Review Maruti Ritz diesel India.

Positives:
Most fuel efficient DDiS engine
Realistic tall boy design
Practical interiors
Elevated seating position
Decent price
Comfortable front seats
High-quality performance and torquey flexible engine
Decent ride and handling for a tall boy
After sales service network

Negatives
Sad rear end design
No airbags offered even as an option
Tiny boot space
Uncomfortable, cramped and flat rear seats
Narrow tyres limits stability
Car’s body does not feel solid and is prone to rattles

Exterior Design
That brings us to the Ritz. It looks chunky from the front 3 quarter and the front end with the Audi-like grill and I20-like headlights give it some character and for the car of this size and dimensions, it does have a certain road presence aided by the slanting rear glass. However, things go haywire at the rear end and clearly look as if it smashed its back against a wall. The design lacks the cohesiveness of either the I20 or the Punto and clearly looks as if it was designed in a hurry, the rest of the body not gelling well with the rear end.

Build Quality:
The Ritz is one of the better built Maruti’s, even better than the Swift and SX4 and the body feels rattle free, at least on the demo car. However, expect squeaks and rattles to creep up as the cars clock more kilometers. But it lacks the sturdiness.

Chassis Engineering:
The Ritz (Suzuki Splash) is also based on the modern swift platform (co-engineered with Opel engineers for Opel Agila) and was introduced in 2008 as a practical alternative to the swift. It uses a smaller wheelbase version of the swift platform with convectional Mcphersion strut coil spring at the front and torsion beam with coil spring at the rear, more biased towards urban running and easy drive nature as compared to I 20 and Punto.

Interior Design:
The ritz also has got a bit of character with the dashboard design looking like a mix of the CR-V (waterfall type central console) and I 10 (gearshift knob), but in VDI it looks pretty dull due to absence of any essential equipment. However, the white speedometer dial mimics that of the mini and the pop-up tachometer looks cool, but is almost difficult to read, same goes for digital fuel gauge, too small. The front seats are superbly designed with sporty counters however, the rear seats are pretty flat same goes for the doorpads, good but dull design.

Interior Quality:
Maruti has made giant strides in improving the interior quality in the ritz and it shows. The fit and finish is miles ahead of Swift and SX4 and the quality has improved by leaps and bounds, especially that of the 2-tone grey and black dashboard and the chunky gear knob. For a car costing 4,99,000, what more could you want?