Tag: maruti suzuki

Maruti Suzuki announced the new Alto 800 in October of last year. The older model that has been in the market for more than a decade has already established itself as India’s best selling car. With the new launch, Maruti has in fact made the Alto much more affordable with a price drop; in an obvious attempt to stave off competition from the Tata Nano and the other new range of low priced cars.

The new Alto 800 comes in two fuel variants – Petrol and CNG. Both models come fitted with a 796cc 3-cylinder and 32-valve engine that can crank up a total power of close to 48PS at 6000 RPM. On curves, the car can drive up a torque of 69Nm at 3500 RPM. If you are looking for a low-priced car with better engine performance, Alto should score over the Nano. As we had discussed this earlier, the Nano, with a 624cc engine can only deliver around 38PS of power and 51Nm of torque.

Before we delve into the mileage aspects of the new Alto, let us take a look at the other important specs on this car. The Alto has a seating capacity of 5 and has a 35 liter fuel tank. The car measures 3395 x 1490 x 1475 (all millimeters, obviously) with a wheelbase of 2360mm. At 160mm, the ground clearance is decent for an Indian city drive. The standard variant weighs just around 695 kg which has a positive impact on the mileage. The starting price of the Alto 800 – the non-Metallic Standard Petrol variant is around Rs. 2.42 lakhs (ex-showroom, Delhi).

Official Mileage Claim

Maruti Suzuki claims that their new Alto has the best fuel efficiency in its class. According to drives conducted under standard test conditions, the petrol variant of the new Alto 800 is claimed to deliver 22.74 kmpl. The CNG has a much better claim at 30.46 kmpl. That’s definitely pretty considering that even Tata claims only about 28 kmpl on the Nano.

Test Drive & Customer Reviews

MaxAbout reviewed the new Alto 800 a couple of months back on their website where they say they have liked the interior of the car “for the first time in 12 years”. Except for the fact that the rear seat appears to lack some back support, the interiors look more stylish and modern on an overall. Their test drive of the petrol variant delivered them about 18 kmpl FE on city roads and 20-21 kmpl on the highways.

ZigWheels did a review of the Alto pitting it against the Hyundai Eon. They found the Alto to be performing better in terms of fuel consumption – a 12.2 kmpl on city compared to the Eon’s 11 kmpl. However, this is a far cry away from the 18kmpl that MaxAbout claimed in their test drive report.

Carzy in their review feel that the new Alto 800 has a trendy and a more upmarket feel about it. They note that the newly launched Alto has got enough on it to competitively tackle the threat from the Hyundai Eon. They report a city mileage of 18.5 kmpl – I am not sure if this is reported from an independent test though.

Hindustan Times has a wonderful review of the new Alto 800. They report that the new variant is lighter and is equipped with a much more fuel efficient engine that delivered them around 13.3 kmpl on city roads. On highways, this number apparently went up to 17.8 kmpl. Personally, I feel that this is just an okay figure for a car that strives to offer the “best in class mileage”.

There are around 8 reviews for the Alto 800 on MouthShut. These reviewers have together rated the car a whopping 5/5 for fuel efficiency. I don’t remember seeing such a rating for any bike or car earlier. There are things people are unhappy about. One user reports seeing a mileage of 10kmpl on city roads which I think may be an individual issue. The other users have reported between 18-20 kmpl on city roads with one user reporting 25.43 kmpl on the highways.

Overall, I think this is a great car as far as mileage is concerned. Yes, you may be compromising on a lot of features that may come with cars that cost a lakh or so more. But at this price, the Alto 800 is surely a huge value for money. If you are budget constrained and looking to buy a car in this time of rocketing fuel prices, Alto is the car to go for.

Maruti Suzuki launched the Swift in India back in 2005. Since then, the car has undergone more than a couple of changes with respect to the engine to comply with the reintroduced emission norms. The latest versions of the LXi, VXi and ZXi petrol cars come equipped with a K-series petrol engine with VVT. This has a 1197cc displacement and with 4 cylinders can generate a maximum power of 87PS at 6000RPM and torque of 114Nm at 4000 RPM. This is extremely similar to the engine specs that we discussed for the Maruti Ritz not so long back.

Talking of other important specs, the Swift measures 3.85m x 1.695m x 1.530m, has a wheelbase of 2.43m and a ground clearance of 170mm. The car weighs 960kg (LXi) and has a fuel tank that can take in 42 liters at its brim. The Suzuki Swift LXi is the cheapest variant available and is available at an ex-showroom price of Rs. 4.49 lakhs at Delhi.

Manufacturer Claim on Mileage

The Swift has a lot of things in common with the Ritz. Both cars have a 1197cc engine that delivers close to 87PS power. The physical dimensions are more or less the same on both cars. However, the Ritz weighs slightly more than the Swift. While the kerb weight of the Ritz is around 1030kg, Swift roughly weighs 50-60 kg lower. This has an implication on the overall mileage claimed by the manufacturer since a higher weight requires the engine to spend more fuel in moving the car and consequently lowers the efficiency.

However, that doesn’t seem to be the case. According to Gaadi, the manufacturer claims a mileage of 18.6 kmpl on the Swift LXi which is almost the same as what is claimed on the Ritz. So it’s either the better engine on the Ritz or that Maruti doesn’t really want to cannibalize the sales of one of its cars due to the other.

Test Drive & Customer Reviews

MaxAbout does not offer great independent insights this time. They note that the latest version of the car has bigger and better headlamps, automatic climate control and a steering wheel with music controls. However, their report on mileage doesn’t seem to be independently assessed. According to them, the Swift should deliver around 12 kmpl on city roads and 18 kmpl on highways.

