The Swift diesel has everything it takes — powerful and refined engine, high fuel efficiency and low NVH — to leave the competition standing.Introductory price for Swift Diesel is 4.68 lakh ex-showroom Delhi for the base version. The car is available for sale in two versions, LDi and VDi which are quite equivalent to LXi and VXi respectively in terms of features provided.
Maruti Swift Diesel has got a 1.3 liter (1248cc), multi-injection, DOHC DDiS engine which produces 76ps of power and 190Nm of torque. To me, as of now, engine seems good enough. I hope noise-level would be quite low and fuel efficiency would be good enough. Dimensions of Swift Diesel are exactly same as Swift Petrol, however, weight has gone up by approx 85 kgs. I couldn’t find any difference in features provided in similar Petrol and Diesel versions. The only apparent addition in features-list seems to be Immobilizer. Those who prefer safety and luxury, might be disappointed considering the fact that there is no Diesel version equivalent to ZXi. In nutshell, no airbags, alloy wheels, climate control or keyless entry for Swift Diesel!
The steering system is analogous to indica v2 and has a turning radius of about 4.7m. The product comes with P-EPS electronic power steering i.e. steering is assisted by electronic system hence demands lesser effort to negotiate a turn. The swift petrol version has some problems with its steering i.e. you have to pull it suddenly as it is loose in straight ahead position while taking a turn. Hope this will be fixed in this version (check it wile you test drive).
Front brakes are ventilated disc type and rear one is drum.
Generally petrol fonder are frustrated of diesel because of its higher maintenance cost, it is expensive relative to petrol version and because of its noise and poor resale value. Common rail direct injection (CRDi) claims to resolve some of the problems, swift diesel is using that technology. So the specifications are here and we will decrypt it and find what we can expect from it.Maruti had already experimented Zen and esteem diesel but it failed hence all its diesel future lies in swift and it hopes for the best.
Also there is a fear that it will eat swift petrol sales. We will wait to see whether swift will do another swift for Maruti.But it has already sold over 60000 units since its launch making Maruti an invincible player in compact car segment.
