Maruti requests waiting customers to upgrade to the new Swift

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.

According to the Business Standard report, dealers can allow customers to take delivery of the new Swift instead, but there's no clarity on the price. You'd have to be optimistic/foolish to expect a gargantuan price difference between the successor and the halted Swift. If there is any price difference, we expect it to be under 10k rupees.

2011 Maruti Swift Image Gallery

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The new Swift is more fuel economical, has marginally better space and is said to come with more features. Since the powertrains are not new, refinement, pickup and drivability might not differ by a huge margin, but improvements are expected as in the case of any upgrade. Suzuki has already introduced Swift in European countries produced from the Hungarian plant. Production of the LHD Swift began in June 2010 and last month the Swift was introduced with a diesel engine.

[Source - Business-Standard.com]