Hatchback is the favorite segment of Indians and Maruti Suzuki Swift is its unbeaten King for last some years. Though in India, nobody leaves anyone alone and the same ideology applies in auto market as well. To barge in the most lucrative segment of auto industry, General Motors had landed its Sail U-VA in the specified category. But just to inform that, Sail U-VA is an outcome from the collaboration of Chinese brand SAIC and GM. Though Sail is outdoing everyone in China, and had also received a warm welcome here. We have taken the decision to pit both of them against each other because duos lie in the youth quotient of industry which is brewed with a lot of care and assortment.
Exteriors:
On an average, as taking a lot of cues from various sources and owners, we have came to surface that Swift tends to score more brownie points than Sail and from outer it looks futuristic rather than ongoing conventional clutches. Swift portrays all elements that are meant to be found on some of the niche buddies, like that of sporty flowing lines, sweptback headlamps, cool tail lights, more subtle yet youth-istic appearance, inclusive of all dynamic tweaks. On other hand, Sail wears conventional wrap around headlights with vertically faced tail indication cluster. It also bear resemblance to Cruze family but its boxy type ergonomics departs it form those Chevrolet monikered cash cows.
Interiors:
Interiors are those where customer wants everything ranging from wine chiller to laptop desk, in spite of whatever the outer conveys. Therefore one can find DC and such typos doing well all around the world. Leaving those arguments behind, interiors of MSIL’s roll-out is designed very Swift-ly as making it compatible to exterior streaks. Black theme is used majorly, being assimilated with chrome flashes on glove box, AC vents and steering rim. On the rear seats, one may face glitches with short of space. It might be due to the fluidic outer crisps that are liked by customers very much. And more to it, boot space is also eaten up a lot than the previous model. Luggage tends to fall down when the bay openings are lifted, which we can say is sprouted by large-sized tailgates. But to contradictions, Sail boasts spacious luggage compartment due the unlikely boxy-typed design. If that is also not enough, then Chevrolet had bestowed Sail with 60:40 ratio on rear seat which is very helpful on some extreme timings. The rear seats of Sail cossets its passenger very much being covered under the two-toned beige skin. Taking this same skin on fronts, it does not satisfy us to the whole. While other components like steering wheel, glove box, dashboard and central panel are not so scoring on the part but instead it seems being derived from some of the old and conventional calculations. Plastic used in the Swift is of better quality than the GM’s.
Performance:
Both of the metals bring in same kind of engine i.e. 1.3 liter Multijet diesel Fiat sourced, but oil jags are a bit tweaked on each of them. Calculating the exact figures, Swift drives 75 PS @ 4000 RPM and Sail falls with 78 PS @ comparatively lower 1750 RPM. The Chevrolet badge is more powerful than the Swift and to be specific, 3 PS more than its competitor. Taking a stroll on the city roads with Swift, it feels a bit tad on the lower gears and smoothes while moving on the upper shifts. But this is not the case with Sail, it swoops easily in the bumper to bumper city traffics and lacks high grunt on highways. All such results are because of reciprocated torque ratios in both of them that make difference starting from the RPMs itself. Making the clutter more clear, Sail does also possess nice and soft pair of suspensions which eases cornering in true aspect and as well also reducing bumps on our crumbling typical Indian tarmac. Overall, gearbox provided on the Sail feels short as compared to the efficient one on Swift. As far as the mileage is concerned both of them had returned us more or less similar results but if insisted to be quite punchy on that, then Swift wins the score only by a ‘slight edge’.
To cover more on the safety and other bits, duos come lugged with ABS, EBD and a good rating of NVH levels.
Conclusion:
Both of the offerings stand differently with their ratings in spite of same specified class. Taking on the Swift, Sail costs a very minute difference in pricing and though also lacks steering mounted control and climate control. On other side of the flip, Swift offers some niche class interiors, good looking exteriors, and various other youth-istic features, but Chevrolet prefers simplicity and practicality for this new product. And anyways, Sail is actually entitled for families and not for youths, unlikely to Swift, so it is basically briefed with such analytics. One can buy as per their usage criteria but in our context we prefer Swift because, it is ageless. In sense, anyone from the college going student to a 40+ aunt or maybe an office clad dad, Swift suits all of them!
Maruti has been busy deploying new strategies to uplift the continuity of work at its plants, to be precise, at its Manesar facility where they’ve hired 850 ITI-trained contract workers to ramp up their production. They’ve also starting producing the Swift at their Gurgaon plant while starting a paint shop and an automated welding shop at their Manesar unit beforehand including a host of other minor changes.
The petrol powered Swift, will have a mileage of 20kmpl, according to ARAI certifications. This is 2.1kmpl higher than the current