The Maruti Swift is easily among the most popular cars to have ever been on sale in the country. Available at a starting price of Rs 5.85 lakh (ex-showroom), the B1-segment hatchback goes on to rival the likes of the Hyundai Grand i10 Nios. While there’s enough going in favour of this small car, one thing it has often been criticised on is the crash safety it offers. In spite of regular assurances from Maruti Suzuki about the Swift’s safety quotient, it has repeatedly flunked the tests by NCAP bodies. The recent in this series is the Latin-NCAP, which has awarded the hatchback with a 0-star rating in its crash tests. Even in real-world scenarios, the car has repeatedly come under the scanner for its below-par build quality. Some visuals of a recent mishap between the Swift and Hero HF Deluxe is in line with this.
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Now, the Hero HF Deluxe is easily among the most affordable motorcycles on sale in the country. We’re not talking about anything big and bulky here. Of course, we could have still been less critical of the build quality of the Maruti Swift had a, say, Royal Enfield Bullet 350 banged into its rear-end. Here, however, we have what is essentially a bare-basic motorcycle ramming into the rear-end of the small car. And as you can see, the Swift above has a completely destroyed rear-end. The sheet metal has deformed completely and the so has the bumper. In fact, the impact was of such a magnitude that even the rear windscreen has shattered.
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Luckily, everyone involved in this accident is safe but it pains to see the Swift taking a huge beating. Meanwhile, the Hero HF Deluxe looks largely fine. Sure, its bikini fairing has got misaligned and one of its rearview mirrors has broken but as you can see, the tyre, rim and even the front forks are completely fine. In fact, at first glance, the motorcycle seems to be in perfect shape. On the other hand, the Swift has got so badly damaged that its rear-end renders it unfit for use anymore.
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The India-made Maruti Swift was tested by New Car Assessment Programme for Latin America back in August this year. It scored rather dismal 6.21 points (15.53 per cent) in Adult Occupant protection and offered poor side impact protection. While the testing agency noted that the car offered decent protection to the driver’s and passenger’s head and neck, the chest area had weak protection. Even the Global-NCAP test that was conducted back in 2018 had wared the Swift a mere 2-star safety rating. The difference in the test results is simply due to the different test protocols of Global NCAP and Latn NCAP.
Stay tuned to CarBlogIndia for more on the Maruti Swift.
