The entire nation, I daresay, can now let go of the collective breath it's been holding all these days in anticipation of the launch of the Swift. After much vacillation on both the launch price and date, the car 'officially debuted' today. The bottom-end LXi version has been launched at a cool Rs. 387000 (ex-showroom Delhi). The mid-range VXi option can be yours for Rs. 405000 and the fully-loaded ZXi (the one with the 'Z' is always, the coolest, isn't it?) comes in at Rs. 485000. Again, smart on the part of Maruti to price the 3 variants with almost a lakh of a difference between the bottom and top. Something for everyone to choose from.
And going by the reviews (read what BS Motoring had to say after they did the car), it looks like the Swift is the answer to both the Indian carbuyer's and Maruti's dreams and looks very unlikely to disappoint either. Or should I say it better not disappoint, because over 8000 of the cars have been spoken for already.
Update: The Swift will grace Indian roads only by the first week of June when customer delivery begins. And the mouth-watering prices at which it's been launched may not be the same for too long, but no one's confirming that yet.
Also see:
Inside the Swift
The average Joe's take on the Swift ('Registration required' link)
All the news on 'Maruti Swift' from Google News India
All the news on 'Maruti Suzuki Swift' from Google News India
Well, thanks to your blog, I got onto Team BHP. And the world is small!
Posted by: Hrishikesh Raghavan | Thursday, May 26, 2005 at 11:53
Thanks for the wishes, Hrishi. Curious to know how you found out though. :)
Posted by: Navneet | Thursday, May 26, 2005 at 10:58
Happy Birthday (Thursday)!
Your site does a great job of popularising other sites and groups. The Swift Yahoogroup, brand new and hardly any activity so far, is at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/swift_india
Not sure if there are other India-specific Swift groups.
Drive safe,
Hrishi
Chennai
Posted by: Hrishikesh Raghavan | Thursday, May 26, 2005 at 10:09