Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire Facelift

When to expect:December 2014

Estimated Price:4.90 7.50 lakhs

India s hottest hatchback the Maruti Suzuki Swift has been on sale in its current avatar since August 2011, while its compact sedan sibling came into the market in February 2012. Now both are up for a facelift. The former got a host of cosmetic updates in Europe and Japan last year and will soon make its way to India by the end of this year. It will be joined by a facelifted Dzire a short while after the hatchback. Suzuki has stuck with the formula of continuity and has not changed anything in terms of overall design but has added chrome to up the premium factor of the car.

Exterior
The Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire in terms of external design will remain the same as before and now gets silver detailing on the lower front bumper but is likely to be offered only on the ZDI and ZXI variants. There is also added chrome on the grille and the bumper. Apart from that, Suzuki is also offering a high mounted LED stoplight. However, for the Indian market, we expect that this will only be offered with the VXi, VDi and the ZXi and ZDi variant.

Interior
The interior of the Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire facelift will now feature cruise control, keyless entry and a button start. Since the top spec version of the car already gets features like climate control, faux leather seats and a music system with Bluetooth, AUX and iPod compatibility we expect that they will continue even in the facelifted models too. However, we expect that the India spec car may now get rear AC vents and maybe electric seat adjustment in a bid to update the feature list and keep it on par with the competitors.

Engines and gearbox
The facelifted Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire is expected to continue with the 1.2 litre petrol mill and the 1.3 litre Multijet diesel engine. The former produces 85bhp/114Nm while the latter does 74bhp/190Nm. The Dzire will continue to be offered with the four speed AT which the current model uses.

Price and competition
The facelifted Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire is expected to be priced in the range of Rs 4.90 lakh to Rs 7.50 lakh when it is launched later this year. It competes with the Tata Indigo eCS, Hyundai Xcent, VW Vento, Skoda Rapid and the production version of the Ford Figo sedan in the B+ compact sedan segment.