We take a close look at the new Maruti Suzuki DZire that recently underwent a liposuction surgery
I don’t mind giving it in writing that Indian car-buyers prefer a sedan to a hatchback. All the justifications of a hatch being more suitable for shrinking Indian roads and terms like ‘hot hatch’ come down crashing when one is made aware that one can buy a long-legged sedan for the same price. Then the three-box charisma rules. And that also explains the concept behind and the target audience that was kept in mind before designing the Maruti Suzuki DZire. Another justification for the car can be that of additional storage space. Well, point accepted. But what the company has done to the car now can be aptly referred to as a smart move. The new Maruti Suzuki DZire can rightly be called a major improvement over its predecessor and that too by doing one thing: weight reduction.
Looks And Interior
The new DZire still looks a lot like the new Swift, but has a couple of its own design cues too: horizontal split front grille in place of Swift’s honeycomb and sharper lines around the fog-lamps, which the Swift lacks, etc. That’s all that can be said about the front, but a big surprise awaits you as you walk towards the rear. The car now has a bump for a boot and is actually a two-and-a-half box car, in place of a three-box one. Looking at the new DZire from the rear reminds one of the Hyundai Accent Viva, another car that has a comparatively longer front and a shrunken back that ends quite abruptly. By doing so, not only has the company cut down on the kerb weight of the car by about 35 kg, but has also managed to bring it within the sub-four-metre bracket, thus saving excise duty by 12 per cent. The overall length has been reduced by 165 mm and the wheelbase has been increased by 40 mm, thus offering more cabin space.
Open the door and you don’t find much differences in the cabin of the car than the new Swift, but new inputs like a dual-tone interior, plush fabric upholstery and wooden trims make the new DZire’s cockpit look more pleasant.
Engine And Drivetrain
The DZire retains its old 1.3-litre DdiS engine producing 75 PS and 190 Nm, but now that it weighs less, the timings that it recorded were a great improvement over its predecessor. Power and torque have been distributed well throughout the rev range and that shows in the improved roll-on figures, thus making the car more suitable both in the city and on the highway. The acceleration run was recorded faster by a surprising two seconds and the top speed was on the positive side of 170 km/h (about 18 km/h more), a major improvement for a car of that size. Comparing these figures with other cars of the same segment, the DZire is one of the quickest of the lot. Furthermore, its fuel economy has also improved marginally.
Performance
Keeping figures aside for a while and talking of what a car like the DZire means to the masses, it’s a car with ample room to make a family of five comfortable, carry them ably on all kinds of roads, be the neighbour’s envy and is light on the pocket too. The DZire has performed its role well for almost four years now and just when it was falling behind in the ever increasing competition, it got a well deserved upgrade. It may not be an eye-candy to look at and may not come with a lot of gadgets, but it does well in performance runs and isn’t very hungry for fuel too. And that is what I believe a real city car is all about.
Price
Another major factor that makes or breaks a car’s numbers is the price-tag it comes with. Considerate towards the Indian pockets as Maruti have always been, the DZire is the cheapest offering in the diesel mid-size sedan segment and is about Rs 90,000 cheaper than the second cheapest option in this segment (top-end diesel variants’ prices compared).
To sum up, the new DZire has undergone a change which deserves to be called an upgrade, and that too using a simple technique. This shows the change in perception of the company from being the makers of India’s bread-and-butter cars to making fine cars capable of facing the competition with a tougher stance. Kudos!
Considerate towards the Indian pockets as Maruti have always been, the DZire is the cheapest offering in the diesel mid-size sedan segment
Story: Gasha Alawani
Photography: Sanjay Raikar
