The recently launched Maruti Ritz is giving Hyundai sleepless nights. The Ritz looks like a Swift from the front, WagonR from the side and totally lost at the rear. The interiors have been given a touch of style but still nothing out of the box, quite similar to the A-Star and the Swift. If Bajaj Auto is known for launching million bikes on the same platform, Maruti is no different. The Ritz is so similar to the Swift in so many aspects that you would wonder why would Maruti want to canabalise? But Maruti is happy as long as cars from the Maruti family are sold.
The Ritz is quite similarly priced to the Swift, but the petrol engine is quite different, but not for long. Maruti needs to differentiate these two cars, maybe plonking in a M15 (1.5 litre M-Series engine with VTT producing 100bhp) in the Swift will help. Anyways coming back to the Ritz, there is a marginal increase in the legroom and boot space compared to the Swift. Other then that if a choice had to be made between the two, it would be so confusing that we are sure some prospective customers would end up in a Hyundai showroom.
