DEFINE hatchback. It wasn’t a question I was made to answer during my automobile engineering course but one that has been drifting around in my mind for some time. Thinking over the term, one realises that a proper hatchback has to satisfy some important criteria. The trend of large premium hatchbacks is picking up rapidly but it is very essential for a hatchback to be of the right size to squeeze into narrow gaps and reverse into parking lots without sticking out on either sides. Besides, it has to be practical, making it possible to stuff in a weekend’s shopping list with minimum fuss. Though not as powerful as sedans from sev- eral classes above, it should be fun to drive. While being compact on the outside, it should be able to seat four at comfort and five with acceptable squeeze. It should not cost too much to buy and maintain, so it should have cheap spares and service at hand. While being all these, fuel efficiency should be good enough to stop one from thinking twice before each drive.
The small kids like the Santro, Wagon R, Spark, A star and i10 don’t quite make themselves to the top despite their wallet friendliness, fuel efficiency and compactness. Their tiny rear seats and dismal boot space are to blame here. And they don’t have a diesel option which is the fuel of choice these days. The slightly bigger hatches like the i20, Vista, Getz, UVA are better in terms of utility and some have diesel engines too, but most of them lose out on fun to drive while others grab the rule book of affordability and tear it apart. The case in point is the Skoda Fabia which is a pretentious hatchback that thinks it could sell at sedan prices. Perhaps we set our expectations so high that a hatchback which satisfies them all is still in the drawing boards of Japan.
Anything that comes close is the Swift diesel and I love it! The striking looks have lost some of their charm in the familiarity of seeing a lot of them on roads although I never fail to take a second glimpse when a Swift with some cool aftermarket alloys and wide rubber passes by. The interiors are not the most spacious around and packaging could have been better, given the wide track. Plastic quality is decent but rattles and squeaks emanate very quickly. Despite these small niggles, you don’t have to look hard to appreciate the core values of this car.
The white Swift VDI was fresh from the oven when it came to me with 33kms on the odo. The initial idea was to take her to a race track in Coimbatore and rip it on the track to get a taste of the brilliant chassis and the perfectly weighted steering. For a car that was yet to properly run in, that would be cruel, much like taking a two year old to a cross country marathon. So I decided to take things rather lightly and complete the honours of running in the car progressively.
First on the highway at steady speeds for all the components to bed in and then constantly increasing the throttle demands as it piles on kilometres. The best fuel efficiency will appear after a couple of thousand kilometres after the full run-in, but a quick calculation revealed that this Swift was returning 23kmpl or more. It completed 700kms from a tankful and still had quarter of a tank left in it. Impressive! The Swift diesel is best enjoyed from the nice and supportive driving seat.
Though designed to be a frugal commuter, the 75bhp, 1.3L Multi jet diesel engine in the Swift has a delightful shove at 2000rpm when the turbocharger kicks in. What makes it pleasurable to drive is also the accurate steering, the balanced chassis and the suspension that is biased towards handling. Having experienced how much of an improvement wider tyres make on the track, the skinny 165 tyres felt lacking grip and takes a lot of courage to push it through corners. But on empty roads, even this was fun as the car sets itself into a manageable four wheel drift provided you have enough area to run wide and no traffic coming in the opposite direction.
Think of it as an economical family car that would not look out of place on a race track. It really is the best diesel hatch in the country, by a mile.
vivekji05@yahoo.co.uk