Thread: New Swift DZire Car

The Swift DZire has had more opportunity to stretch its long legs, having taken us to Pune a couple of times. The expressway has drastically reduced travel time between Mumbai and Pune and made driving the easiest and most practical way for this inter-city commute. Though it's just a humble family sedan, the Dzire gave a good account of itself on the wide, smooth and fast expressway. On one of the trips, we encountered heavy rain and extremely low visibility conditions and consequently cruised almost the entire way at a prudent 80kph.

The result being that when we stopped to refuel on the way back, we discovered that the Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire had returned a most amazing and impressive fuel efficiency of 21Akpl! And just for the record, we drove all the way with the air-con on. The heavy rain did not allow us to roll down the windows and in any case it's better to have the AC on in wet condi¬tions, as it prevents fogging of the windows. Despite the somewhat difficult driving conditions, we felt most comfortable and secure in the Dzire. The strong cross winds did little to upset the Dzire's composure and braking on the slippery surface was no problem, thanks to the ABS.

During this monsoon season we have also come to appreciate the fog lights,
even when not driving in fog. Light reflects off wet roads and due to this the effectiveness of the headlights is reduced. Using the additional fog lights along with the main beams makes a lot of sense. The full beam of the headIights,lights up the road ahead, while the low mounted fog lights, with their wide spread beams, illuminate the area closer to the vehicle.



The wide spread of light also means that the edges of the road are lit allowing you to place and manoeuvre the car more confidently in low visibility conditions. With both the headlights and fog lights working in tandem, the driver is also better equipped to pick up hidden obstacles like stones, construction material, etc, that have a nasty way of suddenly putting in an appearance on our most unpredictable Indian roads.

Another thing that has proved to be very useful on longish drives are the audio controls mounted on the steering wheel. You can switch through the tracks on your MP3 CD, flip through radio channels and also adjust the volume, without taking you r hand off the steering or your eyes off the road. It's not only safe but also most convenient.