Maruti Suzuki has released two teaser videos of the new Swift which will be launched on the 17th of this month. Bookings for the new Swift were opened a few weeks back and the response has been truly extraordinary.
The teaser videos will further heighten the hype but with the car already available overseas and picked up numerous number of times by the local media, it is not going to induce any goosebumps to viewers.
Maruti Suzuki has retained the powertrains adding variable valve timing technology to the petrol engine. The option of Automatic Transmission is still missing. Having seen the competition offer a oomph-packed avatar achieved using a larger capacity engine or different state of tune (Polo 1.6, Fabia 1.6, Punto 90, Vista 90) will Maruti plonk the 1.6 VVT from the SX4 under the Swift’s bonnet with racing stripes, sports seats and fancy interiors? The Swift is a cult brand in India and a more powerful variant will not be a total misfit in the “kitna deti hai?” kind of cars.
Car and Bike Show fan Bhavith Shetty posted images of the new Maruti Swift from its ad shoot in Bangalore. Unfortunately the windshield of the car was shattered during the shoot and had to be taken away. Going by the images, it does not look like a serious accident. Did the camera slip from the mount and fall on the windshield?
Hopefully no one is hurt.
Maruti will bring out the new Swift during the 17th of this month with the 1.2 VVT and 1.3 Quadrajet. Have you seen our Maruti Swift ZXI spyshot post that reveals the interiors?
Has this kind of pre-launch activity surrounded any car in India?
The new Maruti Swift is leaving no record unbroken as bookings marches towards the 40k mark. This sort of an activity before a launch has never been witnessed in recent times. Tata missed the chance to do something unimaginable after the Nano made international head lines and was the talk of the town for more than a year since its Auto Expo debut.
But a change in production plant meant they had to cut back on bookings.
It has been repeatedly reported by the media that Maruti Suzuki will take Swift’s production level to 18k units a month. If this happens, the Swift will outsell the new Wagon R as well taking the No.2 spot in the internal rankings for best selling Marutis.
So August 17 will be the judgment day for Maruti Suzuki India as it will launch the most eagerly awaited hatchback of 2011 – The new Swift. Once again, MSIL will try to re-write the rules of the hatchback market. The good news is that the company is is leaving no stones unturned before the D day. To make sure there are no supply constraints, the company plans to expand the capacity to 17.5 lakh units in the next two years.
Supply constraints are the ugly side of business. The demand exists, people are willing to shell out dough, profits just waiting to be made, but sadly the manufacturer can’t make enough cars. No manufacturer wants to see this ugly side but many of them unfortunately do.
Toyota India burnt their hands big time due to supply constraint when they launched Etios sedan in the market. The waiting list almost extended to 9 – 11 months. Of course, no human being can wait for a car for that long and Toyota India started seeing booking cancellations. Supply constraints can cause trouble and damage.
The moment we all have been waiting for with baited breath has dawned upon us. The official word is out – Maruti Suzuki will launch the new Swift on August 17. The car will mark the dawn of a new era for our very own little hatchback which transformed the B and B+ market segments for good.
Maruti Suzuki launched the Swift in India way back in 2004, since then it has dominated the hatchback market like no other car. It almost became a byword for a hatchback. It was affordable, practical and very fun to drive. Adding to that, the MSIL’s excellent sales and service network made sure that it ticked every box on the Indian car buyer’s list.
But over the years, new competitors came in and the Swift became a bit old. It still showed strong sales figures but the market demands more from the product. So Maruti Suzuki began testing of the new Swift in late 2010.
The new car is slightly bigger so that the passengers get enough space at the back (old Swift’s Achilles heel). Slight modifications have been done to the head lamps and the tail lamps to make them flow well with the design. You can still see the glimpses of the old Swift in the new one but somehow the new one looks more progressive and is definitely a step forward.
Maruti Suzuki has officially started to improve the new Swift‘s presence among car buyers from today. A nationwide advertisement in many newspapers confirms that the new Swift is ‘coming soon’ and that the launch is ‘just around the corner’. The tentative date from the rumormill is 17 August.
The advertisement also mentions that Maruti Suzuki has invested more than 6,000 crore rupees towards increasing production capacities and developing R&D, hence being able to bring down the waiting period for its cars. The Alto, Omni, Eeco, Wagon R, Swift and Swift Dzire are hot cakes in its attack and some take months to be delivered.
Bookings are open for the new Swift and Maruti is insisting customers who have booked the old Swift to shift to the new generation model. At the dealership level, customers who have already booked the old Swift have been prioritized when deliveries of the new Swift begin.
With this the Swift website (www.marutiswift.com) too has been updated though it just provides us with a glimpse of the car and asks us to ‘Hold our breath for a little longer’. Little does the website know that we’ve been holding our breaths since June 2010.
One aspect that grabs our attention is the design of the wheels which is not the same as the international Swift. A new dynamic 10 spoke, rather flowery design has been selected for India which is will be part of the equipment on the top-end model.
India’s largest car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki, in a circular sent out to dealers asks them to give customers the choice of upgrading to the new Swift which hits the market next month. Maruti dealers are asking customers if they can deliver the new Swift to them instead of the old model, the production of which has been halted.
Left – Old Swift looks like a tape recorder in an iPod store. Right – New Swift with revised dashboard looks upmarket
Production of the Swift India knows and loves reached its end last week as Maruti prepares lines to roll out the upgraded model. The Swift, like its booted counterpart is the segment leader. Both vehicles will be replaced by updated avatars. Maruti offers the Swift with 1.2 K Series petrol and 1.3 Multi-jet diesel engines paired to a 5-speed manual transmission, which will not change.
The wait for the most awaited hatchback of 2011 just got a bit longer. As much as IAB wants to get its hands on the 2011 Maruti Suzuki Swift, we are afraid that all of us will have to wait for another quarter for the actual launch. This time, it is the labor-management relationship to blame. The recent Labor-Management standoff at Maruti’s Manesar plant has taken a toll on production. [ Read More ]
