First of all here’s the price comparison (On-Road Bangalore, if you are not from Bangalore reduce around 50-60k from the prices given below) :

Ritz Petrol:                                      Swift Petrol:

Lxi – 457968                                     Lxi – 477652

Vxi – 493097                                    Vxi – 512689

Vxi ABS – 522090                           Vxi ABS – 534743

Zxi – 564636                                      Zxi – 611126

Ritz Diesel:                                      Swift Diesel:

Ldi – 545578                                     Ldi – 548967

Vdi – 580265                                    Vdi – 583232

Zdi – 611553                                      Vdi ABS – 614866

I know your reaction.  Yes, if you look closely e.g. pick the Vxi versions of both the cars, there is hardly a difference of 20K between the two cars. The Ritz has, as the company claims the all new K12 engine with new technology. And due to this the company is claiming a mileage of 17 kmpl in Ritz petrol versions. The front and rear leg room space is almost the same in both the cars. But as the Swift is the widest car in its range, it gives an impression of being more spacious. The Ritz has a better feature offering a 60:40 foldable ratio for the rear seats. The boot space is also comparatively a little more in Swift. This is due to the shape of the car. From the top view the Swift would be something like this:

swifts shape

while the Ritz’ rear would look something like this from top:

ritz shape

So you get marginally lesser boot space in the Ritz. Looks wise Ritz is dashing from the front, but the rear end might not appeal to everybody. The rear glass pane is seemingly …. tiny, so I thought the rear visibility would be an issue with Ritz. Though reversing the car was not a problem when I drove it. There is comparatively lesser cabin noise in Ritz than Swift. The diesel engine is the same so you get the same zippiness as in Swift. I wanted to test drive the petrol version but their petrol test vehicle was unavailable. The turning radius is less so swerving into bends and taking u-turns is easier. The gear is very convenient to operate, thanks to the raised height, which I think Maruti picked from Hyundai i10. But the negative is that the whole panel encasing the gear, what Maruti calls the Waterfall dashboard, eats a chunk out of the leg room space of driver. The dash has also been rendered useless due to the downward tilt. In Swift the dash is straight so you can keep a thing or two. The cup holes and spaces to keep your stuff are also more in Swift. To substitute this Ritz has a really lousy low grade plastic cup holder provided under the front left seat.

Maruti is using a new ploy to make sure Ritz is successful. The waiting period on Swift Vxi is around 1 month and on Vxi ABS is a whopping 4-5 months. Whereas you can get the delivery of Ritz in your choice of colour in a flash. I think after the dismal response for A-star they want to ensure by all means that Ritz gets the fair market share, till Maruti comes out with the new version of Swift. By the way this is the Canadian version of Swift, looks strikingly similar to the Chevy U-Va ain’t it?