Mahindra Verito Vibe vs Maruti Dzire vs Swift

The four-metre mark has changed things significantly in the Indian auto industry. The government allows excise benefits for all passenger cars less than this length and though this rule was intended to promote hatchbacks, carmakers across the board have started making sub-four-metre derivatives out of every possible body style. A common approach for manufacturers is to pick a hatchback from their stable and cement a relatively small boot on the rear, keeping the length just shy of the magic four-metre mark. It’s a formula that has worked brilliantly for the Indigo (which pioneered the segment), the Dzire and, more recently, Honda’s Amaze. Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) hopes it will work for the Verito Vibe as well. 

 

M&M has followed the reverse route by creating a hatchback-like two-box derivative of its Verito saloon and it’s quite different from anything else out there. It does look quirky and the opposite ends of the car are completely out of sync with each other. 

 

Visually, the rear looks like a traditional hatchback, until you open the boot lid. Instead of the whole tailgate swinging open, only the metallic section underneath the glass area flips up to reveal a loading aperture, akin to a saloon. This put us in a quandary as to which body style the Vibe belongs to – is it a hatch or a saloon, or both? So we thought it best to see how it fares against one from either category. And what better cars to benchmark it against than the hottest-selling cars in their respective segments, the Maruti Swift and its booted brother, the Dzire? Continued..

 

 

 

What’s unique to this comparison is that each car has a different kind of boot, making it an interesting place to start. Approach the Vibe from the rear and your eyes will automatically fix themselves on the sharply raked rear windscreen and large pillar-mounted tail-lights, which look inspired by the Ford Focus. The LED lights in the rear (a segment first) give it a sporty appeal. But go past the audacious rear design and pop open the stubby boot-lid, and the limitations become quite obvious. On one hand, at 330 litres, the Vibe offers a cavernous boot by hatchback standards (it’s even larger than the Dzire’s 316-litre boot), but the narrow loading aperture makes getting larger bags in a hassle. The high loading lip doesn’t make the job any easier, and unlike a traditional hatchback, the rear seats don’t flip forward. This limits flexibility and further dents practicality. The reason for the Vibe’s rather odd boot design finally boils down to costs. To engineer a traditional tailgate hinged at the top with the rear screen opening on a pair of gas-filled struts is difficult and costly. With a fixed glass, which doesn’t compromise torsional rigidity, Mahindra has taken an easier approach, but this has definitely led to limitations in a very key area of the car. 

 

 

Coming to the Suzuki Swift, if you regularly carry luggage, its petite 204-litre boot won’t work for you and it’s best you look elsewhere. However, you do get the flexibility of folding rear seats that liberate vast amounts of luggage space – handy for occasional airport trips. Bring the Dzire into this battle of the boots and the Vibe’s boot trumps it by theoretically swallowing more volume. Also, like the Vibe, the Dzire’s rear bench doesn’t fold forward. However, the Dzire’s significantly larger loading aperture makes it easier to squeeze in more bags, which gives it the most useable boot of the lot. Continued..

 

Mahindra’s quasi-hatchback, however, has other strengths which are passed down from the full-sized Verito saloon. Most obvious is the Vibe’s spacious cabin that is identical to the Verito’s and this means sufficient room for five, full-sized adults. The rear bench is particularly wide and generous enough to make sitting three abreast pretty comfortable – a full-sized centre head restraint for the middle passenger proudly endorses this. But apart from space, the Vibe’s cabin isn’t exactly spectacular. In terms of ergonomics, the Vibe is nowhere as accomplished as the Swift siblings. For example, the centre console sits a bit low so, to operate the 2-DIN audio system and the air-con controls, you have to take your eyes off the road. Taller drivers will rue the non-adjustable steering wheel, which also sits a little too low, while shorter drivers will miss the seat height adjust. On the other hand, both the Swifts come with adjustable steerings that have enough travel to make it easy to find a comfortable driving position. Other flaws in the Vibe include patchy cabin quality like hard plastics and sloppy stitching on the seats, which feel very low rent against the comparatively plush cabins of the duo from Maruti. The fact is that the Vibe’s interiors just lack the important feel-good factor that the Swift and the Dzire exude in abundance. Right from the crisply designed dials, the soft and comfortable front seats to the posh-looking centre console, the latters’ cabins feel a lot better screwed together and a more special place to be in. True, neither of the Suzukis are anywhere near as spacious as the Vibe, but it’s not that they are cramped either. 

 

 

Between the Swift and the Dzire, the prime difference on the inside is that the former has an all-black cabin while the latter boasts a dual-tone colour scheme of black and beige. This mixture of tones not only breaks the monotony on the facia but also lends an airy feel to the Dzire’s cabin. Another slight but important advantage the Dzire has over the Swift is in the rear seat; the Suzuki saloon gets an arm rest and a seat back that is slightly more reclined for better comfort. Continued..

 

You can’t complain about the way the Vibe drives in the city. Although the spec sheet doesn’t look exciting, the 64bhp 1.5-litre DCi Renault diesel engine is largely tractable, resulting in great drivability. Mumbai’s notorious slow-moving traffic saw the Swifts being shifted down to even first gear at times, while the Vibe’s strong low-end grunt could cajole the car to pull itself from as low as 20kph in third. The eight-valve Renault engine starts delivering useable power from 1200rpm and continues in a linear fashion till about 3000rpm, after which it loses breath as it approaches the redline. This engine works best with early upshifts to keep the tacho needle in the 1400-2500rpm comfort zone. While fewer downshifts in the city aid in a comfortable drive, on faster roads, the lack of outright horsepower requires you to work the gearbox and plan ahead for your overtaking manoeuvres

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Switch to the Swifts and you realise it’s quite the opposite scenario with these twins. The 1.3-litre Multijet loves to be revved and has a 5000rpm redline, which is quite high for a budget diesel car. However, lower down the rev range, this engine acts particularly sluggish and power starts trickling in only at 1800rpm, after which the engine suddenly wakes up. This significant turbo lag makes the Swifts more difficult to pilot in stop-and-go city traffic than the Vibe. But on roads where traffic flows relatively freely, the strong mid-range of this engine lets you draw on a wave of torque, making these cars a lot more fun to drive than the modestly powered Mahindra.  Also, the gears click nicely in their slots and are a joy to use. And although the Verito Vibe’s gearbox is quite smooth too, it lacks the precision of the Suzuki gearbox. 

 

The Vibe has the same fantastic ride quality as in the Verito saloon. Over bad patches of road, the Verito Vibe sailed through with aplomb, its suspension silently absorbing almost anything the city roads had in store for it. Just like in the Verito, passengers are treated to a pillow-soft ride that helps make this one of the most relaxing cars to be in this side of the Rs 10-lakh mark. It is only when you drive rather quickly over sharp edges that the suspension allows the bumps to filter into the cabin, which is a lot more than what can be said of the Swift’s ability to deal with the same undulations. Although the Marutis are more than adequate in terms of their ride quality, when compared to the Vibe’s impressively pliant nature, they clearly fall short. Out of the two Swifts, it’s the Dzire that has the slight edge over its hatch, owing to its mildly softer rear suspension setup. On the move, all the three cars have a light steering wheel but the Vibe’s power steering feels a bit laborious at parking speeds. Round the bends, the Mahindra grips well and the steering, although not razor sharp, inspires confidence. The Swifts, on the other hand, tackle the twisty sections with more precision and the Swift hatchback’s slightly firmer rear suspension makes it feel a bit more sorted out in the corners than its saloon sibling.  Continued ..