Introduction

We continue our journey with the fourth generation Maruti Suzuki Swift in our long term garage and this time around, we have a highway report. I finally managed to take a break from my busy schedule and headed for my hometown in South Maharashtra for a short vacation.

What´s more, shortly after I returned, the Swift took off on another long journey. This time, it was my colleague Pratheek from BikeWale who took the car on a trip to Chikmagalur, in Karnataka and back. He did this 1700km roundtrip to participate in Dakar Ace CS Santosh’s Great Trail Adventure (head over to BikeWale to read all about his experience). So you can see that it has been quite an eventful month for our little diesel hatchback and here is everything that we found out.

Born to be econonmical

The all-important question of ‘kitna deti hai highway pe’ has been answered and it looks quite impressive. In real world conditions and with two different drivers and varied road conditions, the Swift with its five-speed automated manual transmission was able to give us an efficiency of 20.4kmpl. What’s more even after knocking off 498kms, we still had a quarter of a tank and a possible range of up to 116km giving us a total of 614km.

Now, the car has a 37-litre tank and an ARAI F.E figure of 28.4kmpl which would put the total theoretical range at 1050km, a mighty impressive figure but a bit hard to achieve. We feel that our 614km figure is equally impressive when you consider that this is in real world conditions. However, given that this is a diesel variant, we wouldn’t recommend that you push your luck with regard to how far you can go in terms of distance and you should tank up if your DTE readout drops to under 50km.

Highway tales

On both journeys, the car clocked over 1000km. There were no issues with regard to seating as all the occupants were very comfortable. The well contoured seats provided enough support all around while the pliant ride meant, the car took most of rutted rural roads without losing its composure too much.

Added to this mix was the fact that my family had recently brought in a four-legged member to the troupe. Ray really enjoyed his first big car journey and this has lead me to believe that he definitely gives a paws-up! To the Swift as a highway companion.

Out on the smoother blacktop, we were able to cruise in the entry-level three-digit range comfortably and as you have read earlier, it achieved the astronomical 20.4kmpl number. The car felt even more composed and planted once we had packed the 268-litre boot. While the capacity is not all that much, it is wide and will swallow up the weekend luggage of a family of four without losing a step.

We did face a few hiccups on the way though. The music system wasn’t up to the snuff and this the second time we’ve highlighted this issue. Despite being priced at Rs 9 lakhs (On-road Delhi), this ZDi Swift does not come with a touchscreen system and that makes even pairing a phone via Bluetooth lengthier than needed.

Another grouse I had was the visibility around the corners. The thick pillars, while giving the car a distinct look, impede my view around the corners. I felt this the most while navigating the single lane ghat roads that dominate the route to my hometown in southern Maharashtra. The AMT is a bit slow to respond when climbing slopes and many a times, I had to switch to manual mode with a downshift to negotiate the climbs.

Daily Driving debrief

Next month, I’ll bring you my experiences of what the Swift is like in its home turf- the city. We will able to give you an idea of what it is like to manoeuvre in tight spaces, drive in bumper-to-bumper traffic as well as answer the second most important F.E question of “City me kitna deti hai”

Photos: Kaustubh Gandhi