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| Maruti Suzuki Ritz - Making waves |
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| Maruti Suzuki blitzes the small car charts with its seventh entry. We drive the all-new Ritz |
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By : Bijoy Kumar Y | Published : June 01, 2009 | Photos : Srinivas Krishnan |
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Like the new A-Star, the Ritz belongs to the funky school of design. It is taller than it has any reason to be, it has got prominently flared wheel arches, inwardly kinked tail architecture with matching lamp structures and a stance that can be loosely called ‘lounge’. Brilliant? Well let me say that I like the effort that has gone into the design and detailing. It is exciting, but falls short of being ‘proportionate’ to look at – which, ahem, the Swift is. Inside, the Ritz is genuinely path breaking – if a colour-coded dashboard and a centre console mounted gear lever (like in the i10) don’t impress you, the overall ergonomics will. Then you see bits and pieces from the Swift and the SX4 all over the place – which is not a bad thing at all. The single, large speedo is very Mini-like and I love it. Finer details like the tachometer that is made to look after-market and the rubber surround to the gear lever makes the interior one of the finest amongst small cars in India. With the arrival of small cars like the Skoda Fabia and the impending launch of the Honda Jazz and the Volkswagen Polo, Suzuki has realised the importance of providing Indian customers with quality textures and materials and has passed on the Euro interiors to us without any compromise. Height adjustable seats are comfortable for the long run and it is really a boon to have adjustable steering and seatbelts. Compared to the Swift, the Ritz makes you feel less claustrophobic thanks to the larger greenhouse and a more efficient utilisation of space.
An all-new engine from Suzuki’s new K-line of engines powers the petrol version of the Ritz. This new K12 engine is important for Maruti Suzuki in India since it falls on the right side of the excise bracket and soon will power the Swift and other models. This 1197cc DOHC motor features drive-by-wire throttle and develops 84 bhp at 6000 rpm and 11.3 kgm of torque at 4500 clicks. This engine is reasonably quick off the block and should return a time of 6 seconds for 60 kph (we have not tested the car yet) and should do 100 kph in around 13 seconds. What we did though was to drive the car over a 100 km loop and the Ritz impressed with its driveability. Gearing is good for our driving conditions and you are never really ‘hunting’ for power. The shift quality of the 5-speed box was extremely good too.
The diesel motor is the familiar Fiat developed (though better executed by Suzuki) 1248cc DDiS motor that is good for 74 bhp at 4000 rpm and 19 kgm from 2000 rpm onwards. The diesel Ritz is almost as quick and fast as the petrol version and it loses out only on the refinement levels. Modern small diesels can match similar capacity petrols on performance, but petrol engines still hold the advantage when it comes to overall refinement.
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