Thursday, June 07, 2007

Comparing Spark with Swift is not a fair job

I am very happy to be able to join this discussion.
Comparing Spark with Swift is not a fair job. It can be compared with Santro, WagonR and Zen estilo
Today just before an hr, I took the test drive of Spark.
I was really excited to see the adds and I am already a customer of GM (Optra). I also have used old Matiz for about three moths and also used Santro and Wagon R extensively.
First of all let me say that the product is not well positioned in the market. From the look and feel it is a small car can even be compared with even Alto.
The starting on road price at Kochi of basic model is 3.95 is too high. The top model priced with an additional 50-60K is not attractive as well.
From test ride:
The engine is smooth and responsive 63 bhp for 840 kg weighted vehicle is good enough even when loaded with 4-5 people.
The throttle response is linear which is not available even for my Optra(1.6).
Suspensions are good but because of light weight, the ride is to that stable with two passengers especially when compared with old Matiz.
Dimensionally Spark may be equivalent to Matiz, but it does not appear to be spacious as Matiz.I doubt this is because of the seating position.
Air conditioning is is not good enough especially during sunny days. On the other hand it is excellent for the old matiz and WagonR. Seating position is much better for Wagon R too.
Handling is good but I feel the size of steering wheel is a bit high for the vehicle size. Interior and plastics etc are not in par with old Matiz(I think it is still the best in the class.)Anyway it is better than Wagon R and Santro.
Breaking is excellent .External appearance I am really sorry, It is not anywhere near the old Matiz but better than the contemporary rivals.
My over all opinion is that the GM must have to reduce the price of all variants about 50K to make it a choice of B segment buyers.

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