The report on ProKerala seems to be similar with vague information on how the reported mileages were tested. They note the Swift to offer 11 kmpl on city roads that goes up to 16 kmpl on the highways.

There are a few reviews of the Suzuki Swift on AutoJunction, and according to these, the expected city mileage on the car is around 10.55-14 kmpl while on highways, it can go as high as 19.78 kmpl. This is apparently the economy a user observed on his Bangalore-Chennai trip.

IndianAuto.com does a great job in comparing the specifications and features on the petrol and diesel variants of the Swift. On their comparison page, the reviewers note that the diesel variant consistently gives around 2-3 kmpl more than the petrol variant. Accordingly, they expect the LXi petrol variant to offer close to 11.5 kmpl on city roads and 15.8 kmpl on highways with the overall figure hovering about 12.6 kmpl.

CarBHP does not have a great deal of review going on their site. Hence I am unsure if the mileage they claim on the Swift is from independent tests or sourced from elsewhere. Anyway, they say the overall economy on the Swift LXi could be around 12.3 kmpl.

One thing that has been coming up persistently on the MouthShut forum is a “brake failure” issue that a lot of users have been facing at low gears. Customers say that the brake becomes extremely difficult to apply or doesn’t work at first or second gears sometimes causing minor accidents. Maruti Suzuki apparently is in the know and so it’s likely that this issue may not occur on your newly purchased Swift. In any case, do remember to test it out before accepting the delivery. On the fuel consumption front though, the car has received a 4/5 rating. There are not too many reviews in the past year talking about fuel. However the one that did talks highly of it claiming 16.5-17 kmpl on city roads and 21 kmpl on the highways. Seems kind of unlikely though.

Here is a summary of the results noted from various sources. What is your view on the Suzuki Swift Petrol? Would you be going for it? Tell us your thoughts, comments and questions in the section below.

Launched as Suzuki Splash in the rest of the world, Maruti Suzuki had to take the alternate name ‘Ritz’ in India because the ‘Splash’ name was already registered by Ford in India. Today, there are over 2 lakh Ritz on Indian roads today and this hatchback is definitely one of the latest success stories from Maruti Suzuki in recent times.

So now let’s go ahead with a discussion on the tech specs. The petrol variant of Ritz has a smaller engine than the diesel variant and at 1197cc pretty much belongs to the league of Honda Brio that we discussed earlier. The engine can deliver a max power of up to 87PS at 6000 RPM and a torque of 113Nm at 4500 RPM. The car has a 5-gear manual transmission on offer with a kerb weight of close to 1030 kg. In terms of size, the Ritz measures 3715mm x 1680mm x 1620mm with a wheelbase of 2360mm and 170mm ground clearance which is marginally more than what the Brio has to offer. The Ritz Zxi BS-IV model is available at a price of Rs. 5,57,739 ex-Mumbai. That is much higher than the Brio though.

Manufacturer Mileage Claim

A 1200cc car is typically an upper middle class buy, and mileage is a big factor in the purchasing decision. According to Maruti Suzuki, the petrol variants of Ritz (VXi, LXi & ZXi) deliver a fuel economy of around 18.5 kmpl under standard test road conditions. This means, this is the mileage you can expect under good roads with favourable wind conditions etc. So on an everyday city road with traffic and potholes, the mileage is going to be much lower. For a perspective, Honda claimed to deliver 19.4 kmpl on the Brio.

Customer Feedback

Carwale has an honest feedback of their test drive. The test, which was conducted during the monsoons when there is typically heavy traffic returned decent results. The reviewer reports to have seen an FE of between 12-14 kmpl despite him having to drive a lot in the first and second gears.

The test drive from ProdEase throws up a slightly lower fuel efficiency. In their report, the website notes that their test on city roads delivered close to 11.1 kmpl on the Ritz which increased to 15.5 kmpl on the highways. I really don’t think the traffic conditions during this testing was any worse than what Carwale had to experience. The low mileage reported is hence disconcerting.

Ronak from RonakG.com has a pretty good word about the Ritz with regards to the silent engine, sound quality on the music system and steering. With respect to fuel efficiency, Ronak says he was able to extract 14.46 kmpl under typical Bangalore city road conditions with AC turned on and using the premium Shell petrol.

There are a few good reviews of the car on AutoJunction. In terms of mileage though, the customers have reported between 16-19.5 kmpl on city roads. This is much much higher than what we have seen from other reviews and with even the manufacturer claiming only so much on standard test conditions, I have to ask you to take this figure with a pinch of salt.

On AutoCarIndia, the reviewer writes that the legroom on the rear is not exactly great although the same is good on the front along with a very good forward visibility. The reviewer was able to see 11.8 kpl on city roads with 16.7 kmpl on the highways.

There are over 150 reviews for the Maruti Suzuki Ritz on MouthShut and although this is a mix of all petrol and diesel variants, I only looked into what the customers of the petrol variants had to say. On an average, the reported mileage with AC on seems to be around 13.5 kmpl on city roads with the corresponding number for highways hovering over 16kmpl.

To sum up, the Ritz appears to be a great car with good economy on offer in the 1200cc segment. There are some recurrent complaints about the rear visibility and in the general ‘ugliness’ of the rear-side. But if it is not something that bothers you, there is nothing that should stop you from going for the Ritz. Except for the price, of course. What are your thoughts on this?