Renault Pulse giving stiff fight to Maruti Swift
The country’s best selling premium hatchback New Maruti Swift has witnessed the entry of a tough rival in its segment in the form of ‘Renault Pulse’. Maruti Suzuki, the market leader famous for cost effective management in its products, will face the French carmaker that has proven expertise of producing high-end premium cars with topnotch engineering, which will now adopt a top-to-down approach in Indian market. With this advantage, Pulse is ready to accept challenge from the supreme leader of the segment. Maruti Swift has always posted incredible sales numbers, and now the Pulse that saw a January launch has posted decent sales with nearly 750 units. We are providing you a neck-to-neck comparison of these two hatchbacks including the aspects like engine & specifications, dimensions, exterior etc.
Engine & Specification
Renault Pulse is offered only in diesel variant to brutally assassin the dominance of Maruti Swift diesel. The mannish looking hatch Pulse comes powered by a K9K 1461cc 4 cylinder inline diesel engine generating maximum power of 64 PS at 4000 rpm together with 160 Nm peak torque at 2000 rpm. While, Swift diesel has 1248cc DDiS engine delivering peak power of 75 PS at 4000 rpm along with peak torque of 190 Nm at 2000 rpm. On the engine front, Maruti Swift comes out as clear winner with its 1.3 Diesel power-train that has more power and more torque.
Fuel Efficiency
As most of us are aware that practically Maruti Swift diesel delivers a high fuel economy of around 17 to 23 km per liter, on the other hand rival Renault Pulse has got the ARAI certified fuel economy of up to 23.8 km per liter in the Indian conditions, this can give Maruti a close shave.
Looks
While Maruti Swift 2012 is a new generation model of iconic Swift hatchback, the Pulse is bestowed a futuristic and different look, which doesn’t find similarity in any car in the segment. Hence, the distinct people will admire a vehicle with unique appearance and will get magnetized by French hatch. Same way the buyers, who don’t give preference to looks, will go with affordable New Swift, which will be a better option for them. But overall, the appearance part has stiff competition in the two.
Features
The most of the standard features are somewhat similar, but Renault Pulse model has features like Smart Access Key for 5 doors along with follow me headlamps and Start-n-Stop features that makes Pulse a good bet. Whereas, when comes to comparing with New Swift, the French car is somewhere behind, as it offers some excellent elements in the safety department with ABS and Brake Assist function combined with EBD, apart from all the major features available with Pulse. Both the vehicles are offered with dual front airbags.
Pricing
The base variant of Renault Pulse diesel, which is RXL, comes at Rs 5.7 Lakh and goes up to Rs 6.37 Lakh for the top-end RXZ variant. Both these variants have a feel of premium-ness, but one cannot find much of the difference in the two trims. Whereas, Maruti Swift comes with variety in the variants with three trims of entry level diesel variant starting from Rs 5.44 Lakh, mid variant tagged at Rs 5.87 along with high end priced at Rs 6.65 Lakh. All the prices are of ex-showroom Delhi.
On the whole, the hatchback from Maruti has proved to be more worthy in most of the aspects, but Renault Pulse also cannot be ruled out. It also depends upon the car buyer as to who he gives a chance, the market leader with a great past and modern today or the French automaker, which has a history in the making.
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