, this lining is where the LED daytime running lights sit; the Indian Swift does without them. Apart from that, on the top Z trims, there’s a new design for the 15-inch alloy wheels, and Maruti now offers three new paint shades – red, violet and dark grey.
All trims on the updated Swift get a minor bump in equipment.
The base ‘L’ trims now get adjustable rear headrests, a 60:40 split for the rear seats and new seat fabric. There’s even a new LXi (O) trim that adds front power windows and remote locking. The middle V trims now get an audio player and electrically foldable wing-mirrors. ABS is standard on VDi, but is surprisingly absent in its petrol counterpart.
The top-spec Z trims now get the much-needed Bluetooth connectivity, and the addition of rear parking sensors will no doubt be helpful as well. Along with these come less essential features like push-button start and keyless go, and there’s more premium seat fabric too.Maruti has also gone ahead and tweaked both of the Swift’s engines for a claimed 10 percent improvement in overall efficiency.
That means the 1.3-litre diesel’s ARAI-rated efficiency is now up to 25.2kpl from 22.9kpl, while the 1.2-litre K12 petrol’s rating is 20.4kpl instead of 18.6kpl. On the diesel, the improvement has been achieved by ECU tweaks and reduced friction, but on the petrol engine, Maruti has also tweaked the performance slightly. Power is down by 2.7bhp to 83.1bhp, but torque is up by 0.1kgm to 11.72kgm.
Added equipment and all the other changes were bound to result in increased prices, but it isn’t too big a jump – between Rs 17,000 and Rs 24,000 across the range.
No, the visual changes aren’t much to write home about, and though we appreciate the added equipment, it’s still nowhere near the class standard set by Hyundai.
There is no additional focus on safety across the range, especially given the Swift’s recent performance in the Euro NCAP crash tests. We’re just a little disappointed that one of our favourite hatchbacks wasn’t given a bigger shot in the arm.
